Portfolios Journalism
Page updated March.30.2007
New York, New York
Cover Article, Groove Vol. 15 Issue ?, December ?, 2004
(~740 words) co-written by Cynthia Morgan
During the week of Veteran’s Day, while most were just enjoying their Thursday off from school, the Music Business Association (MBA) went on a trip to New York City. The MBA is a student club at Berklee dedicated to Music Business, and one of the many things they do is go on a trip to New York City once a semester to visit various organizations in the music industry.
This semester’s trip involved visiting Sony Music Studios, New York Philharmonic, V2, Sony Mobile Division, and Mary Lou Falcone P.R. on Veteran’s day, the first day of the trip. One very pleasant reoccurring theme with all the places we visited was that a lot of the people (a lot of important people at that) are Berklee alumni. Control room after control room in the massive studio complex that is Sony’s, we met engineers of Berklee descent, including one recent graduate, Andrew Dawson, who’s already a top engineer (and Kanye West’s main engineer at that)! We were given quite an extensive tour and explanation of how the studios are run, and how they’ve been affected/unaffected by the recent economic climate of the music industry.
Earlier that morning, a portion of the group tough enough to get up at the crack of dawn (when we didn’t arrive at the hostel until 2am the night before) went to the New York Philharmonic. Kristen Houkom, Education Associate, arranged the event. She set up a panel with staff from many different departments so that we could get a more direct look at what it is like to work inside the field of arts administration, specifically in a symphony orchestra. They talked about their day -to -day tasks, the paths that have brought them to where they are, the biggest issue they think symphony orchestras face, and field questions from us. Some of the staff we met with included Zarin Mehta, President and Executive Director, David Snead, Director of Marketing, Madeline Rogers, Director of Publications, Toya Lillard, Assistant Director of Education, and Linda Forlini, Director of Customer Relations.
V2, an independent record label with the likes of Moby and the White Stripes on their roster, was another place people visited. We met with Andrew Shechtman who works in merchandise sales, talked to us about the difficulties of being an independent label and especially the hardships they’ve been hit with. Also, we discussed ideas about what changes need to happen in order for a company like Tower Records to stay in business.
Many of the students felt that the visit to Mary Lou Falcone P.R. was the best, which was unexpected. Going into that meeting, some people were discouraged that Mary Lou specialized in P.R. for classical musicians (because there’s ‘nothing conservatory’ about us, apparently). When the meeting got underway, however, any remnants of dismay quickly evaporated. She encouraged people to ask her questions and she really wanted us to get an accurate feel for the music industry. She really took the time to go around the room and asked all of us how/why we started to play music and what we wanted to do. With every person she seemed to be able to give good advice. She knew tons about the classical music world, but also about record companies and the mainstream. After leaving the meeting she gave you the impression that you can do whatever you want if you have the passion and drive to do it. As we were leaving she shook all of our hands on the way out wishing us good luck.
Sony Mobile Division is a fairly new division of Sony Music, and they are dedicated to ringtones. As many of you may know, ringtones have been making lots of money for record companies and publishing companies, and that sector of the market has been one of the few that has shown great growth over the last few years. Sony’s Mobile Division was originally a company that a couple Berklee alumni (from the first year of the Music Business major) started, then sold to Sony, and those two Berklee alumni are still running that division. The main point that one of them, Tim Nilson, made was that the Berklee name and the connections to other alumni really are quite influential in the industry, and it was comforting to all of us that we chose the school we did.
The Friday after Veteran’s Day also had a packed line-up that included Warner/Chappell, IMG Artists, Nonesuch Records, WEA Distribution, and Monster Island Recording Studios. At Warner/Chapell, students met with Michael Lau (Strategic Marketing and Catalogue Development) and Neil Gillis (Director of the Creative Dept.), who are the two main people at the New York office of Warner/Chappell. They explained to us some recent projects they’ve been working on, such as how they pick songs to go with certain commercials (and showing us a few commercials too, such as one for Jeep and another for Mastercard). Other issues that were brought up in discussion included how Warner has been affected by the buyout, as well as publishing issues such as negotiating licenses.
Just a few floors down from Warner/Chappell’s office, in the same monstrous building that belongs to WMG (Warner Music Group), we met with the president of Nonesuch Records, Bob Hurwitz. Nonesuch Records is an anomaly in the record industry. They are one of the few record labels out there with the sole purpose of helping out music they really love and cherish. Whether it’s the rock group Wilco, great jazz musicians such as Brad Mehldau or Pat Methany, or even modern classical masters like Steve Reich, it doesn’t matter how different they all are, because as far as Nonesuch is concerned, great music is great music. Though the staff consists of a mere 12 employees, their influence has been far reaching; in the depression the music industry has been suffering, Nonesuch has been prospering. Some people think that the industry should look towards labels like Nonesuch as models for the future. Bob Hurwitz invited us into his office, and spoke passionately about really knowing yourself, and what you want out of life. He told us the story of how he went from dropping out of law school to being president of Nonesuch. It was a very inspirational and enlightening conversation, and it made some of us re-evaluate our goals and aspirations within the industry.
We met with Heather Gladstein, Director of Artist Services Vocal Division, and Karen E. Gruber, Manager of Artist Services Instrumental and Conductors Division at IMG Artists. They specialize in performing arts management, touring, and special events, as well as representing artists in classical music and dance, world music, theatrical projects, and audio-visual projects as well. They said it was a pretty stressful job when everyday something goes wrong, such as when a flutist leaves their flute on the plane and then they have to somehow find the flute in time for the concert. Another example they gave was of an artist needing an hour before the concert to rehearse on stage but the hall can’t open until 30 minutes before. They said that you really have to learn how to deal with different kinds of people.
At WEA Distribution, some of us met with Kelly Diamond, Sr. VP of Sales Planning. The first part of the meeting seemed like a focus group, as they asked questions regarding what music we buy, what we think of certain artists, etc. One thing they mentioned to us was that they are interested in giving an intern position to someone to be a college rep for Boston colleges. As discussions were healthily underway, the VP of Catalogue Sales, Ron Phillips walked in and discussed with us current issues with sales, pricing, and distribution. He also described the relationship between distributors and mass market retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy. He asked us if we had seen the promo for back catalogue sales, and asked us our opinions about suggested retail price for back catalogue records. When we were leaving, Kelly told us that we knew more about the industry than anyone she’s met that wasn’t in the industry, and was very adamant about keeping an ongoing contact with us.
Rounding out the business part of the trip was a visit to Monster Island Recording Studios, which, surprise surprise, is run by a Berklee alumni, Mike Caffrey. After a brief tour of the facilities, he sat us in his main live room, and we had discussions on topics ranging from those that are music business related, to engineering queries, to the philosophical. It was nice to have such an intimate discussion with someone who’s made a living for himself in the industry. He had a lot of insightful things to say, especially regarding the most overused word at Berklee; networking.
At the end of our two days of business visits, we were a bunch of college students in New York City during a weekend away from school. If you thought the business trips were eventful, you obviously weren’t with us. For various reasons, details of that part of the trip cannot be printed here. Needless to say, the trip was an amazing and inspiring experience, and we can’t wait to do this again.
To view this article in the Groove itself, please visit the Groove web site, where a PDF of the issues are available for download.
Journalism Outline
The Groove Student Newspaper at Berklee College of Music
· "In Memorium: Walter Harp"
Article, Groove Vol. 17 Issue 4, December 5, 2005
· "Bringing the Real World Experience to School"
Article, Groove Vol. 17 Issue 4, December 5, 2005
· "The Marketing Design Group"
Article, Groove Vol. 17 Issue 3, November 15, 2005
· "Modern Day Re/sonance: The Electronica Club"
Article, Groove Vol. 17 Issue 3, November 15, 2005
· "A Convention for the People Behind the Glass"
Trade Show Review, Groove Vol. 17 Issue 1, October 17, 2005
· "Attempting Street Cred"
Editorial, Groove Vol. 16 Issue ?, February ?, 2005
· "The Boston Hip-Hop Alliance"
Article, Groove Vol. 15 Issue ?, February ?, 2005
· "Music Business Journal"
Article, Groove Vol. ? Issue ?, February 14, 2005
· "Music Business Majors Tour NAMM"
Trade Show Review, Groove Vol. 16 Issue 7, February 2, 2005
Co-written by Ross Gruet
· "Finally Woken"
CD Review Article, Groove Vol. ? Issue ?, December 8, 2004
· "Encore?"
CD Review Article, Groove Vol. ? Issue ?, December 8, 2004
· "New York, New York"
Cover Article, Groove Vol. 16 Issue 5, November 24, 2004
Co-written by Cynthia Morgan
· "An Evening of Birnbryer Peace"
Concert Review Article, Groove Vol. 2 Issue 4, November 10, 2004
· "Preventing Your Dog From Eating Your Homework"
Article, Groove Vol. 2 Issue 1, October 13, 2004
· "100 Miles and (No Longer) Runnin'"
Article, Groove Vol. ? Issue ?, September 29, 2004
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