Who Are Effective Music Industry Communicators And Why?

Through the Lens of Idea Generation.

The following is a research paper authored by Alec Friedman, student at New Jersey City University School of Business, Fall 2022 semester. This paper was a final assignment for Dr. Daniel Julius’ MGMT 230 Business Communications course.

ABSTRACT OF THE QUESTION AND IDEA

Reviewing the syllabus material for the Business Communication Essentials class in which this final research paper concludes, the course description outlines that “Communication skills are essential for success and effectiveness at all levels of management in all organizations.” On a personal note, I was initially reading this syllabus with a critical eye stepping into a college classroom for the first time in six years, also being the first time taking a course entrenched already as a full-time member in the professional workforce. Arguably within the most non-conventional industry, music and media entertainment. With my decision to enroll, I found myself coming into the semester skeptical of the university education system holistically and the tangible, transferable skills into most industries that weren’t considered a trade. This was an especially relevant concern from the perspective of the music business in which I aspire to grow, an industry where there are many frameworks for success but there’s a certain level of qualitative positioning required to separate yourself in an oversaturated space that many dreams of participating in. As the semester evolved, I continued with each assignment to compare the learnings to what I have observed thus far within my work experiences to evaluate the overall level of transferability. My findings were that the syllabus’ course description proved to be accurate in the sense that studying to comprehend the fundamentals of business communication could be applied constructively, and in fact, could be the most helpful in sectors where organization and landscape can be chaotic, like the music industry.

This brings us to my final research paper question at hand, Who Are Effective Music Industry Communicators, and Why? I chose this question, in particular, to showcase a few variables of effective communication within this industry and examine as the course description continues the “modes of communication and how communication skills are applied…”

As the vessel for this research to identify meaningful examples, I turned to an interview feature show called Idea Generation, which is distributed on Bloomberg QuickTake. The show is hosted by Noah Callahan-Bever, the former Chief Content Officer & Editor-In-Chief of COMPLEX, and former Executive Vice President of Content & Brand Strategy of Def Jam Recordings at Universal Music Group. As the show is described in a press release from Bloomberg, Callahan-Bever sits down with innovative minds in creative entrepreneurship to discuss in an unfiltered manner how great ideas come to life and how these innovators executed and operationalized them to turn their concept(s) to reality. As the show tagline indicates for each subject matter, “it all started with one idea.”

My goal for using the show Idea Generation as a lens to identify Who Are Effective Music Industry Communicators and Why? was to identify common threads within the episodes across modes of communication such as verbal, written, digital communication, and alike examples. Through my research, I was able to gather such categorization across six particular Idea Generation episodes and interview subjects. These interview subjects will be identified as examples of Who are effective communicators within the music industry. The accomplished individuals from the Idea Generation series which we will move forward with to examine throughout this paper are record executives Steven Victor and Ghazi Shami, along with record producers/recording artists Chauncey Hollis Jr. a.k.a. “Hit-Boy”, Kenneth Blume a.k.a. “Kenny Beats,” Alan Maman a.k.a. “The Alchemist,” and Russell Vitale a.k.a. “Russ.”

Through the six effective music industry communicators mentioned above, there are three common themes from their Idea Generation features to draw upon and categorize as communication variables specific to the music industry that help explain Why they propelled forward to accomplished careers. The episode themes drawn from research in which this paper aims to dissect and support through academic journals are the power of asking, the importance of comprehending and negotiating contracts, and utilizing content to scale direct-to-consumer relationships.

ANALYSTS OF RESOURCES

Our first variable for effective communication within the music industry, the power of asking, is a verbal communication which seems simple on the surface, but in an appropriate setting and circumstance is a gateway for an opportunity that many are reluctant to pursue or don’t have an understanding of the proper time and place to ask a question. From the academic perspective, Knowledge at Wharton’s article Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Ask Sensitive Questions is an interview with the researchers behind the study The (Better Than Expected) Consequences of Asking Sensitive Questions. As the article describes, “In the dance that is conversation… new research shows that most people don’t mind answering sensitive questions, and asking them doesn’t leave a bad impression. Direct questions about delicate topics can lead to deeper, more meaningful conversations that foster greater understanding and bring people closer together.” The show Idea Generation provides real-life examples as to how the power of asking was an effective communication variable for individuals within the music industry.

Steven Victor is the CEO and Founder of the accomplished record label Victor Victor, in addition to being the Senior Vice President of A&R (Artists & Repertoire) at Universal Music Group. Before these current roles, Victor has had a hand in collaborating with popular artists dating back to the early 2000s, with the likes of Pusha T, Kanye West, Pop Smoke, and many others. In conversation with Noah Callahan-Bever, Steven Victor outlined how the power of asking for opportunity helped give him his initial start in the music business. He landed his first internship within the music industry simply by asking his college roommate, whose father owned a record label if he could connect him with his dad for an internship. From that internship experience, he took notice of an impactful publicist in the building named Junior Suriel, who he then asked directly if he could continue his internship with Suriel formally as his mentor, to which Suriel obliged. It was asking those two questions which opened the doors for Steven Victor to carve his initial niche within the music industry himself as a publicist, which provided the foundation later for Victor to become the culturally impactful record label owner that he is today. This tactic is supported by the academic research of Maurice Schweitzer, a professor at Wharton behind the research study The (Better Than Expected) Consequences of Asking Sensitive Questions, who says “We found that rather than just using questions to elicit information, we also ask questions to achieve some other goals. Sometimes we might try to manage the impressions we create… It’s not merely the case that I’m using communication to get ideas in my head into your head…but rather we use communication to achieve some other ulterior goals.” The ulterior goals eventually accomplished in the case of Steven Victor’s successful track record in the record business were far beyond the immediate asks he made related to the opportunity for an internship.

Hit-Boy is an award-winning record producer who has constructed music for iconic artists such as Beyonce, Jay Z, Drake, Travis Scott, Nas, Kanye West, and more. It can be said that it was Hit-Boy’s professional relationship with Kanye West in particular that elevated his catalog into mainstream status, a relationship that eventually translated into a meaningful production agreement with West. How that introduction and seed with Kanye West was first planted, plays into not only our effective communication variable for the power of asking but specifically, the power of asking in an appropriate setting. Within Hit-Boy’s episode of Idea Generation, he goes on to recall his first in-person interaction with West, which took place at the recording studio Record Plant in Los Angeles, California. This location was not only a private facility but also an exclusive one that is known for frequently hosting some of music’s top stars within its creative workspaces. While both working individually at the recording studio, Hit-Boy ran into Kanye West in the facilities’ hallway and it was in that setting that he appropriately asked if Kanye would allow him to play him a mix of instrumentals, which resulted in doing so. While it wasn’t until a few years later that Hit-Boy would actually produce a Kanye West song and then sign with his production company, G.O.O.D. Music, it was the power of that first ask in verbal communication at an acceptable place and time that put Hit-Boy onto the radar of West in a positive light. Einav Hart, an assistant management professor at George Mason University and contributor to the research study highlighted by Knowledge at Wharton, further articulates the importance of understanding cultural norms when using the power of asking. “Naturally, how sensitive questions depend on the context. For example, who is around, who you are asking, what culture you’re in, the norms of that culture.”

Kenny Beats, a charismatic music producer whose presence spans a variety of genres and worlds from hip-hop to electronic dance music and in-between, has used the power of asking as a framework to jump-start his creative process with each of the popular artists that he collaborates with. As noted in his interview with Noah Callahan-Bever on Idea Generation, Kenny Beats’ process in the production studio, no matter the genre he is working on that day, always begins with asking the same four questions to the artist; “What do you love right now? What are you listening to? What’s the most favorite thing you’ve made recently? What’s going on with you outside of music?” His goal is to ask these questions not only on the surface level to tap into an idea for a song, but also to make the artist that he is collaborating with feel comfortable to connect with him on a personal level, in turn cultivating a creative environment. Maurice Schweitzer continues within the Knowledge at Wharton’s article Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Ask Sensitive Questions to emphasize how the power of asking, “One thing that questions do is they express interest in other people. They demonstrate that we’re other-focused…. But at the same time, people like that attention, they like being engaged in a process.” Schweitzer’s quote here validates Kenny Beats’ music production strategy.

Our second common theme which emerged from Idea Generation as a variable for what creates an effective communicator within the music industry is the importance of comprehending and negotiating contracts. Deal-making of all sorts with music-related contracts can require written communication, and also verbal communication during a negotiation. Listening and non-verbal communication are additional modes of communication that are critical for this variable, as how you process information and showcase body language can affect the outcome of the execution of the desired deal. During a Business Communication Essentials class lecture from this semester, dated Thursday, October 27th, 2022, Dr. Daniel Julius outlined a handful of rules for negotiation to consider. Rules to consider included doing your homework on the market to determine fair value, understanding the real cost if a deal requires borrowing money, and having the ability to walk away from a negotiation while leaving business relationships on good terms. In addition, when deal-making, Dr. Julius noted it’s important to be creative and flexible. These overarching attributes translate to comprehending and negotiating contracts in the music industry, as further highlighted via our effective communicators mentioned on Idea Generation.

Coming from the perspective of the record label, Steven Victor shared the advice he received as a young professional in regards to contracts, to read the fine print and structure deals that are more beneficial on the back end, rather than on the front end. As a producer who received an upfront advance of money in the earlier stages of his career, Hit-Boy also urged the importance of comprehending contracts, as he learned how difficult his initial publishing deal was to become wealthy on the back end of his agreement. It took many years for him to satisfy his original obligations and break off into his current wealthy position. For Kenny Beats, the producer was able to build a better understanding of his existing music agreements in real-time while a student at the Berklee College of Music. He compared class materials to the single pieces of music he had previously agreed to sell and then began to negotiate improved terms and positioning as he moved forward with his career.

Ghazi Shami is the CEO and Founder of Empire, an innovative music distribution company and overall music industry disruptor. In doing so, Empire flipped the traditional model for record agreements upside down and eventually proved its model to be profitable to the point where more companies were created with a similar offering, and more options emerged for artists to partner with record distribution businesses that lived outside of the major record label circuit. The prior and traditional major record label and artist agreement model is summarized in the academic Journal of Economic Perspective’s 2003 article by Richard E. Caves, Contracts Between Art and Commerce, and noted below.

“Musician and Record Label contracts embodies a structure common throughout the creative industries — one turning on the problem of allocating decision rights efficiently. It retains the joint-venture form, but it adds the crucial element that the creative good’s production proceeds in steps: one party supplies its input, sinking its cost in the process, then hands the incomplete good to the next party for attaching its input specialty. The pop music group completes the tape for an album, which then passes to the record label for manufacture, distribution and promotion. Since musician and label both seek an extended career for the musician, their obligations extend to the musician’s future albums as well…The label advances the musician a sum to cover the cost of recording the first album plus a negotiated amount of expected royalties. Upon delivery of the tape, the label holds the option to issue the recording. If the label exercises this option, the clock starts for the musician’s delivery of a second album, which will bring a larger advance and higher royalty rate. Upon each delivery, the label decides whether to proceed. If one record’s royalties fail to cover its advance, the shortfall becomes a charge against records issued subsequently…This contract has the efficiency properties previously noted. The musician or musical group spends its own advance money to record the album, so it has an incentive to use studio time efficiently (versus indulging in perfectionism). The label wields decision rights over distribution and promotion, which are its specialty. Furthermore, the contract’s long duration warrants the label running losses on a promising artist’s early albums. Despite this logic, public sympathy flows to the young musician who seems so deprived of decision rights and locked into a one-sided relationship.”

From this 2003 academic journal, it’s worth noting that there have been massive shifts in the music business in the past 20 years, especially from the transition from physical CD sales to music streaming, and therefore standard musician-record label deal structures have also updated to reflect modern technologies. Before the music industry landscape shifting, the Contracts Between Art and Commerce article promoted the inquiry “Why does not a kinder, gentler record label offer a short-term contract that lets the performer revel in the rents that come from a big, early success? The answer lies in the high “stiff ratio,” the 80 to 90 percent of recordings that lose money. For the label to break even in the long run, it must mine enough profits from the successes to cover the stiffs’ losses.” Essentially, it took a certain level of risk and intuition to break the traditional model for recording contracts.

Ghazi Shami discussed on Idea Generation his approach to disrupting industry norms as a record distributor in the digital era, and how Empire prides itself on transparency with artist partnerships. Instead of the long tail and stronghold commitment required by a record label with an artist, instead, Empire created a non-exclusive model. The company also provided always-available access to financial statements to artists, creating a higher level of visibility and comfort than what existed beforehand. Since its expansion as a company, Empire also now operates as a record label in addition to a distribution service. Within the Ghazi Shami Idea Generation feature, the executive was another to recommend those aspiring to enter the industry to understand the economics and various parts to music deals such as splits, terms, number of projects, creative control, and recoupment structure languages. Within his articulation, Shami reinforced the importance of building skills for negotiation.

Before we dissect the third and last common theme from Idea Generation for effective communication within the music industry, let’s step back and reflect further on the financial explosion that has taken place within the industry as a whole since the before-mentioned shift from physical copies of music sales to music streaming services, using data to support and position us for a deep-dive into the impact of digital monetization of fan bases.

In 2014, Knowledge at Wharton crafted an academic article How the Music Industry Could Use Streaming to Reinvent Itself. It was around that time that “music industry’s revenues from streaming and subscription services grew nearly 60% — to $571 million in 2012 — over the previous year, according to the latest data from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).” While the numbers in regards to growth percentages were eye-popping, there was skepticism within the article in the sense of the music industry at large figuring out how to survive the continual shrinking of physical copies sold. “…Streaming services still don’t provide revenues anywhere near those in the heyday of record and CD sales, which have shrunk to a fraction of what they once were. Physical sales of music in 2012 declined by 16.5% to $2.8 billion from $3.4 billion in 2011, according to the RIAA.”

Flashing forward to modern revenue data, Music Business Worldwide (a trusted trade publication for the record industry) reported the recorded music industry generated $15 Billion in 2021 in the United States alone — the largest annual tally in history, coming from RIAA year-end data. The article continues to note “you’d need to go all the way back to 1999 — over two decades ago — to find the previous peak year for the US industry, when it generated $14.6 billion.” The 2021 report also distinguished that the streaming revenues accounted for 83% of the total US music industry revenue and encompassed income sources such as paid subscriptions, ad-supported streaming, and licensing inclusive of for the first time being reported, the social media platform, TikTok.

Specifically for 2022, Business Wire transcribed the latest global reporting, also looking toward the future of digital music streaming. “The global music streaming market is expected to grow from $24.09 billion in 2021 to $27.24 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.08%. The music streaming market is expected to grow to $45.31 billion in 2026 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.57%.” The article mentions North America as the largest region for music streaming, and signals the capacity expansion for smart devices as the driving force to support the continual explosion. “The increasing adoption of smart devices is expected to propel the growth of the music streaming market. Smart devices such as smartphones, and smart speakers have changed the way of listening to music. They include smart features like the ability to set alarms, play music on voice command, control smart devices in-home, and stream live music, as they are powered by a virtual assistant. For instance, according to statistics from Amazon Alexa in 2020, nearly 53.6 million Amazon Echo speakers (smart speakers) were sold in 2020 which will increase to 65 million in 2021. Therefore, the increasing adoption of smart devices will drive the growth of the music streaming market.”

The emergence of digital devices and platforms in tandem has positioned music creators to cut out middlemen, have access to building real audiences at their fingertips, and build revenue streams for themselves like never before. This carries our research to the last Idea Generation common theme and communication variable for effectiveness within the music industry, utilizing content to scale direct-to-consumer relationships.

There are a variety of modes for communication types when utilizing content to scale direct-to-consumer relationships in the music industry. Mainly to find the taste and tone that snatches the heartbeat of fandom. This can be verbal communication, how you speak within the content that you share. Written communication, the level of descriptiveness within posts on social media captions, or how some content can even be scripted for intentionality. Also, non-verbal communication becomes a factor within content as well, in the subjective form of energy. Ultimately, for people to engage with your music, they’ll likely need to like you for who you are and what your character is representing beyond only what potential fans hear when a song is played.

Most successful digital marketing campaigns in the music industry today include content that is tailor-made to be user-friendly. This statement is academically supported in the European Management Review research study How User-centric Innovation is Affecting Stakeholder Marketing Strategies: Exploratory Findings from the Music Industry. The paper summarizes a study completed through 52 in-depth interviews with a mixture of User-centric innovation experts, artist managers, and record label representatives. “A review of the contemporary marketing literature indicates that marketing approaches and strategies within the music industry have endured radical and systemic shifts in the digital age.” The paper’s findings further emphasize “Music artists- whether established or up-and-coming — now use social media platforms to facilitate both self-marketing and distribution-based artist-driven strategies directly with their fans. This move is generally considered to be profitable on the account of web traffic monetization…Undoubtedly, this development is closely correlated with the substantial loss of marketing governance from record labels, as the Internet age has afforded alternative distribution mechanisms.”

Relating the concept to examples from Idea Generation, Kenny Beats in the role of a music producer, not typically consumer-facing, intentionally leveraged his charisma by building audience scale and relatability on platforms such as Twitch and Discord to communicate with fans, but also most notably on YouTube where he started a content series entitled The Cave. His content series takes place in a music studio setting where Kenny Beats invites his network of famous friends with which he already has built chemistry, to come over and create personality-driven songs from scratch. With episodes usually lasting between 7 to 15 minutes, a digestible run time, on his YouTube channel which now has nearly 765K subscribers, The Cave provides fans an inside glimpse, as if they were in the studio with Kenny Beats and their favorite artist. How User-centric Innovation is Affecting Stakeholder Marketing Strategies: Exploratory Findings from the Music Industry outlines the importance of YouTube as a digital platform for utilizing content to scale directly to consumer relationships:

“…music-based social networking sites such as YouTube enable users to virally forward music content such as music videos to other internet users, or to link these videos to other social networks. In doing so, they essentially become the unofficial online marketing team for the respective music artist. Further, in an exploration of user-driven marketing strategies in the form of user-generated media…the appeal of such engagement by users is best examined through the uses and gratifications theory, which relates to the phycological needs of the individual. Building on…three sets of motivation for the user engagement: consuming — for information and entertainment; participating — for social interaction and community development; and producing — for self-expression and self-actualization.”

Before becoming the CEO of Empire, Ghazi Sami originally entered the music business as an audio engineer, a skill as he explains on Idea Generation that he continues to apply even as a record executive. This rare combination allows Shami to continue actively being hands-on in the creative process, which not only keeps him in tune beyond the daily dealings of his business but also allows him to implement his knowledge where creativity meets algorithmic advantages on digital streaming platforms. An example provided on his episode of Idea Generation is his understanding as a record distribution CEO and audio engineer hybrid to tweak the structures of songs in efforts to make them shorter, statistically improving high skip rates from users on streaming platforms like Spotify. This is Shami having an understanding through his experience how fans prefer to be communicated with. Such a tactic is reinforced through the European Management Review research study, “there is evidence to suggest that communities are taking measures to ensure that their developmental processes are communicated and accepted by users.”

Two additional and culturally important honorable mentions as Idea Generation subject matters in the realm of utilizing content to scale directly to consumer relationships in the music industry are legendary hip-hop producer, The Alchemist, and multi-platinum recording artist, Russ, as both individuals mastered the art of expanding their digital presences at different stages of their careers.

Alchemist, already entrenched as a veteran with a cemented legacy within the production landscape, explained on his episode of Idea Generation how communicating his offerings available on an emerging platform called Bandcamp extended and breathed new life into his career trajectory. He further explained that by having a presence on a new digital platform that allows for direct-to-consumer capabilities, including direct deposits, he was able to actualize his formula independently for digital communication, connect with fans + reason to buy = success.

Russ used his learnings as an independent artist and understanding of algorithmic necessities to prioritize executing a consistent string of digital content releases at a rate unseen in the music industry, releasing one song a week for years, boosting his career to stardom. In utilizing content in the form of releasing songs consistently, not only did Russ scale his digital presence directly to consumers, but he was also able to leverage the growing amount of data and communicate to his booking agent and manager which cities would be most impactful to book performances in based on the most engaged regions for streaming his music. In doing so, Russ created massively successful concert tours based on his access to directly communicate with his consumers.

OPINION OF THE MATTER

In conclusion, I believe those who are effective music industry communicators understand the importance of showcasing an entrepreneurial approach to their careers, regardless of which role one is playing within the music industry landscape. Those who take pride in being effective communicators, focusing on the fundamentals of communication, are usually detailed-oriented and personable individuals. A combination that can take you far in the music business and beyond. Ultimately, like all of the successful people highlighted within the episodes of Idea Generation, being impactful within the music industry requires having a vision. And from there, having the ability to not only execute that vision, but also to communicate your vision in order to execute. This is why treating a career in the music industry using the mentality of a business owner operationally will be helpful to navigate a rapidly changing climate. As we have been taught this semester “Communication skills are essential for success and effectiveness at all levels of management in all organizations.”

REFERENCES AND CITATIONS

[Idea Generation]. (2022, January 20). Idea Generation — Steven Victor [Video]. Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2022-01-20/idea-generation-steven-victor-video

[Idea Generation]. (2022, October 17). Idea Generation — Ghazi Shami [Video]. Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2022-10-17/idea-generation-ghazi-shami-video

[Idea Generation]. (2022, February 3). Idea Generation — Hit-Boy [Video]. Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2022-02-03/idea-generation-hit-boy-video

[Idea Generation]. (2022, October 3). Idea Generation — Kenny Beats [Video]. Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2022-10-03/idea-generation-kenny-beats-video

[Idea Generation]. (2021, December 30). Idea Generation — Alchemist [Video]. Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2021-12-30/idea-generation-alchemist-video

[Idea Generation]. (2021, November 18). Idea Generation — Russ [Video]. Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2021-11-18/idea-generation-russ

Schweitzer, M., & Hart, E. (n.d.). Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Ask Sensitive Questions. Knowledge at Wharton. https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/why-you-shouldnt-be-afraid-to-ask-sensitive-questions/

Julius , D. (2022, October 27). Business Communications Essentials Rules for Negotiation [Class Lecture].

Caves, R. E. (2003). Contracts Between Art and Commerce. Journal of Economic Perspectives — Volume 17, Number 2 — Spring 2003 — Pages 73–83. https://doi.org/https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/089533003765888430

Fader, P., & Hosanager, K. (2014). How the Music Industry Could Use Streaming to Reinvent Itself. Knowledge at Wharton. https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/music-industry-use-streaming-reinvent/

Ingham, T. (2022). WITH $15BN IN REVENUE, 2021 WAS THE US RECORD INDUSTRY’S BIGGEST EVER YEAR (KIND OF…). Music Business Worldwide. https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/with-15bn-revenue-2021-was-the-us-record-industrys-biggest-ever-year-kind-of/

(2022). Global Music Streaming Market Report 2022: A $45+ Billion Industry in 2026 — Long-term Forecast to 2031 with Amazon, Apple, Spotify, Gaana, & SoundCloud Dominating. Business Wire. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221012005842/en/Global-Music-Streaming-Market-Report-2022-A-45-Billion-Industry-in-2026---Long-term-Forecast-to-2031-with-Amazon-Apple-Spotify-Gaana-SoundCloud-Dominating---ResearchAndMarkets.com

Gamble, J. R., McAdam, R., & Brennan , M. (2019). How User-centric Innovation is Affecting Stakeholder Marketing Strategies: Exploratory Findings from the Music Industry. European Management Review. https://doi.org/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/emre.12326