Thoughts About A Financial Future...

Financial literacy is so important in today’s world because everything is changing at a faster pace. People want to buy the newest technologies or bigger, fancier cars. Yet, not everybody can maintain the level of income needed to purchase these items. Living paycheck to paycheck is the norm, unless you’re an entrepreneur.

               Entrepreneurship seems like a difficult idea to grasp, that only the intelligent and elite can handle. Really, it’s not. You just need a solid idea that is so unique it catches everyone’s eye. Then the money will start coming in. Seems easy, but finding that niche, that missing piece in a specific industry can be tough. It may be nowhere near where your passion’s lie or what you studied in school. The idea needs to be well thought out in order to be successful, emotions aside.

               I never thought I’d be interested in entrepreneurship. I felt like I was a financial dummy. Learning financial literacy was the first step in opening up my eyes to the world of investments and small business. I know I want to make my own business, but I’m still in the planning stages, striving to create a unique enough idea that it’s a worthwhile investment and will create cash.

               The other issue is money. I, like most masters’ students, am broke. It’s hard to create a business with no money. So funds need to be built up. The idea of investing money is the stock market also seemed like a crazy idea that was out of my league, but is an attainable goal. Think about it this way, you have the chance to get paid, just by buying into a company, and watch your money grow. Both my professor and my financial advisor at Charles Schwab have the same advice, buy low, sell high. And hang in there when the market drops because it will always go back up.

               Another way to increase cash is to buy assets. I never knew what an asset was until taking my Entertainment Business Finance class and reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. Asset equals money in my pocket. Who wouldn’t want that? Buy I need to buy something that will do that for me, like stocks, or create some type of business. My financial advisor believes that in the future, people my age will need at least $3 million to live day to day. A person in her 60’s can’t even live off of $50 thousand today.

               All of these financial realities are something to consider. Do you want to live paycheck to paycheck, or do you want to take charge of your financials? I want to take charge and feel I can because I became financially literate.

As I was reading through my RSS Feeds today, I found an article the caught my interest: Indie bosses and experts react to Citigroup’s EMI takeover. This takeover occurred Tuesday, February 1. I researched an article by Billboard.biz to gain background information on the buyout. Basically, Guy Hand, who owns Terra Firma private equity group, bought EMI in 2007 for 4 billion pounds. The debt due to Citigroup (3.4 billion pounds), could not be provided by EMI. So, Citigroup gave them an alternative, “debt-for-equity swap.” This deal decreased the debt by 65%, bringing it down to 1.2 billion pounds with approximately 300 million pounds available in cash. (Billboard Staff, 2011).

So now a bank owns a record label, what’s going to happen? EMI has signed artists such as Lily Allen, Beastie Boys, Lady Antebellum, Katy Perry, Snoop Dogg, and Thirty Seconds To Mars (EMI, 2011). There has been an array of reactions from influential people in the music industry. Alan McGee, former owner of Creation Records commented that, “The problem with Guy Hands buying EMI was that he bought it in 2007, at the height of the market. It’s like buying a house at the wrong time, obviously you’re going to lose money when the market dips” (NME, 2011). Peter Quicke, CEO of Ninja Tune label, felt that “EMI handled the last 10 years of the recession badly” (NME, 2011).

Another speculation, Ben Cardew the news editor of MusicWeek noted, was that Citigroup might break up the company (NME, 2011). Yet nobody can tell for sure what will happen to EMI. A question that came to me, Bob Lefsetz a music industry analyst, commented on: what would happen to the artists? Lefsetz believes that “new acts will be stranded,” but artists who are now involved in the industry will be fine. “If you’re developing, you’re screwed,” Lefsetz said (NME, 2011). Only time can tell what will happen to EMI and the artists it supports.

Resources:

http://www.nme.com/news/various-artists/54801

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/record-labels/citigroup-takes-over-emi-1005017112.story

http://www.emimusic.com/about/history/

Digital Impact Conference - How It Can Help You

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is an organization that brings professional public relations organizations together in order to help them network, gain professional recognition, learn from each other, gain intelligence from published works, and job search within the industry. PRSA has a conference coming May 5- 6 in New York, NY called The Digital Impact Conference. This conference will update attendees about the changing trends and technologies within public relations, to acknowledge social media traps, update about new social media outlets, and other topics.

This conference is important to the music industry because we live in a fast paced, technology driven world. Promoting online is important, but the campaign efforts can get lost among the thousands of sites. Yet, people gain a large portion of their information from the Internet, so public relations campaigns need to drive their customer base to their site over competitors. Also, Smartphone’s are an important part of today’s technology, giving people access to the Internet at all times. According to Sarah Perez in her article Social Networking Now More Popular On Mobile Than Desktop, she states, “more people are using the mobile web to socialize (91%) compared to the 79% of desktop users who do the same. It appears that the mobile phone is a better platform for social networking than the PC” (Perez, 2010). This has become true because social media is easy to use and easy to follow. Plus, it provides information within seconds keeping pace with people’s “I need to know now” mentality. Learning how to effectively get people to follow your social media sites is an important promotional tactic. Also keeping their attention so they continue to follow you is important as well.

Going to conferences, such as the ones PRSA supports, is a great way to keep on track with today’s evolving world. For anybody interested in promotions, PRSA provides useful information. Visit http://www.prsa.org/ to find out more.

Resources:

http://www.prsa.org/

Perez, S. (2010, Feb. 18). Social networking now more popular on mobile than desktop. Read Write Web. Retrieved from

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/social_networking_now_more_popular_on_mobi

le_than_desktop.php

When You Reach The Top...Then What?

Everybody has been creative at some point in their life. Sometimes the creativity has come easily, other times it has been a struggle to find even the smallest ounce. People may think that they are just having an off day, that the right side of the brain has taken a vacation, or their "creative juices" have all been drunk by the previous days splurge of brilliance. Yet, I have been inspired to think in a new direction after watching a TED speech by Elizabeth Gilbert. Gilbert is the author of Eat, Pray, Love. It wasn't until Eat, Pray, Love that she became a household name. But why wasn't she well known before? Gilbert credits it to a genius. I'm not talking about another person of high intelligence, but rather a creative force beyond our "realm," like a higher power, or a muse.

I was listening to WJRR 101.1 Sunday night and they were playing a half-hour devoted to Cage The Elephant to promote their upcoming release Thank You Happy Birthday. I caught part of an interview with one of the members who was asked about how the band felt about people expecting their sophomore CD to be as good as their freshman release. The member stated that it was difficult to live up to those expectations because the band deals with that self-concious feeling that the CD won't be good enough.  Even if you don't believe in a higher power as Gilbert hints toward, her overall message is still one that everybody can learn from. Gilbert wants us to accept that sometimes we hit a creative peak where, like in her case with Eat, Pray, Love, we are successful. We may never reach that level of success again, but we should not quit our job and fall into a depression over it. We should just continue to keep writing, dancing, drawing, etc.

Her speech inspired me because not only did she make a strong argument about altering our way of thinking about our own creativity, but you could tell she was passionate about the subject. Gilbert did her research to prove her point. She used historical references from Socrates, and the Greek and Roman way of thinking. She also incorporated modern stories from people she interviewed. Ruth Stone, an American poet, is one such interview that supports Gilbert's argument. The flow of the speech, sprinkled with bits of present examples and humor, kept me engaged with her telling of the genius and how she believes it should be viewed. Using the idea that after we have reached the peak of creativity and we should continue to live out our days as is normal, is inspiring because we should not live in fear of meeting a standard. Rather, we should live knowing that we have produced a solid piece of work and let it stand at that. That single piece of creativity was given all of the effort, and maybe a little help from a genius, to be what it became, a success.

Don Felder: Advice From An Eagle

On Friday, December 3, Don Felder, guitarist for the Eagles, spoke at Full Sail Live. Felder was born in Gainesville, Florida. At age 10 he got his first guitar by trading a handful of cherry bombs to the neighbor across the street. While in school he started the band The Continentals with Steven Stills (of Crosby, Stills, and Nash). He also attended school with Bernie Leadon, who later became a part of the Eagles. Other events of importance during this time in Felder’s life were that he taught himself guitar by listening to songs over and over again. His father had bought an old reel-to-reel recorder that he taught Felder how to record with. This spurred his early interest in producing. Felder also gave Tom Petty guitar lessons, while Felder received lessons on how to play slide guitar from Duane Allman (Allman Brothers).

Felder moved and began working in a recording studio in Boston. He got the position because he said he knew he wanted to work there and would not give up. In 1974, Felder added slide guitar onto the song “Good Day In Hell” by the Eagles. The next day he was asked to join the band. Previously Felder had been touring with Crosby & Nash, but decided to take a chance on The Eagles. While with them he helped write hits like “Hotel California,” which he recalls writing the intro to when he was inspired, watching his family playing on the beach.

It was interesting hearing about Felder’s background and what lead him to join The Eagles who were a huge success. One of the most important messages Felder told the audience was never to give up, to learn what you want to do and do it well, and keeping pushing forward. I agree that these are important because I believe that the more effort you put into your dreams, something good will eventually come out of it.

Felder wrapped up his lecture by playing four well know Eagles songs, starting with “Hotel California.” He then did a Q&A session with the audience.

Review of AP Tour: Networking

Getting into the industry can be a hard battle to win, but networking can make all of the difference. I have been building my connections for a number of years now. Yes, it is a process, and you may get impatient, but it does pay off in the long run. One instance where this has worked is when I traveled to Hard Rock Live Orlando to see the AP Tour featuring Bring Me The Horizon, August Burns Red, Emarosa, Polar Bear Club, and This Is Hell.

A huge help in networking at this concert was interning with CI Records over the summer and keeping close contact with my boss, Jeremy Weiss. When I got to the venue, I decided to squeeze into the front row to enjoy the bands. I knew that a priority was to talk to the band August Burns Red, because we had a similar connection, Jeremy at CI. CI was ABR’s first label before signing with Solid State, and Jeremy is still close with the group today.

I began networking during the concert after ABR’s set, because I had not listened to Bring Me The Horizon, so I was not going to fight the true fans for my spot up front. Also, timing was right. Another tip for networking, just open your mouth and talk. Do not be afraid to go out of your comfort zone and meet new people. I went to ABR’s merchandise table because Jake, the lead vocalist, was doing a meet and greet with fans. I held back and let the fans have their time because I was there to talk, rather than get an autograph.

As I was hanging around the table, I began a conversation with a man standing at the This Is Hell merch table. I found out that he was a Full Sail University alumnus. Through that meeting, we kept in touch through Facebook. After talking with him, I moved on to the next table, Polar Bear Club. There I spoke with the lead vocalist, Jimmy. When initiating conversation, I told him how much I enjoyed his set (awesome band, please check them out!), and gave him my ‘Elevator’ or ’30-second’ speech. I told him about going to Full Sail and that I am an aspiring Tour Manager. I then found that we had a similar connection; his band played a show with my friend in The Wonder Years. He then was able to get me connected with his friend, a female tour manager, to ask her questions about the tour managing and the industry. Finally I made it to ABR’s table. Jake was ready to leave, he had been signing for what seemed like hours. Before he walked out I introduced myself and told him about my internship with CI. Before I left I made one more connection that night, I talked to a woman at the AP information table that was the Assistant Tour Manager for the whole tour.

By building all of these connections, I have begun relationships with these individuals. Building relationships builds your team. You never know when you will run into somebody you have met, and by networking, they have a better chance at remembering you. This team can then be called upon for advice, to ask questions to, or even suggestions on where to apply while job searching. Since I am an aspiring tour manager, I can ask what bands are searching for a merch worker or even a tour manager when job hunting. Keep in contact with the people you meet so they can get to know you. I believe in the idea that it never hurts to just talk, you never now who you will meet where and when.

Interview with Sam Reese

I met Sam Reese while I was working in my internship with CI Records over the summer. Sam was tour managing for An Early Ending, a metal/rock band out of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Other bands listed on the tour were Texas in July, Rosaline, and Amarna Reign. I interviewed him to get his advice on tour managing.

(Sam is third row, second from left)

Danelle Miller: What initially made you want to tour manage?

Sam Reese: I always enjoyed working with bands and the music industry. The thought of traveling the country was just a bonus.

  
DM: How did you get your start in tour managing?

SR: One day I got a phone call and the opportunity just presented itself. It was really last minute thing.

  
DM: Who have you been a tour manager for?

SR: I have worked with Texas in July and An Early Ending

  
DM: How long have you been tour managing?

SR: I have been out for the last two summers.

    
DM: What are some personality traits you feel a tour manager should have?

SR: You must be outgoing and personable. You have to be able to talk with people and work through situations that sometimes aren't the best, but you have to find a compromise.

  
DM: What aspects of the music industry should a tour manager have strong knowledge about?

SR: Having knowledge of contracts is a big help. Being able to keep good records and organization is a plus.
     

DM: Before you go on tour with a band, how do you prepare to go out on the road?

SR: I meet with the bands and managers. We have a pre tour meeting and go over all the details for the up coming shows. It always helps to see your friends and family before you head out also.

    
DM: What are the duties and responsibilities of a tour manager?

SR: The over all responsibility is to make sure everything is going the way it should. You over see the entire tour so that involves you planning the routes to take, what time to load in for the show, if there is catering provided, finding a place to stay after the show. You are the contact person for the managers and booking agents so you coordinate with them as well.

    
DM: What is your daily routine as a tour manager?

SR: You are the first person awake and make sure everyone else is ready to leave. You write up a daily sheet that includes all the details of the upcoming day. You advance the shows with the booking agents and document all expenses and accounting information.

    
DM: When you advance a show, what questions do you typically ask?

SR: The main questions such as what time is load in and what time do the doors open. You ask if there is catering provided and if they might possibly know of a place to stay that is close by after the show.

  
DM: When you arrive at the venue, what duties or responsibilities do you have for that day? Is there a routine you go through?

SR: First you find out where to load in at and meet with the promoter/booking agent. You go over all the details of the show and be sure everyone else knows. You want to be sure you have a good spot to set up your merch.

    
DM: Do you have any stories of shows that have gone well for you as a tour manager?

SR: Almost all the shows we did went really well for everyone. You have to keep in mind that a lot of the time this is your first time trough the town and most of these kids have never heard your band. You can't always expect a sell out crowd but you can be sure the people there have a great time.

  
DM: Do you have any stories of shows that have gone wrong? What advice would you give in this instance?

SR: There are more than a few shows that could have gone much better. You simply try to make the best of it and keep everyones spirits high. It can be easy to get frustrated but that doesn't help anyone. You have to do your best to come to an agreement that has everyones best interests in mind.

    
DM: Do you have any memorable stories from tour? If so, would you please share one?

SR: There is never a dull moment on the road. Playing at Summerfest in Milwaukee was great. Being in a different city every night leaves you with a ton of great memories and experiences.

    
DM: For someone interested in tour managing, what advice would you give them?

SR: Go for it! Get to know a few bands and the people who work with them. Let them know you are interested in working with them and help out any way you can. You might have to quit your job that pays the bills so it never hurts to have money saved up. If its what you want to do though it is totally worth it!