Becky Howard's Emotional Negotiations

This week I had the opportunity of interviewing a professional in the entertainment industry, Becky Howard. She is an agent and manager working with numerous actors and recording artists. With 15 years under her belt, she’s managed to move up from being an intern at a recording studio. Due to confidentiality and legal contracts, the names of her clients can’t be divulged, unfortunately. I spoke with her this week about how she deals with negative emotions that come up while negotiating. Unfortunately for this blog post, this successful woman is a busy woman and was called away after only a few questions and casual conversation.

Investing in Music

I came across a blog post through CNN Money this week by investor, Brad Svrluga entitled, "Investing in the music business, where 'you can't make money'." Svrluga writes about investing opportunities and analyses which to pass on and which to take up. In this particular blog post, he writes about why he thinks the music industry is one that shouldn't be ignored when considering which opportunities to put your money into.

Most people are aware of the music industry's reputation for being a rather risky one with many outside, and inside, factors constantly changing it. Consider technology. With more and more advances, the consumer's music medium changes. We've seen cylinders, records, tape, digital CDs, and audio file downloads. Along with that, genres change, artists are more eclectic, and we see things like the controversial auto-tune. With each new idea, change, "advancement", etc. we are constantly thinking, "Will this last? Will this be the new norm?"

Any businessperson can tell you taking risks is a good thing. Obviously, you want to know as much as possibly to make a sound decision. With something like technology and the music industry, it changes all the time. Because investors aren't too fond of throwing their money out to random opportunities in the hopes that one will be successful (and frankly, who is?), they often pass up the music industry as an option. 

Business Thoughts for Creative Minds

Focusing on the financial aspects of the entertainment business this month, I found an article that proves very helpful for anyone considering starting their own creative business. Personally, I plan on being a freelance service provider, so Bob Koch's, "The Business of Creative Services" had valuable information for me to keep in mind.

Koch mentioned sales as being one of the more important aspects of entrepreneurship. I've told many people before, as well as wrote in this blog, about the differences and sometimes complications of people in the entertainment business that are strictly of creative skill, and those that are strictly of technical skill. It's not often mentioned in trade publications the business-minded individual. You want to sell your service to as many people as you can, which may be more difficult if you're your own business and trying to beat the well-established, go-to guys out in the business. I cannot emphasize the importance of networking enough in the entertainment industry. Koch suggests you, "evaluate the client roster on a regular basis. Provide attention to solid clients both in production as wells between project. And consider parting ways with high maintenance, low-margin clients." Once you get yourself out there, it's just as important to maintain contact with these people in your industry so they don't forget about you. To make sure you're not being taken advantage of, cutting that high-maintenance, low-margin client will only benefit your profits…and your stress level. 

Julian Treasure's Study on How Sound Affects Us

Something interesting I came across this week was a TED speech given by Julian Treasure entitled, "The 4 Ways Sound Affects Us." Currently studying business storytelling and brands, I was greatly surprised to find this talk that truly tied in my interest of music with business branding. Julian makes an effort to describe to the audience how any sound affects us and how branders should use that information if they're making a commercial tone.

The RIAA's Effect on Film Music

The Recording Industry Association of America, RIAA for short, is probably the most popular association amongst the audio industry. Even those entering the audio post field for TV/Film are often members and keep in touch with other leaders in their audio fields to collaborate, network, promote, or even meet up at events and conferences around the country. It's a fantastic way for these professionals, and even students, to share their ideas and keep up with current happenings through long distances or short. Mostly, however, the members are labels and songwriters or composers who are marketing and distributing their works and want to do it legally in order to obtain royalties instead of being ripped off by piracy. That's right, downloaders and rippers...you're not hurting the "rich artist" in most cases, it's the behind-the-scenes guy (or gal) who is trying to get the royalties earned for their creative genius! Show them you appreciate the amazing, aural masterpiece gracing your eardrums by pitching in that few 99 cents.

Richard Glasser's Take on Direction, Revenue, & Budgeting

I stumbled upon an interview online this week through Indie Supervisor. For those interested in the career of a Music Supervisor, I advise you to check it out. It's written and created by Music Supervisors, provides interviews and blogs, and even allows you to ask the professionals questions about the business or about music licensing.

This interview was with Richard Glasser and his experiences as a Music Supervisor and Music Executive on several films & television. His past work has included movies such as The King's Speech, Our Idiot Brother, The Illusionist, and The JFK Conspiracy. He is also a past motown recording artist, and a current composer and songwriter on the side. He has accomplished a lot in his career and has worked on some well-noted films. He currently works for The Weinstein Company located in New York City. 

The Music Supervisor

Lately I have been learning more about leadership and project & team management. I began to think about who the leader of the audio post-production world would be. It didn’t take long for me to come up with the answer.

If you've stayed long enough through the credits at the end of your favorite movie, you may have noticed the position of Music Supervisor scrolling up the screen. Depending on the type of film, whether it be independent, documentaries, blockbusters, etc., the tasks this person takes on varies greatly. However, the consistent duty this person has is to obtain the rights and licensing permission to legally use certain songs in the projects or films they are working on.

The Tim Nielsen Experience

Using my PLN to check the latest news and updates in my field of interest, I clicked on to Google Reader and found an interview with sound designer Tim Nielsen. If you’re interested in reading it yourself, you can find it here: Tim Nielsen Interview. Admittedly, I have never heard of Nielsen, so I did some searching and found his credits on IMDb. As it turns out, he’s extremely well-credited, having worked on film hits like Toy Story 3, Avatar, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, and There Will Be Blood with positions like sound editor, designer, and recorder. You can see what else he’s worked on here: Credits.

This interview basically tells readers how Nielsen got started in his career, who his influences are, and tips for sound effects recording. He, too, hard started out in college, attending University of Southern California, and is believed to be the first intern at Skywalker Sound, learning from the great Gary Rydstrom. Through his time there he networked, which eventually helped him land a job as an assistant after he graduated, and eventually began his credited works.

Post Studio in Orlando Area

This week I decided to click on to Post Magazine's website. If you're unfamiliar with this literature, it's a great source for those interested in any aspect of the post-production part of the entertainment industry, whether it be for film, audio, new media, etc. Since I'm interested in the audio post production aspect of film, I went ahead and searched for the newest happenings in that industry. Interestingly enough, I had come across an article about a new studio that just opened up in the Orlando area, about 15 minutes from Full Sail's campus!


The new studio is called Ideas; if you're interested you can find them here: Ideas Orlando. I found out they work not only in TV, but also motion pictures and have had several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for their work. I will take this as a fantastic opportunity to network with the employees listed on their site through social networks or contacting them directly. I'm positive they can provide me with advise and lead me to opportunities to start my career.