Songbird Issue 4

INDUSTRY Taking Risks & Fighting For Artists: Universal Music Group Executive Michele Anthony Talks About Her Career and Passion for the Music Business Julie Greenwald, COO & Chairman of Atlantic Records, Talks About Her Unique Career Path, Helping Change Inequality, & How She Runs A Powerful Record Label Partnering Big Names & Leading Her Own Story: Marcie Allen Belmont In NYC: Interviews with Belmont Grads Shelby Comstock, Alex Allen & Natalie Williams Bill Werde On His New Cause-Focused Job, Spotify & Learning Round Hill Music: Interviews with Britnie Stingelin & Mallory Zumbach ARTISTS Diving Into Music: An Interview with YouTube Musician Kina Grannis Judy Rodman Talks Songwriting, Being a Vocal Coach, and Balancing Her Many Projects Artist Profile: Ashley Monroe, by Amanda Nicklaus FEMINISM Album Reviews From A Feminist Perspective: First Quarter 2015,

by Kaydee Ecker

editor // designer // writer // Nina Small contributing writer // Kaydee Ecker contributing writer // Amanda Nicklaus thesis director // Dan Johnson all photography // by Nina Small unless otherwise stated artist photos // PR photos Michele Anthony photo // courtesy of UMG album covers // Google images

Dear Readers, New York is a magical city. It’s full of life - with busy streets, driven people, and more music venues than you can count. You can walk down four blocks from wherever you are and be immersed in a completely different world.

When you think of the music industry, there are likely three cities that come to mind: Los Angeles, Nashville (which is competing for more and more attention), and of course New York. There are record labels, publishers, magazines, and musicians all based there, so it’s not hard to imagine why we chose New York to be the center of this issue. With most people featured either living and based in New York or working there most of the time, we were able to take a good look at all different levels of the music industry that are present in the city.

There are some people that are essentially running the whole business. One of those is Michele Anthony, the Executive Vice-President of U.S. Recorded Music for Universal Music Group. She works closely with Lucian Grainge and other top players of UMG to make sure the US operations run smoothly. Named Billboard’s #1 Woman of the Year for executives last year, her vast music industry experience is incredibly impressive, ranging from working as a top music law attorney to running her own management company to helping lead Sony Music for 17 years. Her stories and advice are definitely worth reading in our extended feature.

Julie Greenwald is another amazing woman I spoke to this month. She is the COO and Chairman of Atlantic Records, which has an incredible roster spanning many genres. What I found so interesting about Julie is that she gets very involved with all of the strategy and planning of each artist’s career - looking at streaming numbers, YouTube counts, and whatever influences the market. She is someone I can definitely learn a lot from, and Atlantic is a company I would love to work with someday.

I also had the pleasure of talking with Marcie Allen. She has created a powerful company called MAC Presents that brings together musicians and the corporate world, creating sponsorship deals that benefit both sides. She is a great example of a strong female helping to lead the music industry.

One of my other favorite features in this issue is the “Belmont In NYC” feature. I spoke with four different Belmont grads and talked about how they made the transition to New York and the real world, having jobs in the music industry. Each person had an interesting story to tell and had great advice.

If you’ve read past issues, then you’ve heard Bill Werde’s name at least once before. Bill officially took on a new role this year as CEO of Fenton - a change from the music industry, but something that he is also incredibly passionate about. I feel very lucky to be able to speak with him, as he always has great insight into music but also great advice about doing your best work and being successful for the right reasons.

There are also serveral other great pieces in this issue including my interview with one of the nicest and most talented YouTube artists, Kina Grannis, my interview with vocal coach and singer Judy Rodman, and interviews with Round Hill Music employees - a company that I am lucky enough to intern for this semester.

Throughout this experience of working on Songbird I feel very fortunate to have been able to talk to many influential and inspiring people. Everyone has been so willing to help, and I have been able to learn from each person. I just want to thank everyone that has been involved in any way, shape, or form. It means so much to me!

Nina

Taking Risks & Fighting For Artists: Universal Music Group Executive Michele Anthony Talks About Her Career and Passion for the Music Business Julie Greenwald, COO & Chairman of Atlantic Records, Talks About Her Unique Career Path, Helping Change Inequality, & How She Runs A Powerful Record Label Partnering Big Names & Leading Her Own Story: Marcie Allen Belmont In NYC: Interviews with Belmont Grads Shelby Comstock, Alex Allen & Natalie Williams Bill Werde On His New Cause-Focused Job, Spotify & Learning Round Hill Music: Interviews with Britnie Stingelin & Mallory Zumbach

Taking Risks & Fighting For Artists Universal Music Group Executive Michele Anthony Talks About Her Career and Passion for the Music Business

Not many people can say they spent their

senior year of high school on tour around the world with Humble Pie, turning in a social studies paper about Japan while watching one of the biggest acts of the time play a show. It’s easy to say that may have created a spark for music in Michele Anthony, but keeping the fire going was her own doing – she used it to fuel her all the way to the top of the dominating record label in the world, Universal Music Group.

Anthony was quite literally “born into the music industry.” She toured the world at a young age thanks to her music manager father, Dee Anthony, who was Tony Bennett’s manager at the time Michele was born. “By the time I was a teenager he was bringing over a lot of the British bands to America,” she says. “He was working with people like [famed promoter] Bill Graham, Frank Barsalona, and a lot of great iconic people from the sixties, to help bring over artists like Joe Cocker, Humble Pie, T. Rex, Mott the Hoople, etc.

I was literally working his management company by the time I was twelve,” something most middle school kids would kill to have on their resume.

Living and breathing the music industry at such an early age, she says it was “just assumed” she would follow the same career path as her father and work in the business.

“The shocker to everyone came when I went away to college and chose to go to law school,” choosing a path that no one would consider the easy one – getting a law degree at the University of Southern California. “I had been hearing through a lot of my father’s artists and through the record companies that there’s this area called ‘music law’ that was developing, so I thought that would be very interesting. … I came from the position of protecting the artist. So to me, what could be better than becoming an artist lawyer?”

With her sights set on her new-found career, it was decided. “That was what I wanted to be.”

The decision to go into law didn’t come with a ‘take your pick’ list of destinations and positions to choose from, much like many career paths.

In the late seventies there were only a few music law firms to choose from. “Music law had grown up really around entertainment law and the

studios,” she notes. This meant that the few firms that focused on music were all located in Los Angeles. So she followed her passion and moved to the west coast. Unfortunately, the glamour of Hollywood didn’t find its way into the law firms, as she says “in those days there weren’t really business affairs departments, so before you could become an artist lawyer, you sat in the back room and you drafted hundreds if not thousands of agreements. There was no internet then. You did a year or two of that before you were even allowed to get on the phone to negotiate.” The tireless days just added to her work ethic. “It was actually a great training in discipline, as a combination with the other things I’d been exposed to with my family in terms of studio and on the road and the management company. I literally just by evolution became an artist lawyer, and wound up representing scores of incredible bands and artists.” Some of her major clients at the time included Guns N’ Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, and Rick Rubin – an impressive list to say the least.

Just shy of ten years at the firm when she

would become a partner, she was met with an unexpected career change. During a meeting with Tommy Mottola – a former CBS Records employee who was now hiring for the newly formed Sony Music – they ended up having a long discussion about management and what the problems had been with CBS Records. Over the course of the conversation the two realized they “were very like minded.” Shortly after, Anthony joined the team at Sony Music.

“I thought to myself ‘okay, I’ll try this – I’m going to learn and I’m going to bring as many artists and clients with me.’ And that’s what I did. I was [at Sony] for seventeen years, [and] became President and COO of that company.” During her long run with Sony, the company broke artists such as Celine Dion and Pearl Jam – just a small part of what was accomplished over her years there.

She parted with Sony after the merger with BMG and went “back to [her] roots of management and consulting” – establishing her own company that serviced clients ranging from Prince to Bjork

She spent several years focusing on building the company, until another business meeting took an interesting turn. She was working on a deal for Pearl Jam with Universal Music Group’s CEO (and last year’s Billboard Power 100 #1) Lucian Grainge. “We started talking about ways that the US company could really be improved in the sense that we had the most incredible labels in the US, all very different personalities, all just best in class at what they do, but…” they needed better management from a corporate standpoint.

Grainge and Boyd Muir were looking for someone else to add to the management team “to assist him in managing the labels, but also looking at a lot of the commercial areas around the labels to see how we could create the best resources for our artists and our labels.” Suddenly Anthony had a new set of goals and a new section on her resume.

Since then Anthony has had a rewarding

time as Universal’s Executive VP of US Recorded Music. “My day is different everyday,” she says.

“Some days it’s dealing immediately with the labels, or an issue at that level. Other days it is attending corporate board meetings, other days it is helping figuring out what we’re doing in the branding and sponsorship area, or going to brand meetings. It’s very varied, but it focuses on the US, although I am part of the executive committee that deals with the strategy and policy of the company [overall]. It’s been a very productive and fulfilling fourteen months.”

While her day-to-day activities may change, one of her main focuses is always communication between the major players in the label group.

“My job is to help be a bridge between the management team and the labels, [a bridge between the labels and some of the commercial areas]. It’s very much to help, not just balance the communication, but respect the communication.

Make the communication happen.” That includes working closely with Grainge, Myor, and the other top executives at each of the labels such as David Massey of Island Records and Steve Barnett of Capitol Music Group.

With all of the communication necessary, there are bound to be problems that come up – which, luckily, is something that Anthony enjoys dealing

with. “I really enjoy problem solving, whether it’s an artist problem, a strategic problem, an employee problem. … I enjoy deal making. I enjoy working with the labels. That’s the most fun part,” she says.

Being able to take on all the challenges that

come with such a senior level position in the world’s most powerful label group is not a job for the faint of heart. A lot of Anthony’s strength seems to stem from her family – both of her parents and even her siblings. Some people may look at gender as an obstacle overcome, but that was not part of her family’s philosophy. Her parents divorced when she was young, and they both individually showed her that being a woman should not stop her from achieving anything. “My mother was out there working at a time when it was not very popular or easy to be a divorced woman with two small children out there working. … My mother was twenty when she had me – and we both were huge Gloria Steinham fans. My mother was in the work force, so the whole equal pay equal rights amendment … was empowering.”

Her father set an example by giving her jobs at such a young age despite being a part of the tough music industry. “One of the reasons I was on the road so much at that point in time [was to be able to spend time with my father]. He would just literally pick me up and put me in his pocket and I would just go with him. When you’re on the road, and you’re doing one nighters and ‘okay, lobby call here,’ and I was like ‘little manager’ so I would be helping collect box office at the Fillmore or making sure the marquee sign was right when we were in Australia. Whatever it was, it was just never an issue of me being a girl. It was never – it never factored into it to be honest with you. It was never a conversation, never. It was the absence of it that made it so good. … I think I said in my remarks at the Billboard luncheon that the Fillmore East and Gloria Steinham were the soundtracks to my teenage years. [laughs]” Though Anthony had great role models and was able to work her way to the top tier of the music industry, she recognizes it’s not necessarily that way for all other women – it can be challenging

Spent 17 Years at Sony Music

Founded A Management Company

Worked at Manatt Phelps Rothenberg & Phillips

Some Career Highlights

Started at UMG 14 Months Ago

7H Entertainment

Some of the labels under Universal Music Group

to get executive positions. “I think that first of all it’s an issue that’s not just peculiar to the music industry. It’s sadly throughout most industries, and we still have never had a female president – though I have a hunch that that’s about to change – but I think that what is peculiar or unique to the music business is that, particularly if the woman is the primary care giver in the family, the demands of this industry in terms of late nights, unpredictable hours, lots of travel, make it very hard on whoever is the primary caregiver of the family. … I think some women choose not to be in some of the positions of say A&R or promotion that you do have to be extremely fluid and flexible in your time.” The absence of normal 9-5 jobs, especially in the departments she mentions, make it hard on whoever has responsibility in a family.

Universal has a great record of promoting women to higher positions, including Jody Gerson as the CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group, as well as other female leaders at Capitol Group and running the sales department. “Lucian and Boyd, I will say, are gender blind,” Anthony notes.

For giving advice to young professionals

looking to get into the music industry, her message is clear and simple. “I would say number one: you have to have a real passion to be in the music business. There are just a lot of challenges and opportunities in our business right now.

It’s also very competitive. You have to want to be in this business and love what you do. That leads to the old adage of ‘love your profession and you’ll never work a day in your life.’ That’s really true. You have to find what your calling is.”

Anthony’s advice comes not only from her own experience in the industry, but from watching her siblings find joy in what they do. “I have a sister who’s a social worker and she is so passionate about what she does. She started with the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization, and she went on to get her social work degree. She’s worked in organizations that work with very severe foster issues, heartbreaking issues, and she just loves what she does. She’s now forty-two years old and has her own kids and is now a social worker at a middle school.

“I have another sister who fell in love with teaching – she did Teach for America when she

was at the University of Michigan, and then went on to Columbia to get her doctorate and moved to Washington and was on [a senator’s general council for education]. Now she runs a non-profit called Excellence In Education. I have another sister [who has children] and all she wanted really was to raise these kids. She loves that job.

She also works on the side, but that’s her main focus in life. So we’re four sisters and we have very, very different callings in life. That’s why it really starts with what is in your heart. What is your passion? What is your calling? Sometimes it takes a minute to find that.” She also offers the wisdom of “don’t be afraid of making mistakes – don’t be afraid of failing. Try things until you find that which really resonates with you and feels authentic to you.”

It is clear that Anthony has followed her own advice throughout the years, finding her passion in protecting and serving artists, in whatever capacity that may present itself. Looking to the future, she hopes to continue to spend her time at Universal problem solving. “I think a lot about what will best benefit the labels and the artists.

So the goals that I have [are] to really provide the right environment, the right resources, the right structures, [and] the right people to let our artists and our labels fulfill their potential. That can be anything from actually getting in there and helping them sign an artist to making sure that the resources that they tap into from direct to consumer to branding to policy department are the best they can be.” Whichever problem arises, there is no doubt that Anthony has the experience – from her teenage years touring and listening to Gloria Steinham to her years as a lawyer, executive, and manager – and the drive that’s needed to solve it.

Julie Greenwald, COO & Chairman of Atlantic Records,

Talks About Her Unique Career Path, Helping to Change

Inequality, & How She Runs A Powerful Record Label

On a summer evening in 2012 in the Lower East Side of New York City, there was a line of teenage girls filling up a sidewalk that stretched down one block and around the corner. You could hear nervous giggles, see tired faces from the heat of the sun, and feel the shared excitement filling the air. They were waiting to enter the Bowery Ballroom, one of the smaller venues in the city, to see an up and coming singer songwriter from the UK perform one of his first US headlining dates. His album had not been released stateside, a single had not made a dent in the charts, and people would answer with a “who?” when you said his name – but the show was sold out. A buzz was starting.

The Brit performing was none other than the ginger Ed Sheeran. Less than one and a half years after that Bowery Ballroom show, he would go on to sell out three dates at Madison Square Garden. A year after that he would sell 210K in his first week of sales in the states for his second album, earning him the top spot on the Billboard 200 and later that year a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. This month his song “Thinking Out Loud” was number one on pop radio in the US. All of that to say, Ed Sheeran has been one of the best success stories in music over the past few years, but it was no easy ride to the top.

As a fan since I saw him play at Bowery (not to be included in the group of “teenage fangirls” that I saw plenty of that night), I have somewhat impatiently watched his career grow, fascinated to learn of sales numbers, nominations, and single choices.

I was lucky enough to talk with one of the people behind that – and many other successes and strategies – Julie Greenwald, COO and Chairman of Atlantic Records. To say Atlantic has a great roster is an understatement. Their range is basically unbeatable, from Sheeran to Death Cab for Cutie, Flo Rida to Icona Pop, they have all bases covered. “That’s the nice thing about Atlantic is that we’re not one category,” Greenwald says. “We’re pop, we’re rock, we’re hip hop, we’re R&B, we’re alternative, we’re heavy metal, we’re active rock. It’s great. It never

gets boring or the same because we get to work on so many different types of artists and get to hear and be a part of so much different music.”

Greenwald is passionate about all of her artists.

Though she may not decide the typeface for every liner note, she has her hands in almost everything.

“I’m

in the weeds in the sense that I’m involved in the actual marketing plans of the artists and their strategy”

– a statement that is uncommon coming from someone in an executive position like hers, as most would delegate those tasks to other employees. “[I ask] ‘How are we going to achieve greatness for them?’ So [I do] a lot of talking to staff, talking to artists, talking to managers, reading charts, seeing where our records are all at on radio, streams on streaming services, video plays on YouTube, understanding the radio picture or the touring picture if we’re not at radio, seeing where our artists sit in the marketplace and analyzing it and helping to drive the company to move them forward.” With that kind of list for every day activities, it’s easy to see paying attention to the details seems to be very important to Greenwald. I’ve met a lot of people that work in the music industry throughout my time at Belmont, but it is surprising – in the best possible way – to hear that someone cares enough to check on these kinds of details and statistics. I’m sure that many people do, but most don’t mention it as an important part of the process.

Greenwald’s day doesn’t stop with stats however, as she is also occupied with questions like “… how many singles are we going to roll out? What singles are we going to roll? When are we going to put an album in? How much are we going to spend against it? What are the right things to do to separate this artist from that artist?” Each of these questions can help build an artist’s career, so it is key to their success that someone is paying attention to that bigger picture.

What’s great about Greenwald is her story is as unique as that of any of the artists on her roster. She took a job with Teach for America

About her experience at Def Jam...

“We were … busting rap music into the mainstream, so we had this great mission statement and a sense of pride that we were helping to change popular culture. It was the most incredible experience.”

right after college graduation, working with third graders in New Orleans. She knew she would be challenging herself, since she says “I wasn’t a trained teacher. I was a liberal arts major – [political science] and English. I wanted to do some really good community service, and I thought that was a really good way to start my life as a graduate.”

“It was tougher than I ever imagined… That year I went back to Tulane, [where] I was from, and I went to law school and I asked all the law school students from the African American [Law] Society if they would come to my class and help me – volunteer – so we could work on my students’ reading [and] go into small groups,” she says. “It

taught me how to be resourceful, and it taught me to be not afraid to ask people to help. It taught me a lot about [how if you] get thrown into a challenging situation, you come to deal with it. It was a really good, important life lesson for me.”

That year was tough on her, so she went home hoping for a break over the summer. “That’s when chance happened,” she says. “I took a summer job working for Lyor Cohen at Rush Management.

That’s how I started in the music business … If I didn’t need a break [from teaching], I probably wouldn’t have come home and would have never

gotten into the music business” – evidence that everything happens for a reason, as that job with Lyor Cohen would be the beginning of a long career in the industry.

After Rush Management, the two both went to work at Def Jam, an experience that Greenwald looks back on as a wonderful time. “It was definitely us against the world believing that rap music was going to be this gigantic, new mainstream music,” she says about Def Jam’s philosophy. “I was lucky enough I got to work on artists like Public Enemy, Redman, … then Jay Z, … Ludacris, and Ashanti. We had a really small company, but every artist was unbelievable.” The importance of the label at the time was felt by everyone who worked there. “We were … busting rap music into the mainstream, so we had this great mission statement and a sense of pride that we were helping to change popular culture. It was the most incredible experience.”

Def Jam was sold and merged with Island and Mercury, which Greenwald took as a great learning opportunity. She had been so immersed in the world of urban and hip-hop music, but this gave her a way to expand her knowledge to other genres like rock and pop. “…it was nice to be challenged again and have to learn a whole new way of marketing and promoting artists.” Some major acts that were signed during her time there

included “Sum 41 and Hoobastank, … and then from there we got The Killers and Fall Out Boy.” After all of that success, Greenwald surprisingly had a career change. “I left to come over here to Atlantic when we were sitting up top. We were the number one label in the country and I never thought I’d ever leave that place,” she notes.

Her motivations were clear: “I wanted to work for Lyor who came to run the Warner Music Group.

I’m a big believer in life is too short, it’s all about the quality of people you work with. So I followed Lyor and started a whole new challenge again, which was putting Electra and Atlantic together and rebuilding this company.”

Greenwald has been incredibly successful in her eleven years at Atlantic. Facing challenges head on and helping to build artists’ careers is just part of the job. She has been named number one on Billboard’s Women in Music list four times, just one indicator of the power and reach she has in the music industry.

In this video interview from 2011, she talks to Bill Werde about the importance of events like the Billboard Women in Music luncheon. When I spoke to her about other ways to change the inequality in the industry, she made sure to point out you have to use whatever power you have yourself to make things more equal. “I

know I employ a lot of women, and I know the women that are my direct reports underneath me employ great women,” she says. “I think as long as we keep paying it forward and making sure that if you’re hiring a candidate and the woman is just as qualified, you hire [them]. If the woman deserves the raise, you give it to them.

If a woman is deciding to get married and have a baby, you don’t penalize them and make them feel bad, you figure out a way to get the best working schedule out of someone even if they have kids or if they’re a single mother. … It all starts with us making our own difference and moving it forward. People like me that are in power [that can] move it forward, need to move it forward. It’s not something that you want to do, it’s something that you have to do.”

Even though Greenwald may be one of the most powerful people in all of the industry today, she’s quick to respond about the challenges she faces on a daily basis. “I face challenges all the time!

You go to meetings, you go to conferences, you go to a lot of things where there aren’t that many women in the room. You walk tall and proud and know that you belong there just as much as the next guy belongs there. No matter how outnumbered you are, it’s okay. You’re still just as good as them and continue to out hustle and out work them, and show everybody why you’re there. Even though you’re a woman

About hiring women in the industry...

“People like me that are in power [that can] move it forward, need to move it forward. It’s not something that you want to do, it’s something that you have to do.”

Ed Sheeran performs at the Hard Rock Cafe in Nashville.

Sheeran is one of the artists on Atlantic’s great roster.

who’s balancing a family and motherhood and everything else, you still produce fantastic results.

At the end of the day that’s what matters, is that you’re business is yielding great results. “ The great results that she produces are likely partially due to her ability to adapt and always be aware of changes happening in the industry. “I’m eleven years into this new company, [Atlantic], and [into] all the challenges and the fact that the industry keeps changing every day. We went from physical to digital and now we’re going to streaming, and content creation and 360. Every day you’re learning what works and what doesn’t work to be better at helping your artists forge a new career.”

Despite all the changes that keep occurring with changing models of revenue and different types of deals, she still maintains her plans for the future. “As much as everything has changed, …

it’s still the same mission, right? Which is to sign and develop magnificent artists and help them build their careers

in whatever platforms we’re distributing [and] monetizing your music or your content. The fundamental of finding great artists and helping deliver great music and putting it out there in a way that is meaningful [doesn’t change] – how you distribute it changes, but it’s still the same fundamental mission. Great artists are what you want to sign. Great performers are what you want to build. Helping them have a long career is the dream.”

A common thread between many interviews I’ve done is that people cite others in the industry as mentors that have helped them get to where they are today. It’s an important aspect to note, as it is great to be able to look to someone for advice and guidance. For Greenwald, that person was always Lyor Cohen. From being his assistant to going to different labels years after, they worked well together. When asked what he has taught her over the years, she said “He taught me that it’s okay to make mistakes. You just have to learn from it, and that’s the only way you’re going to feel comfortable taking risks, is to be fearless.

The greatest people in the world have all made

mistakes, so if you don’t take risks and you don’t try different things, you’re never going to learn and be better.”

In addition, Greenwald gained a lot of insight about how to run a label from Cohen. “He taught me that great artists are hard to come

by and that when you find one you should put everything into it and don’t lose your belief and your conviction no matter how long the road is or how

challenging the road is, keep plowing forward because the artist deserves it. …Ultimately, however long that road is, you’ll get there.

Sometimes great music doesn’t happen over night.” And a good example of that is? “Ed Sheeran didn’t happen overnight. Ed Sheeran took us a long time to break, and now the guy’s one of the best artists out there.”

I can certainly say I’m happy she didn’t lose her conviction in Sheeran, and I have no doubt that she was influential in getting him to where he is today. That is just one example of what can be learned from Greenwald’s expansive career – she adapts, welcomes opportunities to learn, focuses on the quality of people she works with, and helps promote equality for women in the music business – so we have much more to thank her for than just promoting Ed Sheeran.

PARTNERING BIG NAMES

we talk to music industry veteran and leader, Marcie Allen. she owns her own company called MAC Presents which

creates partnerships between the music industry and

& LEADING HER OWN STORY corporate America. check out the full article to see why Allen is the perfect example of a strong female leader who can easily hold her own.

Marcie Allen has no trouble taking charge and running the music industry on her own terms. She has been on Billboard’s list of top Women in Music since 2010 and her company, MAC Presents, brings some of the biggest corporate sponsorship deals to the music business by partnering clients like Citi with The Rolling Stones and Southwest with Imagine Dragons. Her unique vision for the music industry and corporate America creates a special niche where she is the leader.

To get a better sense of her work ethic and commitment to music, just look at her career history. The Tennessee native started out in the music industry as early as she could, booking bands for her prom at the age of sixteen. From there she went to Rhodes College in Memphis, TN and used her booking experience to secure talent as social chair for her sorority Tri Delt. The summer before her senior year she went to Washington, D.C. to do an internship at what would become Live Nation. The experience was so great she “was offered the position of Director of Marketing at the end of the

summer,” which lead her to decide to “not to go back to my senior year in college and stay in D.C. and accept the position,” she says - a great example of how she was able to make a great impression and build relationships at a young age.

The next two years were spent in D.C., after which she went to work at William Morris Endeavor back in Nashville. “Then in 1999 [I] started my first company, MAD Booking & Events,” she notes.

“We booked colleges and festivals.

My first client was the Voo Doo Music Experience in New Orleans.” She had a lot of success with MAD. “I had that company for five years, [with] offices in Nashville and Atlanta. We did [a festival] in Nashville, Memphis Jam in Memphis, TN, and then DC Sessions in Washington, D.C.. I did hundreds of festivals with artists performing such as Kanye West, Alanis Morrisette, John Mayer, John Legend. They were all free and funded by corporate sponsorships, so I had sponsors like Vanilla Coke, McDonald’s was my sponsor in Washington D.C., Bridgestone was my sponsor in Nashville, General Motors.”

Though MAD Booking & Events continued to expand and bring in clients, Allen grew tired of events and getting a taste of the sponsorship world inspired her to take on a new venture. She sold the company and started another one, MAC Presents, “as a bridge between the music industry and corporate America.”

With her dining room as her first office space, she already knew a great deal about sponsorships and working with artists. Her first official client for MAC was Cracker Barrel Old County Store, with whom she did a sponsorship deal with Alison Krauss and Union Station.

From there the big name clients kept on coming, with deals with Chrysler, Victoria’s Secret, and Microsoft just to name a few.

As if running a new company was not enough, in 2006 Allen took on another job in addition to CEO. She joined Creative Artists Agency in Nashville to create the music sponsorship department. During her year in that position she “absolutely fell in love with really doing brand partnerships with artists,” she says.

a large impact on MAC, as she says her “business quadrupled in revenues when I moved to New York.”

Some of her more recent deals have included the partnership between Imagine Dragons and Southwest, where they teamed up to do four concerts in small venues across the country, as well as an in flight performance 35,000 feet in the air from Las Vegas to Atlanta. The idea of “creating harmony between brands and music,” as stated in MAC Present’s mission statement, is something that truly sets the company apart from any other in the industry.

Not only do they focus on bringing two parties together, but they create events, license music, and create unique content.

So in a case like the Imagine Dragons and Southwest partnership, they were able to create a special event for fans, the band, and the corporate business to experience together - something that is beneficial and exciting for everyone involved.

SOUTHWEST & IMAGINE DRAGONS Her next big change came in 2010, when she moved MAC Presents from the Gulch in Nashville to New York City. When looking at the differences in the music industry in the two cities, she notes “in Nashville [it] is very much like one big family. It’s a little bit more fragmented up in New York, but for what I do with brands, it’s where the brands are located or their agencies are or they come here.”

The increased presence of brands had

When it comes to day to day activities in college or in high school, you need to the office to get these deals made, Allen have internship every summer, every fall, has a lot of responsibilities. You may every spring.” think she would be tied up writing emails all day, but in fact most of her time is spent doing “phone calls, phone calls, phone calls, phone calls. I always say I hate being attached to my computer, so I’ve now been in the office for three hours and as you can see my computer’s not even on,” she says, pointing to an unused Dell on her desk across the room.

“To me I think that a lot of people these days get stuck in email wars, and I don’t believe in that. I think it’s still about face-to-face meetings and having a phone call, a conversation with someone. This industry, I’ve been in it 21 years, and it’s all about relationships. It’s the most important thing. So you have to be able to hear the other person’s emotions, and you can’t hear that through an email.”

The importance of relationships comes up a few times during our conversation.

When asked about advice for young people trying to get a start in the industry, she points to her desk where there is a large bowl filled to the brim with business cards - noting those are just from the past six months, and she has binders filled with more in her cabinets. “Keep in touch, whether it’s a Christmas card, birthday card – show that you care. Remember that it’s not just about what people can do for you in this industry, it’s about what you can do for them. So when I get calls about jobs or hey my daughter wants to go to camp and I know you sent your step daughter there can you help me get her in, that’s what it’s about. It’s about taking care of one another and looking out for one another.” She also points out the importance of internships, saying “it’s the most important thing. If you’re in

‘A BRIDGE BETWEEN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY AND CORPORATE AMERICA’

Giving advice to young people in the industry is not the only form of mentorship she has on her mind. She also makes sure to be a great role model for her two step daughters, aged seven and ten. Allen splits her time between New York and Nashville, putting in a lot of effort to make sure she is there for them. “I married my seventh grade sweetheart,” she says. “I went to Ensworth and he went to Harding Academy [in Nashville]. We dated in seventh grade, and then lost touch, and

reconnected after we both got divorced and I had moved to New York. I am there whenever he has our girls, so that’s every other long weekend. Then when he doesn’t have the girls he comes up to New York and we have an apartment in Greenwich Village.” She notes that she wants to “show them that women, even though we’re the minority in the music industry, you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it. I think if there’s one quality I want to instill in my step daughters, it’s that.”

Allen with Marsha Vlasic

Being a strong female leader seems to be incredibly important to Allen.

When talking I note how I appreciated her Gloria Steinham reference in this Huffington Post article last year, and she immediately makes it clear her favorite quote is “by Madeline Albright: ‘There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.’” She says there are definitely challenges faced by women in the music industry, including “Being recognized as an equal. Being paid as an equal. Being respected as an equal. I think that women now more so than ever are demanding the equality, and there are many female pioneers in the industry from Cara Lewis to Marsha Vlasic. Cara Lewis is at CAA, Marsha Vlasic is at Artist Group International, Debra Rathwell at AEG. It’s really a way for the younger women and the female leaders of tomorrow to learn and to not put up with it and to show the men in the industry that we’re not going to tolerate it.”

Any advice for changing the inequality?

Simply put, she says “Not put up with shit – from the guys.”

MY FAVORITE QUOTE IS

BY MADELEINE ALBRIGHT ‘THERE IS A SPECIAL PLACE IN HELL FOR WOMEN WHO DON’T HELP OTHER WOMEN.’

It is clear that Allen never would.

When working with not only the male dominated music industry, but also corporate America, it is likely she has had to deal with many male counterparts.

With all of the success she’s had with MAC Presents, hopefully there is no question in anyone’s mind that she is a capable, strong leader in the music industry. If there is any doubt, all you have to do is talk with her for a half an hour to easily see she knows how to lead and get things done - after our conversation I can now easily say she is a great female to look up to in the music industry.

we talk to some Belmont University graduates that now live and work in New York to find out what their jobs are like and advice they have for grads.

graduation year: 2013 current titles: Head of Marketing & Admin at Figure & Groove, Production Coordinator & Client Liaison at Colormatics, among other positions

Brief history to how you go to where you are now after graduation?

I came up here during spring break to do some job interviews. The connections that I had prior when I did Belmont East is what got me hired when I got up here.

Initially I wanted to go to work at a law firm and go to law school. That dream changed when I realized how much law school costs, and the benefit didn’t seem to line up.

So I started reevaluating what I wanted to do. When I was here at Belmont East I was an intern at ASCAP, and [when I] came [back] up here [I] interviewed sort of, but there wasn’t a position open. It was sort of like me saying ‘hey, introduce me to all of your friends! You guys know I’m a good worker, hire me somewhere!’ Then around May, the girl I was interning for was leaving her position and that job opened up. They asked me to interview for it.

From there I was at ASCAP for about a year and a half, and I wanted something a little more challenging than I had done before. At ASCAP I was doing a lot for a lot of different people, which can be frustrating in one company. You feel like you’re getting pulled in a lot of different directions and you can’t really develop or grow one thing. I was working in musical theater, film & TV, and pop/rock, so I was an assistant to all of them basically – technically a creative coordinator, but an assistant. There’s no growth when you’re split in between different departments.

That would be my advice, is look at that before you jump into something. I was so excited about the job and the people that I didn’t think ‘what do I do after? How do I really push myself in one department without slacking at the job I was hired for?’

I started looking around for other opportunities. I was considering everything because I realized I didn’t want to go to law school, so I had this open ended ‘what do I want to do?’ I was having a lot of fun working with composers, which may sound a little lame, but it’s actually a lot of fun [laughs]. I was having a lot of fun with the musical theater department as well. I eventually reached out to one of our ASCAP members who needed some help with admin, and ended up working for him now on a contract basis part time as

his Head of Marketing and Admin. Basically anything that he needs to get done that allows him to write music more and do less business, is everything that I do – reaching out, making connections, making international connections, sub publishers, that’s a lot of fun.

I kind of built this free lancer’s schedule. That’s what I do Tues/Thurs every week. Then I also work for Colormatics, which is a video production company.

I work as their Client Liaison, and also as their production coordinator when they’re on shoots. That’s just been a long time dream of mine, to be a producer.

I love the idea of that and want to know if I can do it.

I didn’t study anything like that in school, so I was flying blind. I considered applying for a production assistant at a big company, but I knew going into the interview I’d go into it and they’d say ‘what is your experience?’ and I’d say ‘nothing.’ I didn’t want to be an intern, so I actually knew Colormatics from a connection at ASCAP at my first job, and reached out to them saying ‘how do you make money doing what you do?’ and they said ‘like this, but we also need some more help if you want to join and learn from us.’ So it’s a very small company, but they’re growing and expanding which is exciting because I’m learning while they learn and grow their own company.

Then the last thing I do, also project basis, part-time, is working for the Society of Composers and Lyricists.

They are a fairly large organization, but the New York branch is kind of small. Most of their composers live in LA, that’s where the movies are made. But it’s transitioned to East Coast, and I get to be a part of that transition and help grow the membership. My title there is Associate Administrator, so just another all admin, emails, all those kinds of things. Which I know just from interviews, people are like ‘oh, emails, I know we all hate ‘em!’ but I love them!

Something my friend Morgan Swank and I are doing, she’s a Belmont alum as well, [is] we’re working on a web series that we’re going to film at the end of this month. That’s awesome because I’ve never done anything like that, and she’s the writer and producer, with me just as producer. It’s cool to find a network in New York from Nashville That’s a lot! So how do you balance all of it?

I’m drowning, Nina. I’m drowning. I love it though.

My first couple weeks when I left ASCAP and started the first two positions, Colormatics and Figure and Groove, it was a total mess. I started at Christmas time, so no one’s doing that much, and I’m in a learning curve, so I thought I was just going to be broke and dead by January. I was just so worried about it. Now things are starting to come together. I pulled in a couple of other jobs. Now it’s the opposite, like I’m drowning for other reasons.

It’s important to me to have a beginning and an end to my day that doesn’t include work. So that helps keep it balanced.

That must be fun! You did go into more film production stuff, so what was your motivation for doing that?

I think I just wanted to take a shot at it. I was coming from career anxiety of ‘what do I want to do?’ as I mentioned before, and I knew at the barest sense I wanted to lead a project or lead a team of people that had a start date and a finish date. I wanted that to be a part of my everyday life, rather than what I was doing before is kind of like ‘okay, this is an event we have every year, and we may or may not change the font.’ You can’t really dive in as much. It cycles rather than starting something fresh with a new team, meeting people and bringing people together. That’s what I wanted. My friends kind of said ‘that’s what a producer does. You just have to figure out what you want to produce and then do that. You’ve got the skills and that’s your passion.’

What is your favorite part of any of your positions or just in general?

My favorite part is my bosses. Truthfully. I think because I’ve been in a bigger organization, working in smaller organizations directly with the person that’s running the company is so gratifying. Everything that I do I can see its effect directly on the business, whereas in a larger company you can do 15,000 things and they are all helping, but I don’t see that. There’s no physical, tangible thing like ‘look at those numbers we moved!’ It just doesn’t happen in the same way in a small company. Now I have three different

organizations, and I know if I don’t show up this thing will bomb. It’s so much more responsibility and that feels so much better to wake up and go to even though I’m probably doing way too much.

Any differences between the Nashville music industry and the New York industry?

There are a lot of creatives in New York that also are musicians. I don’t know if I can speak to if that’s true in Nashville as well. I felt like if people were in Nashville they were there to be an artist. People in New York are an artist and also know how to code a website or code a video game and can build a robot.

Their brains are just fascinating how intricate and wide spread their experiences and education is. I would say that would be the thing I’ve noticed the most. Otherwise all the shows, and the cool factor, and the no one’s making money – all of that is so true.

Another part of my magazine is focusing on women and feminism. Do you think there are any challenges facing women in the music industry?

All of them! [laughs] Are you kidding. I’m glad that you talked to me about this. I really have a passion for that as well. You know the saying something can be a ‘boys’ club?’ Definitely true. I’ve seen it in every genre that I’ve worked in, Film and TV, 90% of composers are male. There’s one or two girls floating around, and they’re great, but the presence isn’t there. Same thing with pop/rock, though there are a lot of female artists. Just to give an example, the music connections that I have in that genre are overwhelmingly male. I mean that on the business side. There’s not a lot of women moving and shaking that I saw. I don’t want to say that they’re not there, because that’s ridiculous. I know first hand there’s a handful of people, but it’s rare. There is an awesome organization in New York – Women in Music. They throw this gigantic party. It’s so cool to see all the women, and then we all talk about how lame it is and what we can do to make it better.

There can be subtle sexism in the way of making assumptions rather than asking someone something.

For example, someone has asked a friend of mine unrelated to me ‘oh are you a composer or do you date

a composer?’ It’s like okay, well you asked, but what does that line mean? That you’re only here because one or the other. No man was asked ‘are you here because you date a composer?’ they say ‘what do you write?’ So there’s really subtle little hints. I don’t mean to belittle anyone who would say those things, but that’s what I notice and that’s what I hate.

What do you think can be done to help change the inequality?

I think the best thing to do is to support other women.

I don’t think people necessarily remember to support their fellow female career driven women or not career driven women and we just say ‘these are my problems, this is what I’m facing, what are you facing?’ rather than saying ‘hey, let me give you this opportunity – I figured it out this way, why don’t you try this?

Open this door.’ That would be in the broadest sense the quickest way to bring each other up rather than pointing fingers at other people because we all know that it exists.

On the smaller side, [I’m in] this feminist focused email group. I think we have about ten people, but basically anytime we come across an article that’s giving advice about these issues or complaining about these sorts of issues or speaking out, we share it with each other and then have a short email discussion. I feel like for myself and my group of friends it’s so nice to share in that knowledge and have an open dialogue about those things. It makes it seem like ‘okay you’re noticing it too, I’m noticing it, let’s not ignore it next time.’

It’s interesting talking with different people through my magazine, and bringing up the topic of feminism – because a lot of people respond with ‘oh, I don’t want to talk about that’ or they just have this wrong about it. So it’s nice to talk to somebody who agrees with it!

Definitely. It’s so nice. And it’s really important to talk to other men about it because a lot of times they are excluded from the conversation. I find myself doing that when I start to speak up about something and then ‘oh, you don’t even understand, forget it.’

It’s like they don’t understand because no one’s explaining it. It doesn’t make sense. Not all of us are

talking about the biases for men as well. A reason why feminism is important, and I think Emma Watson put it really sweetly, is it’s important they realize they’re being hurt by the gender inequality as well.

It’s not necessarily a one sided street where we’re just whining and complaining. It sucks for them too.

Just my last question is do you have any advice for women wanting to get into the industry?

I don’t know if I have women specific. I’ll start with anyone. I think what I would say for women would be the same thing for men, which is important and what we should focus on, so I’m just going to keep going on that [laughs]. I would say keep all of your connections that you’ve ever had in New York closer to you than your girlfriends back home if that makes sense. Because these people are super busy and you want to be their priority. It’s always nice to reach out to someone and not ask for something, but eventually you want your connections to be able to lean on you and you to lean on them. It’s nice to keep them close as in send them an email like ‘hey I thought of you because of this,’ not ‘hey I thought of you because of this, hey can I have an interview?’ It’s nice to get an email from someone whose saying something awesome about you, or ‘hey I thought of you today, I don’t need anything, I just wanted to say something nice.’ That helps cultivate a relationship.

Keep things professional. That would be a huge piece of advice. People appreciate someone whose friendly, but it’s a weird line to balance.

I think a lot of times our age group will over share personal details with professional connections. That can be good at the beginning when you want to build a connection and have a relationship, but when you get to a certain point and you become an over-sharer.

graduation year: 2010 current title: Business Development Coordinator at Jingle Punks

How did you get to your position today, after graduating from Belmont?

I did the music business program at Belmont. I chose the production route when I first signed up for all my classes, but then when I realized audio engineering doesn’t come super naturally to me, I was like ‘okay, maybe that’s not me!’ Then when I took my first intellectual property and publishing class at Belmont, I was like ‘oh, this is super interesting to me. I feel like this is something that I would be interested in, whether it be song plugging or working for a publisher on Music Row or for a network handling their music licensing.’

Then I graduated and I just knew that I wanted to move to New York. My first job here was actually as a personal assistant to a cellist, and she’s a soloist so she does a lot of like Avant garde and commissions composers to write new classical pieces for her. She puts on these really cool multimedia concerts, where … there’s always a visual aspect to it like someone created a video for the song or graphics that move with the music. I thought that was really cool to work for an artist. She luckily had the capital to work with, so she really got to explore the full extent of her artistry. That was great, but being a personal assistant was hard, so it wasn’t something that I wanted to do forever [laughs].

I wanted to get into music licensing, and I had a friend who knew someone who worked in our LA office. We were just talking about our goals one day – my friend is really into film and I’m really into music – so I told her ‘music publishing for film and television,’ and she was like ‘oh, one of my best friends in LA works for a company that does exactly that, let me see if they’re hiring.’ They were. A couple interviews later I was here. I started as office manager, kind of jack of all trades, a position that’s a lot more than just answering the phone. I actually started to do some licenses, so I was drafting contracts and issuing invoices and dealing with clients trying to maneuver the rights that they needed for their project. After a year and a half of doing that, they moved me to Business Development so getting new business for Jingle Punks, finding new creative opportunities to partner with brands and TV shows, and along with that comes a little bit of sales.

I’m very interested in publishing and debating moving here after graduation, so I’m sort of in a similar position.

What I wish I had researched for myself or someone at Belmont had told me was all the different ways that I could apply my interest in publishing and licensing to entertainment in general. There are positions at TV production companies, film production companies, TV networks, film distributors, ad agencies. I thought that I would have to work for a publisher and not on the other end of the one making content that is licensing the music. I just assumed the producer or whoever is in charge just handles the music. Viacom has a huge music department. History Channel has people we deal with on a day to day basis. They’re our clients. Every production company that we work with that does stuff for NatGeo or Discovery Channel has one person that they report back to revolving music.

There’s another opportunity.

What are your day to day tasks?

This is the beginning of a true kind of sales team for Jingle Punks because we’re still a pretty small company. In the past it was our executives doing a lot of the sales kind of stuff, reaching out to people, cold calling, cold emailing, or just through their own connections and relationships. But now that I’m on their team along with a couple people in LA, I’m the one doing research, figuring out who we don’t work with in what markets, what location, what industry, and then I’m doing a lot of the cold emailing and reaching out. But it’s cool because you can look at a company and look at their website and see what they do, what their services are, and it’s not like we’re slinging vacuums, trying to get people to buy vacuums [laughs]. You can actually be like ‘hey, you do this thing that’s really cool, this is what we do, and this is how we can work together’ because we have so many different things that we do here. We have a catalog of music that we license for anything and everything, and then we have the custom composing studio, and then we’ve been acting as a music solutions consultant or agency in helping ad agencies and brands figure out how they can do a really cool music activation for their latest marketing campaign.

My job is to kind of identify those kinds of opportunities, not only for just being able to license music, since that’s where our highest margin is because we have this catalog of music that’s just sitting there basically. It’s an organic thing, we’re constantly taking things out that are irrelevant and adding new stuff, but it basically runs itself. The more we use it, the more our margin grows. That’s my goal, on my daily basis – to get more use out of the library, more longevity. On the more specialized [side] I recognize opportunities that would be good for our own creative development as well.

whereas before everybody in music publishing had a leg up because they understood something that’s very complicated that no one else did. But it’s not really that way anymore.

What do you think sets Jingle Punks apart from other music companies?

What is your favorite part of your position?

I think there are a lot of things, but two main things – we could say that our music is better, which we think it is, but we’re biased, so something that’s more objective is our customer service. Over there on the right in the far corner, that’s our music supervision team. So we have our in house music supervisors who double as account managers, so they know the library inside and out. They know where all the new cool songs are and if some client says ‘oh I need something that sounds like The Black Keys’ or ‘something that sounds like Taylor Swift ‘Style’’ or something like that, they can go in and find it. They can give you options in like an hour or two or faster if you need it. A lot of our competitors, you can call a number to get help finding options in the library and music supervision help, but it’s not the same person every time. It’s a help line. Instead we like to assign one person to a client or account or project so then our clients know that every time they need something they can go to their specific person. It creates a relationship and it also creates a world in which they understand each other’s needs. Every TV show has a certain sound.

Then I think the other thing that sets up apart is that we do provide so many services in one place. It’s really a one stop shop. A lot of times for tv shows we do a hybrid deal, which a lot of other people can’t offer, because we have the library and then we have the custom composing studio. These days the networks and production companies are getting super savvy, they actually understand music publishing,

The third thing is our technology. We have a patented algorithm and interface where our catalog lives in the cloud, and you can search using any cultural term.

Some editors like to do the searches themselves, so they can type in ‘Skrillex’ or ‘Keith Urban’ or ‘Dark Knight’ or ‘Wes Anderson’, any kind of cultural thing and then it comes up with [songs] that relate.

Matching creativity and business. Not even that long ago it was super taboo for an artist to ‘sell out’ and have their music in an ad or be a part of a branded campaign, and I think there’s definitely room in the world for art that is art, and then creativity that there’s a purpose for business opportunities. I think there can be both. A lot of our composers and bands that are in the library, they have the other side of their music career which is their band that goes on tour and maybe has a record deal. They’re record label isn’t going to let them put that stuff in the library, but they still are writing and composing music for film and television.

It’s so hard to make money now as a musician, so if you have that talent and that capability and that want to be able to make money off of your music, this is how you do it. I really love being able to provide that opportunity for artists who want it. Being able to match them with people that need their services and their creativity and their talent.

What would you say are some challenges facing women in the music industry specifically?

That’s a good question. I think in entertainment in general it’s hard because you know it’s not really exclusive to music or the entertainment that has been mostly male lead forever and ever. I don’t know if it’s more so in entertainment or music, but it’s definitely present. All my bosses are men. They’re great guys, but whether they intend to or not there’s always going to be a boys club when it’s all boys at the top. I think it’s just the same issues that apply to most industries where it’s harder for women to break through the top

and be taken seriously.

I think also because entertainment and music is something that happens late at night, all the events you go to it’s all about smoozing and boozing and having a good time. I know that my bosses worry about me going out with clients who are also mostly men and whether that’s – even though I can take care of myself and they respect me and know I can take care of myself – I know sometimes they hesitate to take me places or send me on trips because I am the only girl.

I’m the only woman. I have to have my own hotel room because the only other people going are men.

Do you have any personal goals that you want to do with your career?

I do. I don’t have any grand world takeover plans, although that would be nice [laughs], but I think just being a powerful and respected and money making woman in the music industry – that would be my main goal in a very broad sense. I still want to keep doing what I’m doing here, which is connecting creativity and business and making them exist in harmony.

Making things happen. Just seeing an opportunity and figuring out how that can happen within music and entertainment. I just want to keep doing that. I would say I’m pretty ambitious so I want to rise up to the top ranks of whether it’s Jingle Punks or whether it’s another company eventually if I move on.

[Another goal of mine is to own my own business one day.]

Do you have any advice for women wanting to get into the music industry? Maybe from a Belmont graduate perspective?

I read an article once about women apologizing, and this goes for all people –men and women – just don’t apologize for things you don’t need to be sorry for. I know that sounds kind of weird, but I feel like women are often chosen for more administrative roles, or I started here as office manager and you’re job is to take care of people in the office. You’ll experience that, men and women, in any entry level job. You get a lot of responsibility for a little money, and just not apologizing for things that didn’t have anything to do

with me. I feel like [that] unconsciously gives off a certain vibe about you and what you want.

Also just speaking up. They probably thought I was so annoying in my first year working here because every three months I’d be like ‘can I have a review?’ ‘can I have a raise?’ And it’s hard, it’s hard to ask for those things. But when I first started they were like ‘oh within three months we can reevaluate’ because when I got offered the job I countered with a slightly higher offer so that I would be making a little more than what I was at my previous job because that’s all I wanted, but I really wanted to work here because I needed to get into this industry so I didn’t want to mess it up. So they were like ‘well, we can meet you in the middle,’ and even just right off the bat they didn’t even know me that well but I asked. So they were like ‘we can give you a little bit more, but in three months we’ll reevaluate. All we ask is that you always go above and beyond’ – which would be another piece of advice – and I was like ‘I don’t want to be an admin person forever, so I’m going to kick ass as office manager.’

You have to. You have to just go for it and you can’t be apologetic and you have to ask for what you want.

Also don’t be afraid to be a bitch. It’s a horrible word, and it’s a horrible stereotype. But I think women don’t want people to say behind their backs ‘oh she’s such a bitch,’ or like ‘she’s so bossy or she’s so blah blah blah’ because women sometimes overcompensate.

But I think it’s hard for women because women are generally more thoughtful, I don’t mean that in a ‘better than’ way but I just mean we think more about stuff, we over think stuff. I always had to write out everything I wanted to say before a review. Even if they don’t ask you what you want, tell them. There were so many times at the end of a meeting where I’d be like ‘and one more thing!’ because they’re not going to ask you.

graduation year: 2013 current title: titles:Communications Communications Coordinator at Wannado, Artist

How did you get to where you are today, moving to New York?

It’s really interesting. I was music business, so I was trying to learn that side of it, but I always knew I wanted to be an artist like a lot of people in that major.

The degree was great because it prepared me for straight business in a lot of different ways.

I went to Belmont East, and I always knew I wanted to move to New York but it was a great way to test it out.

Through a series of events I kind of decided I didn’t want to work on the business side of music unless it was for artist purposes just because I saw a lot of people that graduated and tried to balance the two and it was really difficult. I didn’t know if I could do it. I used the business skills that the degree provided me to go into marketing and writing content, which I had been doing in the music field through internships and things like that, but I started applying it to more broad categories.

I took a job at a Nashville company called Wannado post-grad. I think the day after I graduated I started.

It was great because in Nashville business is so relational. I didn’t know the company, but one of my fellow Belmont grads was like ‘hey, do you want this?’ and I was like ‘sure!’ I came on board with them and have been writing for them for a bit over a year. I guess you’d call them a startup but we’ve been around for awhile. They knew that I also did music and I’ve been working on a record for about a year, and it’s actually just getting finished now. Wannado really gave me the opportunity to pursue both things at the same time without dividing up my musical creativity.

If I was in a music business job, a lot of it would have been split. But I was able to have this project be full creatively, and then also have my job be separate which was good.

Then I decided [when] the record was being finished up – I do jazz kind of stuff – and I didn’t think it had a real place in Nashville. I decided to move to New York, and I told them, and they said ‘well, you can just write from there.’ Now I’m still working for them and getting involved with the music scene here and trying to get the record released.

How long have you lived here?

Since September – almost six months.

What are you day to day tasks for your job?

For today, I’m doing a lot of outreach and starting this thing where we feature notable people in different industries talking about their industry. So for example, March Madness is coming up in Nashville, so I’m finding three sports enthusiasts to talk about their favorite sports bars and things like that. I coordinate the content, brainstorm, plan, and execute it. We’re putting out a St. Patrick’s Day blog. It’s a lot of writing, which is great. I enjoy it! Social scheduling, all that Generation Y social media stuff. When I’m done with that, writing sessions or Shelby’s boyfriend Alex does music so I might go sing on a song for one of his short films or something like that. It’s a good balance, but it depends on the day. Some days I don’t have much to do if I work ahead, and some days it’s crazy. Just depends.

You’re working on an album, so what other kind of stuff of are you doing for your artist career?

It’s been an interesting process getting a record out. I guess I never realized how much goes into it when it’s just you making it. The record’s going to be coming out soon [laughs]. I’m hitting the end of the sound part, the making of the actual record with the songs.

[I’m] starting to get into pitch mode. I’m trying to find placements and someone to release it and marketing, pictures, distribution – all that stuff. I’mm looking for management because … I don’t feel very well connected here yet. It’s a slow build. So [I’m] just trying to form relationships with people in the city, in the scenes I want to be in.

Are there any challenges you’ve faced as a woman in the industry or as an artist?

I am lucky to have a really, really awesome boss when it comes to the way he treats women. It’s a very equal partnership. I’ve never felt talked down to. He’s actually felt like more of a champion than anything.

Not in a way where we get special treatment, but where he wants to take time out of his schedule to

empower us and encourage us in the positions that we’re in. So from that perspective, great.

From a music perspective, I think with anything – I think guys face it as well – I’ve been in situations where I briefly was on a reality show competition with music, and I think that’s where I probably got the biggest reality check of ‘you have to know exactly who you are and you have to be able to communicate that to people in a very strong way, especially when it comes to image.’ I hesitate to say this because I’m not in it as much as some other people are, but I think it’s gotten a little bit better. I think there are a lot of women pioneers in music right now, like Adele and Sia, who are really making it about artistry and saying ‘I can stand behind a mic and sing and it’s just as powerful as using sexuality as a part of my image.’ I think people are getting more empowered to pick and choose when they’re going to do that. I think you kind of have to know where you’re coming from or else someone else is going to put that on you.

I honestly haven’t had many negative experiences that I think stem from being a woman yet. I’m just dipping my toe in the waters. But people like Shelby and other women in music that I’ve met are all so supportive and really emphasize the fact that there is room for all of us. Find your strength and let’s support each other and help each other out, because there’s nothing worse than women fighting over what they think is one spot.

Of course men do that too, but I think there has been more of a dynamic in that way for females historically because in the past it has been a bit of a boys’ club.

But I think that’s changing. I hope that’s changing.

I don’t want to make a sweeping generalization.

I think it starts with building really strong female relationships in the industry, and I’ve seen a lot of that since I’ve moved here, so it’s exciting.

Do you have any advice for someone wanting to get into the industry – maybe someone wanting to get a job but also be an artist?

People say this all the time, but I really do think it’s about relationships. There’s always that kid that comes and hands out his business card on the first day of class, and is like “here” – an opportunist in maybe more of an obvious, negative way. I think if you value

people regardless of what they do, you’re going to come across people that you value because they’re awesome and then they’re also going to do something that’s really cool that’s going to help you out. I think it’s just about being really genuine when you meet other people. I think every job or lead that I’ve gotten has been through someone I was friends with or at least friendly with, and not leading with ‘how can you help me?’ Also being really generous with ‘how can I help you?’ because you should do it out of the goodness of your heart, doing something for them does make them think of you later and it’s just all very give and take. I would just say don’t operate out of selfishness and meet as many people as you can, and invest and be kind.

You can check out Natalie’s Facebook & look up her EP on Spotify under “Natalie Hart”

BILL WERDE ON HIS NEW CAUSE- FOCUSED JOB, SPOTIFY & LEARNING ON HIS NEW JOB AS CEO OF FENTON My new job is awesome. Fenton is this amazing place.

Thirty three years ago David Fenton started this communications agency with the belief that the bad guys always have publicists and the good guys never did. That was really interesting to me.

Initially I didn’t want to do it, I wanted to kind of keep working on my idea [to create a destination to connect buyers and sellers, and make it about what I would call “progressive consumerism” but without making it about that], but David hired me as a consultant to analyze his existing business. He told me in that first meeting, “I’m 62 and I’d like to think about selling the company, and I’d like to find a successor, and would you be interested in any of that?” So what I would up doing is, as a consultant I spent a lot of time with the senior staff here, and I got to know a lot of their work. I just really fell in love with it.

Why I initially didn’t want to do it is I never thought of myself as being in PR – I didn’t want to call journalists and beg them to write about things that weren’t sincere or anything like that ever. But in reality what I realized is number one everything we do here is sincere. ... Number two, the traditional media relations part is so little of what we’re actually doing these days....

David said when he founded this firm that the bad guys always had publicists and the good guys never did, but I think the equivalent of that today is the bad guys always have data scientists and social media experts and the good guys never do.

ON LEARNING A NEW WORLD Today instead of being focused on whose going to win the Grammy next year, I’m focused on what are the key issues around the 2016 elections. One’s not better than the other necessarily, it’s just a whole different world. I’m really enjoying being the sponge and soaking all of this up. And not knowing what I’m doing. It’s fun some of the times – it’s scary, but it’s also fun in a kind of a way. I knew what I was doing at Billboard. It doesn’t mean that I couldn’t have done it better, doesn’t mean that there wasn’t always opportunities to learn, but to be in a situation where I walk in every day and I’m not exactly sure, like a hundred percent, how I should be doing this thing, or what I should do in this certain situation – that lack of comfort and that feeling of really having to stretch and be on my toes all day, it’s been really wonderful.

CLICK THE PHOTO TO LEARN MORE ABOUT FENTON AND THEIR WORK

ON MUSIC, BRANDS & CAUSES I think it really comes back to ‘what is the comfort level of artists and what are the dynamics around those artists that are going to encourage that comfort level?’ I do think Hollywood actors are far more willing to speak out because they make their money from fans going to the movies, and fans going to the movies are not necessarily particularly conservative or guarded about what they’re willing to accept.

There’s lines, you can cross those lines and damage your career as an actor, but those lines – they give you more leeway.

Also, you’ll see artists rise above it. I don’t think John Legend and Common really thought too much about the impact on their brand relationships when they decided to seize a certain kind of a moment and bring a certain kind of vision and leadership to people’s understandings to race relations or Selma fifty years later or whatever it might be. I think they spoke their truth, and I think the response to that was overwhelmingly positive.

Whereas if you’re a musician, you’re increasingly making a lot of your money from brands. Brands are very conservative about this. All that said, I think what’s happening that’s good news on that front, is you’re seeing brands every day understand on a deeper level that they need to mean something or realize that they do mean something and they have to be careful about what they mean. Every study I’ve seen when it comes to millennials, when it comes to Gen Y, indicates that young adults today are the first generation that’s actually willing to pay more for products and services if they come from a company that is aligned with their world view.

That’s phenomenally powerful because it opens the door to conversations with these brands that really weren’t there before. //

One thing that’s definitely been lost is a certain amount of willingness, desire to really just be seen as someone who has a truth and is willing to speak it to power. I think that’s a pendulum that’s swinging back the other way. I have to believe it. In part it’s why I’m here. My belief in brands – whatever your key issue is, whatever your view of the world is, if you think it’s important to stop climate change, you need brands involved with that.

//

WHEN ASKED IF HE IS EXCITED ABOUT ANY NEW ARTISTS It’s funny, because of what happened with Taylor Swift and Beyonce, I actually stopped using Spotify. I wrote a little essay about that, and it got picked up by NPR and some other major media outlets, so it actually amplified the voice a little bit. For me it’s always about the idea – if you can get your idea heard by the right people then maybe you can shift the conversation a little bit. I dropped Spotify, and now I’m an Rdio subscriber.

As I’ve joined this new streaming service, I had to rebuild all my playlists, so I’ve been spending a lot of time listening to older music again – a lot of classics. This morning on the way in I was listening to Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger, which is an amazing album.

So in part because of that and in part because I’ve been so busy here, I have not been keeping up on new artists in the way that I normally do.

I had that Flash Unsigned contest which I ran when I was at Billboard, and on nights when I couldn’t sleep or I had an hour or two, I would tell people that if they weren’t signed to a label or they weren’t signed to a publisher that they could send me a song and I would listen to everything and send feedback on the song. The song that I liked the best would be the winner of the Flash Unsigned contest and we’d send it out through the Billboard account, we’d give them some coverage. There are these three sisters in Atlanta, Amor Kismet, and they won that contest a year or two ago and they’ve really stayed at it. I think they’re doing phenomenal stuff. I’ve kept in touch with them. They’ve put out an EP about a month ago and I’ve actually been listening to that, so I’m happy to give them some love.

SOME COMMENTS ON SPOTIFY & STREAMING Will Apple continue to support downloads in a way that will let them have a smoother transition? Is Apple going to come out with a paid streaming service and suddenly really deescalate the profile of downloads? These are all the sort of questions that I’m looking forward to seeing answered in the next year. Then the big one is, Spotify is under a lot of pressure, right?

They get a ton of investment money, so there’s a lot of important people that are expecting returns on a lot of investment into Spotify. If suddenly the market moves and says ‘you know what, we’re not supporting free music anymore and if you want to stream music you have to pay for it,’ then the question’s going to become ‘can Spotify adjust in that world?’ If that all happens at the same time Apple is launching a powerful, paid streaming, is this going to blow up Spotify a little bit? // Every year we learn a lot more about what’s coming in the music business. Things move very quickly, but you also need to give it just a little time to see how these things play out. Every new technology doesn’t revolutionize the music business. Some of them feel like they might.

Some do revolutionize the business, but then ultimately can’t find the right business model. // I still believe in recorded music. As much as I’m very, very busy thinking about the trends that I’m thinking about in my new job, I love keeping up with this stuff. I wish I had more time to do it in some ways.

ADVICE FOR YOUNG PROFESSIONALS I think that it’s really important to focus on skills when you’re young. To focus on learning when you’re young.

Networking is really not the answer. Learning is the answer. Being able to bring value to an organization is the answer. If you can create value for a company then they’re always going to want to hire you. Otherwise there’s a long line of people at the door that know somebody who knows somebody that got their resume onto the desk of somebody. I just don’t see that as a pretty smart competitive advantage.

Sure you should network a little bit, but to me networking, especially when you’re young, is really a function of ‘who can I meet that can teach me things?’ and not a function of like ‘whose name can I drop?’

When I was young I hated networking, and I would go out to events or whatever not to network but just because it was this club show that I was going to or this DJ or whatever it was I’d see these five or six people in the back of the room that I knew could make or break my career, or I thought could at that point in time. Whenever I go into a room with a bunch of people, my goal wasn’t to meet as many people as possible. My goal was to find one person that I could go deep with.

I still basically do the same exact thing. I was out at Grammy week this year, and every room I go into I’m always looking for one kind of meaningful, like ‘what’s the most meaningful relationship that I could form in this space?’

Not based on what your title is or who you know or anything like that, but I’m looking for good people that maybe know things that I don’t know and finding folks that compliment me in that kind of way has been a really powerful thing for me.

I think having skills is really important. I think having knowledge is really important. Reading a lot is really important. Not only just in your core ... If you want to know about the music business today, yes you should read about the music business but you should sign up for one or two really smart newsletters about broader consumer technology, and you should also sign up for one or two really smart newsletters about the broader business climate in general, and you should also sign up for one or two newsletters about the brand space. You get what I’m saying?

You can’t understand the music business if you don’t understand the world around the music business. So I’m like if you want my advice, ‘go educate yourself.’ Learn a lot more than you think you need to know. Listen a lot more than you think you need to listen.

Then the only other thing to say is that I continue to think it’s an amazing time in the world, an amazing time in America, an amazing time in the music business to be entrepreneurial.

Start your own thing. Keep it going on the side.

Like I said, I’ve hired a lot of people over my career, and I continue to be genuinely impressed and generally impressed by people that do more than they need to do. If you have your own vision, if you can build your own thing, if you can be entrepreneurial outside my organization, I assume that you can be entrepreneurial inside my organization. Which means you can have a vision, you can create your own plan, you can be a self starter. You can see opportunity and make good on that opportunity. I’m always looking for people like that in any walk of life – whether I’m at Billboard or I’m at Fenton, it’s the same kind of thing. You want dynamic folks that can see what’s around them and understand it.

IN THIS FEATURE WE FOCUS ON THE CREATIVE RIGHTS MANAGEMENT COMPANY ROUND HILL MUSIC. THE COMPANY IS DESCRIBED AS “A FULL-SERVICE, CREATIVE MUSIC COMPANY WITH A CORE FOCUS ON MUSIC PUBLISHING.” WITH OFFICES IN NASHVILLE AND NEW YORK AND EMPLOYEES ALSO IN LOS ANGELES, THEY ARE ABLE TO TAKE ON A LOT OF PARTS OF THE MUSIC PUBLISHING INDUSTRY. IN NEW YORK WE SPOKE TO TWO EMPLOYEES - BRITNIE STINGELIN WHO WORKS AS THE DIRECTOR OF ROYALTY SERVICES, AND MALLORY ZUMBACH WHO WORKS AS THE SENIOR DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE - MAINLY FOCUSING ON SYNCHRONIZATION LICENSING.

BRITNIE STINGELIN DIRECTOR, ROYALTY SERVICES

Can you give a brief history of how you got to your position?

I went to Berklee College of Music. I played cello there and studied music business. I was always interested in the business side of the industry – I’m not into performance at all. I get very nervous. I took my classes, I did the radio station when I was there, I did the record label when I was there. A lot of extra curricular business. [I] graduated a bit early and I did an internship at Pitchfork TV because I was really into indie music at the time. It was an interesting experience, but I was in need of a job because I wanted to start my career. I got hired at ASCAP and started working there in the television department. After a year and a half I got promoted to quality assurance. I enjoyed it. The company’s interesting, but I didn’t want to stay there. I thought it was time to start looking other places, maybe get out of working at a PRO. I found this company and I got in touch with Michael Lau, our COO. I interviewed with him, fell in love

with it, got hired, and now I do royalties here. It’s been almost two years I think. I like publishing by far the best. I think I’ll probably stay in it for a long time.

What are your main day-to-day tasks?

My main day-to-day tasks besides answering emails and phone calls, all that fun stuff, [are that] I get all the royalty statements that come in from record labels, anywhere. I get the data that comes with them and I manipulate it in Excel so I can put it into our database.

Our database keeps track of all our song catalogs.

Without overcomplicating it, I put the statement in and match it to the songs, it breaks it down to what I eventually pay out every period to our writers. Then the rest comes into us. Basically I’m in Excel all day.

In addition to that, at the end of each month I get a statement from our accountants and I have to reconcile that against what I have on my end from the royalties that came in the door here and make sure that they match up, and if they don’t, figure out why.

How do you think New York plays a role in the company?

trying to find missing pieces. It’s like a little mystery every day [laughs] I don’t know!

I love it here. I’m from the East Coast. I’m never moving. I love the fast paced people, everybody’s brilliant, smart, interesting, eclectic. Everything’s outside. I’ve only been to Nashville and LA once – those are the only other two cities you generally think of – and I enjoyed them, but it’s a different pace.

Everybody here just works their butts off and I kind of like it. You get the cream of the crop in New York.

Do you think there are any challenges facing women in the music industry?

I don’t know if you have much interaction with the other office, but how do you handle having people in different offices?

In my generation, obviously most things are by email these days, people rarely pick up the phone. But this company is cool because we bring in people from other offices, we try to do events with them. Whenever we hire someone we bring them to New York so we can get introduced to them and have training here so we can establish a relationship. Nashville is just starting to grow.

What do you think sets Round Hill apart from other publishers?

The quality of people probably. You can see for yourself it’s not a big company, but everybody has a real passion here. They didn’t hire anybody that was just looking for a job like a lot of other companies. They really put thought into it. Everybody here has a passion for what they do, and their experience is unlike any other company I’ve seen as far as Neil, Jen, Mike – they’re just really good quality people. We sit down there in the pit that we call it, and being able to talk to everybody about music and shows that are coming up – that was not something I was able to do at any other company.

What is your favorite part of your position?

I honestly just like my actual job. I like working with Excel. I like working with numbers. I like working with the bank. It’s kind of rewarding – it may sound weird, but at the end of each month to have something come full circle and reconcile out and be correct. I do the same thing every month, and it’s kind of boring to other people, but I like it. I like working backwards,

Mmm, no. Not on my end. Not in administration.

Only because I’ve only had very positive experiences.

My bosses when I was at ASCAP were also women.

One of my bosses is a woman now. Maybe I’m lucky, I’ve only worked in two places, but I’ve had great experiences. I’ve been treated great on the business end. Maybe it’s different on the performance end, but here it’s great. All the opportunities I’ve come across I’ve been given for the most part. I’ve been very lucky, so I’ve never felt like being a woman has been a disadvantage for me.

Do you have advice for anyone wanting to get into the music industry?

Take every opportunity. Don’t be picky at first. Be open minded. Try to get internships and jobs right away. Try to do some extra curricular things when you’re in school – it’s really hard with classes, but it’s important to beef up that resume. Don’t hold grudges.

You’ll never know who’ll come back around in the music industry. It’s a lot smaller than I could have ever thought, so you want to always make sure you have a good reputation.

MALLORY ZUMBACH SR. DIRECTOR, CREATIVE

Can you give a history of how you got to your position today? Did you always want to work in the music industry?

I was in band and choir, played piano growing up and was just generally into music. Then [I] ended up going to Berklee for college to do jazz voice, but I knew when I got there that I was going to do a second major as well in addition to that. Basically I kind of narrowed it down to doing either songwriting or music business, so I took intro courses to both music business and songwriting. Funnily enough the songwriting class is what ultimately made me choose business – not in a bad way – but because first of all I realized that I was way too self critical to be a songwriter, it really stressed me out, but they split the class so half of it would be the creative part of songwriting and half would be the business part. The teacher told us a story about Paula Cole who was a Berklee graduate, and how as a recording artist she was unrecouped in her deal, but as a songwriter because of that one synchronization use that she got for the Dawson’s Creek theme song, she had made so much money through publishing that she was able to buy a house and build a studio – basically use that money to fund her career so that she could do whatever she wanted musically. She made a career out of being a songwriter, whether that be for herself or whatever else she wanted to do. He told us that story and it really got me thinking about … “if I could help people that write songs have a career, and if I could do it by combining my love of music but then also my love of TV and film and that kind of stuff that that would be a pretty ideal fit for me.” So I decided to major in business, and by the time I was done at Berklee I knew that I wanted to be on the publishing side of the equation working with the writers and doing synch on some level.

Then I interned at an independent record label called One Little Indian Records. … I ended up getting hired.

I worked there for a little while doing a lot of digital stuff, and then also doing some in house synch – we had always used somebody outside the company before – and I basically told the head of the office that synch was where my interests lied and I wanted to try do more of it in house. I kind of cut my teeth on it. I knew I really didn’t want to be on the label side. Even

at an independent label there were things that I didn’t love. I don’t love that when you’re at a label you have to focus on the release cycle, so it’s a very short period of time where something is getting all of your attention, and then when that time is up you move on and don’t really revisit the project. [I then ended up working at Warner-Chappell through connections with Neil Gillis and Michael Lau]. The funny thing was I had done film and TV stuff when I was at the label, but I had never really worked on advertising pitching before and I ended up in this department where the whole focus was advertising and video games – the two media that I hadn’t really worked on yet. It was a seriously strong education right from the get go.

Then ultimately a whole bunch of us got let go when a new person came in and I ended up moving to Colorado for a year and working at an advertising agency – kind of on the flip side of what I did. So I did license some music while I was there and I also did a whole bunch of other stuff like working with talent and general business affairs. I did that for a year and I knew by the end of the year that it wasn’t the right fit for me and I missed dealing with music every single day.

Lucky for me, this company Round Hill had opened.

They were about a year down the road and had enough stuff to justify bringing in a full time synch person. I was the first person hired here to do synch and I had to do everything – pitching for everything, licensing for everything, quoting – the whole process from A to B for the first year and a half. Now the department is up to three.

I definitely relate to going into publishing because I could never write a song, but it’s great that other people can. I also like the smaller company because I’ve had five internships, and I’ve worked at Sony/ATV which was much more corporate and a bigger company.

I’m glad that I worked at a big publisher. You make a lot of great contacts for what I do. If you work at a big company like Warner Chappell or Sony/ATV or BMG where they have such large catalogs, it makes it that much easier to make connections with music supervisors and music producers at ad agencies because they kind of have to find their way to you

eventually. There’s going to come a time when they want to license something in your catalog. So it’s a little easier to get your foot in the door. I think it was a great training ground to see how synch works. It’s nice to be here with a big company background because people don’t think they can mess with us per se [laughs]. If we were an indie company with a bunch of people that had never done our jobs anywhere else before, I think we would have a lot of people trying to pull the wool over our eyes. From my standpoint I’m not someone who likes the way the big companies function. I like the nimbleness of having a smaller team. I love that even though we have people scattered in three different cities we’ve all met each other in person at some point.

There’s a very nice connectedness to having a smaller team together.

What are you day-to-day tasks?

Without a doubt every day I’m inside of our pitch system which is where we keep all the music we represent. Working on song searches. It’s interesting some days are much busier than others because obviously the amount of pitches I have to work on are totally dependent on how many people are looking for music on any given day. There’s kind of two levels: we pitch stuff and people come back and say “yes, we want to use something,” but then also you just get people reaching out knowing what song they want already. … Beyond that trying to stay in touch with all of our writers. Definitely the ones that I myself signed, but also anybody else that’s in the roster and just making sure they feel stuff is going well from the synch standpoint.

What do you think sets Round Hill apart from other publishers?

We’re an independent company, and there aren’t a lot of independent companies that are our size anymore.

A lot of them are now inside of BMG and a few of the other bigger publishers. That’s part of why the timing of this company’s existence is what it is because our founder looked around and said “hey there aren’t that many publishers that are that small to medium sized indie company.” A lot of writers don’t want to be at a huge company where they’re lost in the giant, vast, unlearnable catalog. They don’t want to be on a roster that would cover this whole office, they want to be on a roster that fits on half my door. That’s why I think

we’re able to then provide a level of service to our writers that goes above and beyond what other people are capable of. Even though we’re a smaller company and we have a smaller staff, we’re still able to answer emails or texts or phone calls. Neil, our president, always says in meetings that he gives out his freaking home phone number to writers. And they call him or they call his house, and he picks up and answers if there’s something going on. That’s important to us.

Pretty much everybody that works here has a musical background, with the exception of maybe our CFO, I think she might be the only one. Even she is a huge music fanatic.

What’s your favorite part of your job here?

There’s a lot that I love about this job. I love when writers send us new music and we get to check it out before everybody else, there’s a lot of simple stuff like that. But I think the greatest feeling is when a music supervisor hits you up with a search and you pitch something and you end up landing that spot. You’re super excited about it because it’s a win for you, but you’re also super excited about it because it’s a win for the artist.

What do you think are some challenges facing women in the music industry?

I think when you’re at my level you don’t necessarily feel it every day, but I do think that there’s still definitely a ratio of a lot more guys to girls. Especially as stuff becomes higher up. Let’s be real, in a position that I have where a big part of the job is to go out to shows, that gets harder when you have children.

It’s hard on the guys too, I will say that a lot of the men here don’t necessarily go out to shows that have kids because they do need to get home. So I don’t know that there’s an element of gender problem to that, but at the same time I will say there’s still the problems that people still face in the workplace in America in general. I do think it’s highly frustrating when Billboard comes out with its list of ‘Top 100 People’ and it’s all white men [laughs]. ‘Oh, there’s three women and two people of color.’ That’s amazing to me because, it sometimes makes me think this is why there’s a lot of very homogenous music out there because there’s a certain amount of people controlling stuff who are all kind of the same. Where is the diversity? I see a lot of women in my age range in the

middle management down to assistants. You see a lot of women in that area. You don’t see as many at the top. … We have a female CFO here, that’s pretty huge that at least one of the people in our executive management team is a woman. … It’s kind of interesting.

Then you look at the Grammys and it’s like ‘wow,’ you do wonder if the voting behind things like that is because so many people in the music industry are dudes. I also just don’t think it really is as unbalanced as things like the Billboard 100 Most Powerful People make it look. I almost feel like that’s an even bigger exaggeration of it, so it’s like ‘why aren’t more women who are at the top getting called out for doing awesome stuff?’ I think that’s kind of the challenge, is that there has to be a perception shift because how will there be room for the women in my generation to rise up if it looks like there’s not that opportunity there. I’m not really sure how we can address it, but I definitely see that as being very obvious. It’s very obvious when you look at it, and I’m sitting over there going ‘I know a lot of great women that should be on that list! Why aren’t they?’ Is it because they’ve got their heads down, killing it at their job, and they’re not doing anything to self promote?

Do you have any advice for women looking to get into the music industry?

You have to learn how to speak up on your own behalf, and you have to learn how to do it early and often. Not in a rude or off putting way, but I think a lot of guys have no problem speaking up on their own behalf. I don’t know what that is, I don’t know if that’s just that we’re taught when we’re little to be polite little girls [laughs], and guys are taught that they run the world.

Maybe we were raised in a pre-Beyonce time. I think that I’ve noticed that I have friends who I personally think are awesome people, women that I’ve worked with before, that I know are killer at their jobs, but they don’t know how to get the word out about it. I think sometimes we fall into the trap of ‘if we just go along and do a lot of really hard work, and do great things then people will notice.’ And people will notice on some level, but if you have a guy sitting beside you doing similar stuff and he’s being twice as vocal about it, twice as self promoting or aggressive about it then the person whose voice is the loudest is going to win. Obviously to a certain extent the hard work that you do gets you to where you need to be, and the

beyond that you have to be smart about making people aware of it. That just means speaking up in meetings.

Reminding people that you kind of know what you’re talking about. That kind of stuff makes the difference.

And not being afraid to know when you’ve stayed at one place too long or to see that yes, maybe your boss at this company is great, but he’s never going to see you beyond a certain level if you don’t get out and do something else. …

I think that as women we can kind of default to that ‘taking care of people and being too much of a people pleaser’ and that was really hard for me. I am a people pleaser. I want to make everybody happy, and I have no problem being like ‘sure, you want me to do this favor?’ but then you do start to be aware of ‘oh, I’m still doing that, and that’s why I keep being asked to do stuff like that.’ Turn and look at your male colleague because I can guarantee you when he gets to a certain level he is not doing any of that assist stuff anymore.

He’s not going to schedule a meeting for somebody in the calendar. … If you want to lead you kind of have to start leading. Where you can. The women that I have seen that have risen up, they all seem to have that in common. They have a confidence about themselves, and it’s not necessarily an arrogance. … You have to act like you deserve it. Don’t question yourself into being timid.

Diving Into Music: An Interview with YouTube Musician Kina Grannis Judy Rodman Talks Songwriting, Being a Vocal Coach, and Balancing Her Many Projects Artist Profile: Ashley Monroe, by Amanda Nicklaus

DIVING INTO

MUSIC We talk to YouTube musician Kina Grannis about touring, songwriting, and her latest album, Elements.

How did you first get into music? Did you always want to be a musician and songwriter?

I kind of came into music from a couple different directions, the first one being that I always loved singing. When I was a kid I was just singing all the time. Then I discovered piano and started writing little things on there. Then I took violin for a really long time. It wasn’t until about mid-high school that it hit me that I really wanted to do singing. That’s about the time at which I discovered guitar, and started teaching myself. Songwriting just kind of happened really naturally like that. That’s kind of how I found music itself, and from that point on I slowly started gigging throughout college and writing more. It’s an interesting process.

I think as far as knowing that I wanted to do music – I do remember a moment in second grade when the teacher was like “what does everyone want to be when they grow up?” and everyone’s saying like “doctor” or “teacher” and all these things.

I remember thinking it seemed so obvious to me that I wanted to be a musician that I assumed everyone did, and you’re like not supposed to say it [laughs] so I was like “hmm, I’ll just keep that one to myself.” So I had that thought early on and then probably in high school when I started writing again was when I first started thinking “I need to do this” but I still wasn’t ready to tell people until many, many years later.

Having your video win the Crash the Superbowl challenge kind of kicked off your whole YouTube career. What was that experience like?

It was a really crazy experience. I had just graduated college and I had moved to Austin, TX to pursue music out there and then I entered the contest not really thinking much of it. Then when I found out I’d made top ten and that I needed to get people to vote for two months, I was like

“okay, how do I make this not annoying for everyone and make it something fun?” So I was really thinking of YouTube as more of a hosting website and not a community, not a tool. Probably a couple of weeks into that I realized I had stumbled upon something a lot bigger than I had thought.

It switched everything. Because of it, when I won it, I got signed to a major label, but also because of it I realized I was gonna leave the major label because I didn’t really need one and there are people that want to support you for what you want to be doing. It really changed the game for me completely.

You’ve done a lot of collaborations on YouTube - one of my favorites being the “Fast Car” cover with Boyce Avenue. Do you have any favorites or any ones that were really fun to make that stand out?

That’s a hard one. I feel like they’re all pretty equal to me. It’s really pretty cool in that I feel like everyone I’ve met through YouTube and collaborated with is just so talented and so humble because I feel like so many of these people were not people that were going out to become a star – they were people sitting in their bedrooms being like “I like singing!” and putting it on the internet.

So they’re all just amazing people and in all their own ways have been really fun to work with.

I feel like it’s a pretty unique way to get into music, through YouTube.

Definitely, yeah!

How do you find a balance between doing YouTube covers & videos while also being an artist yourself, doing original music?

So the way that I see it I guess is that first and foremost for me is original music and writing, creating just because that’s what feels important to me – it’s what

feels meaningful, when I write a song. I think that’s hugely important to me. At the same time, I think that covers are like a fun challenge. They help you grow as an artist. They help you take something that’s one genre and try to make it your own. On the other side it also helps people discover your music. For me it’s been a great way to just kind of mix it up. If I could just put an original up every week I might do it, but I just don’t have the songs. I’d be writing my whole life. So the way I see it is my heart is in my originals and creating, and then by doing these covers in between it’s kind of like little treats for people. “Oh here’s me doing another thing and it was fun!” So they’re both fun, and I try to keep a balance because you don’t want to get too stuck in just creating. You have to grow and stuff like that, so it balances out.

You released Elements last year. What was the writing process for that album like?

I went on a lot of writing retreats. It’s weird with songwriting for me because I can never just sit and decide to write a song. If I do that I will never write one. So I just kind of need to make the space for it, and take out distractions, so the retreats have been really good for that reason. It just lets me turn of the internet for awhile and find the music

again.

That can be pretty distracting with Twitter and everything!

Yes, endless!

You recently released the video for “Oh Father” and when describing it you said it was about your “newfound excitement in trying to live fearlessly.” Can you talk about that & the video?

I’ve been pretty shy my whole life, so it has been and still is in many ways a struggle just being out in the world. Whether it’s being at a party or just walking around – feeling like I couldn’t be myself or worrying too much about what other people are thinking. You get in your head. So I spent a lot of life like that, and I still do, but I feel like once you live through that long enough you start to realize it’s not fun to do that. It’s not fun to not be yourself and feel present. I think in the last few years that’s really struck a chord in me, so I’ve been trying to focus less on what other people are thinking and just do what feels good and not worry so much, not think so much about things.

I can definitely relate to all of that.

Yeah, it’s hard. It’s definitely hard.

What was the video like, making that?

The video was directed by one of my good friends Erica Dasher. She’s this amazing actress and writer and director. So we kind of collaborated to find this artistic vision that matched both of our feelings for the song.

For me it kind of just shows that, all the chances you have in life – like in the case of the video, it’s almost like a reset, you get these chances over and over – and you can be afraid and timid, scared to be a part of the world, or you can just embrace it and dive in and have fun. So that’s I feel like in the video what I’m figuring out, that process.

I also like to focus on fashion. I love your personal style and what you wear in casual videos - do you enjoy fashion and being creative that way?

I do. I don’t know a ton about fashion, but I do love it. I like to look at it and appreciate it. I think it is a fun way to express yourself

and individualize yourself. So it’s definitely something I have fun with, although not super knowledgeable.

Since you’re currently on tour, what’s your favorite part about being on the road and playing shows?

I think it’s just seeing real humans again because so much of what I’ve always done is online and through a computer. I see the numbers and I see the comments, but it’s hard to visualize that as people. So when I go out on the road I get to see people singing my songs and I get to meet them and hear a bit about their story, so for me it just makes it that much more real. I think one of the first reasons that music was always so powerful to me is that it connects you to people that you wouldn’t otherwise know. So that’s what it is for me, this shy person that couldn’t connect with people to suddenly be like “I can connect with you!” and it’s a really great feeling.

Judy Rodman talks songwriting, being a

vocal coach, and balancing her many projects You started as a country recording artist, so how did you get into music originally?

Well actually I didn’t start as a country music artist.

That was part of me and happened to be the window of opportunity that was open. But I started out in Jacksonville, [TN] doing jingles. As such I had to become a pretty surgically accurate singer and I had no idea that I would eventually end up teaching voice, but it has really been helpful for that. I did jingles and then in Memphis I started going R&B background vocals with a lot of the studios on the side including High Records. Then I moved to Nashville in 1980.

It was lucky because I got in when it was an era of every country record needing background vocals as a group. So I got in subbing for all the group. [I] really was on a heck of a lot of the number one records of the time doing that. Then when I was working on an Ed Bruce record for Tommy West who had produced Jim Croche, I started writing a few things. I showed him something I had written, and he just had this wild hair to start this indie label, which at that time was extremely rare as far as being successful. I was the first artist he signed, so that’s how my country career got started. My father and mother are from Mississippi, so I was raised with country, but I was raised with all kinds of music. That continues to be what I like to dabble in.

In addition to the artist side, you mentioned you do producing and writing. So what’s your process like for writing?

For songwriting, what I like to do is first of all figure out why I’m doing it these days. I used to just write to write, and I’ve written for lots of different publishing companies including Warner Chappell, MCA which is now Universal, Chrysalis. Now I have my own

publishing company. Now, because I’ve got so many other things going on, I’ve gotten to the point where I want to write for a reason.

On the vocal coaching side, what made you decide to go into that?

Well, the truth is it became the window of opportunity that was available. If you’re in this business for very long, you’re going to learn to be on roller skates. I had been a successful singer, successful songwriter with a number one and all that kind of stuff, but all those doors were sort of closed to me at the time and a friend of mine who worked in the Lynard Skynard band, her name is Carol Chase, she’s still with him in fact, I had written with her and sung with her on lots of sessions and one day she asked me if I could help her sing a particular note she had to sing on the road that she was having trouble with, and I’m thinking to myself ‘why do you think I know?’ [laughs] Well her belief in me doing that was what made me start thinking ‘well maybe I can do it’ and I started just offering my services, and getting clients - realizing that I did have a gift for diagnosing what was wrong because of all the years I’ve been working with other voices I’d gained an ability I didn’t know I had. Then I started the journey of exploration and developing as a vocal coach.

What’s the normal lesson like with a client?

Every voice is different, so that is so important to not make everybody do the same thing. But what I do is I first have them fill out this little questionnaire that asks about health issues and psychological issues like ‘are you nervous? Do you have stage fright?’ and I work with public speakers as well for that. I find out again, who they are, what styles they want to sing, I find out what they think the issues are they’re coming

to me for. Instead of just telling them what I think they should know, I try to find out ‘okay, what do you think you need to know? And what do you want me to help you do?’ I immediately have them sing for me or speak for me. When they do that I tell them not to sing to me, but to sing out my window like they’re doing it publically, to give me a base line of where they’re at. Within a verse and chorus I know exactly what their strengths and weaknesses are. Then I asses them within this method that I’ve developed, this three stranded chord, it’s synergistic – of breath, throat, and performance meaning communication techniques, and those three things are cornerstones that are synergistic. So more than the sum of the parts.

Then when I can help them with their weakest area, I can see why they’re doing what they’re doing wrong, then I can make them curious because I can instantly make it better. Then I can gain their trust, because they shouldn’t trust me until I can make a difference. Then we go from there.

So you also mentioned you have a band with your husband, and you have a new album coming out. So what was the creation process like for that album?

Well it’s a bit of a miracle because John had quit playing for maybe twenty five years. We started in 2012 playing out just for the pure love of the music. We met in the studio. We were doing jingles in Memphis, and we were in a nightclub top 40 band when I was nineteen. So this is full circle. He played for me when I was an artist, and then shortly thereafter quit because he got burnt out with the business and the kinds of music he was having to make.

I’ve never felt like I was quite done creating my own music. Even though I really enjoy mentoring other people and bringing out their voices, there’s just always

this little bug in the back of my heart that said I wasn’t quite done with my voice too. But I couldn’t do that without John’s participation. For me I needed to have him there too, so he’d usually roll his eyes when I’d bring up anything about him playing again. This time we were watching Carol King and James Taylor, who are two favorites of ours, we were watching them do that Troubadour show in New York. I looked up at him, I was laying on the floor, and I said, “if we could make that kind of magic, do you think it would be worth it, doing it again?” and to my great surprise he said, “yeah.” [laughs] He picked his drum sticks up, and first he had to get his chops back. We started doing some of my songs that I had written through the years.

I’ve had hundreds of songs in different catalogs. So we picked our favorites and the ones he liked too, called some pro musician friends of ours, and we started playing out some. We got some really good feedback.

Really good reactions. This last year we decided instead of focusing on live playing, to get back into the studio because he was back. He got his chops back, because he used to be one of the top session players in Memphis. I got my chops back, instead of just doing vocal exercises I was singing full voice, and then we started writing – which we’d never done before. Once we had about seven songs, we just both felt like it was time to go, just get in the studio before we get too much older – so we did!

You have a lot of projects, so do you have a favorite you’re working on now or one you’re more focused on than the others?

I like the fact that I’m not doing just one thing. I think in my case instead of dividing my attention, that each thing that I do adds to the level of excellence of the other thing. My performing and my recording makes me a better vocal coach because then I know what

really works, instead of just theory. I like the fact that I’m doing both. I’m really focused on [the record with my husband]. Then I’ve got three production clients.

I’ve got Shantell Ogden, and I’ve got Jenny Tollman, and Flight 3. I did two full productions and then with Shantell I was her vocal producer. I think those three things have main stage viability. It’s interesting that all of them are female.

My magazine focuses a lot on women in music. What would you say are some challenges facing women in the industry today?

I tell you what, as someone who is as old as I am, I’ve been in the business for over forty years, and I’ve seen the role of women in the business change. There always were mavericks like Loretta Lynn, but what I really like now, and you hit it in I think issue three of Songbird, I like the fact that it’s more collaborative now than competitive.

The women in more primal societies such as Native American societies, especially as they got older, they were revered – their opinions, their wisdom – and they were respected. Not because they were better than men, but because there’s something special about a woman’s intuition, something different. It’s like the Droid commercial, ‘be together but different.’ [laughs] So I think the challenge for women is to continue to, whether they’re respected or not, realize that they deserve respect. That they also do their best when they realize that it takes a village. That they’re part of a village. A special and unique part of the village. And that they’re the only ones that can do what they’re doing. Does that make sense?

When I talked with Nicolle Galyon for the last issue, she touched on the fact that there are certain songs that only

women can write, etc.

Yeah I try to, I’ve written very few songs that have been cut by a man because I can’t get into that headspace [laughs]. Most men can’t, not all, my mentor Dave Loggins he could, he could write like a woman, but most men can’t. And most women can’t. It’s fun to get together and co-write with one. One I’m really proud of, and it was on a Garth Brooks session but it didn’t get cut because his mother got sick, one of those things that got away, but I had written it with this engineer named Dave Matthews, and it was about this son whose father had died. Together, with him, I was really amazed at what we could come out with. The stuff that I’ve written with my husband, neither one of us could have written it alone. It’s very interesting how our minds work.

People are coming around to supporting each other.

Especially because there aren’t that many female artists.

I teach a lot of young people, it’s more about a group. My son did that. It’s less isolating. I think that’s extremely important. Women have been very isolated, and I remember feeling very isolated. Even if I knew other women or other people, it was a surface sort of thing. I think this village mentality, and it’s happening with indie artists, this thing where nobody does it by themselves and you can get a little deeper in the friendships now than you used to. You always have to be wise and figure out who you can trust, but there’s just something a little bit more real about the relationships. It’s not all just surface networking.

Which I like.

Going to Belmont they definitely talk about networking all the time, but it is nice to actually get to know people better.

There’s levels you know, you have to be wise about it.

But it can’t all be just surface networking. That’s the way it used to be with me and it was a lonely life.

Do you have any advice for women looking to get into the industry, whether that’s on the artist side or as a writer?

I think that it’s very important to do three things well: one is your art, it better be the best – you don’t compete with anybody but yourself, but you need to be the very best you can be, and if it takes training or it takes practice, it does – you can’t just polish the proverbial piece of dirt. You have to be as good as you can be at your art. Life in the arts and business in the arts is always difficult because sometimes you’re ahead of your time, sometimes you’re behind your time. The primary reason you have to do it is because you can’t not. You have to love what you do. So your art has to be great. The second thing you have to do is do great business. To do that you have to understand how it works in the current day and time. You have to keep your finger on the pulse of the moving train, because just as soon as you think you know how it works, something changes. As an artist that started when the wave first started of indie artists being allowed in, the wave has just bowled over everything. It keeps going. I’m excited about it, but if you want to be in the business you have to know not just what’s been, but what’s going on, and what looks like it’s going to happen. The third thing, which really is the first thing, is you have to keep first things first and be the best human being you can possibly be. The rest of it’s not worth it if it’s not.

Last question, do you have a favorite accomplishment you’ve had throughout your career?

Wow, that’s a tough one. Sometimes I feel like Old

Mother Hubbard and have a lot of children, almost like asking which of my babies is my favorite. I’ll tell you one thing though, I was on the Tonight Show, I won the ACM Award in LA, and it was a real heady time – but my life, my internal life, wasn’t as nearly as settled as it is now. I think seeing my husband and our album done as we’ve grown up together, and I mean we got married in 1975 and you can imagine the journey we’ve taken. But to mature as human beings and have this last musical baby, just doing it, it’s become one of my new favorite moments. That and then helping those three artists I mentioned with their best efforts musically. I’m so proud of them.

ARTIST PROFILE: ASHLEY MONROE MONROE ASHLEY

by Amanda Nicklaus

“It took a while to get here, it’s been a long, hard road. But I came out like a rose.” These lyrics perfectly describe the life of Ashley Monroe. One of country music’s most respected artists, Monroe has gone through her fair share of trials, using music to get her through each hard time. With her newest single “Onto Something Good” recently released, we can’t help but agree—she is onto something good, and we like what we’re hearing.

Ashley’s musical background goes back pretty far—she won a talent contest singing when she was just 11. When she was 13, her father gave her a guitar. Shortly after, Monroe’s father passed away, and she threw herself into the world of music, writing songs as an outlet for her sadness. Her talent was noticeable, and when she was 15, she met Vince Gill, who has turned out to be a partner and friend in the music business. By the time she was 20, Ashley released her first single, “Satisfied.” Unfortunately, her record label decided not to release her album, although it did find a place on iTunes. Ashley did not let anything hold her back. Working hard, she has written and recorded with several respected musicians, including Trent Dabbs, Jack White, Train, Blake Shelton, and Hunter Hayes, to name a few. In fact, her recent duet with Blake Shelton, “Lonely Tonight,” holds the number 3 spot on Billboard’s top country list.

In 2013, Monroe released her first album, Like A Rose. From that album, she released three singles: “Like A Rose,” “You Got Me” (vocal harmonies by Little Big Town), and “Weed Instead of Roses,” which became a hit at No. 46 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs. The song, though a bit controversial, shows that Ashley likes to tell it like it is. In fact, this is a characteristic in every song she has written; whether she is being comical or contemplative, her honesty and genuineness are evident in the lyrics she writes.

When we interviewed her manager, Marc Rucker, he said, “Ashley’s not afraid to say the hard stuff.” He describes her as “one of the most real artists,” not afraid of imperfection. Her message is “the overall love of music and yourself, even when it’s not always easy.” Monroe’s ability to express life through her viewpoint in such a simple, honest way is admirable. This, along with her beautiful, clear voice and impressive range, makes her one of today’s most talented artists.

Another side to Monroe’s musical career is her part in the all-girl trio Pistol Annies, with Miranda Lambert and Angeleena Presley. Their album Hell On Heels, released in 2011, was received with much praise from the country music industry, landing at No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Album Chart.

Although the group has been focusing more on solo artistry lately, the album brought a strong sense of girl power to the country music scene.

The future looks bright for Monroe, who hopes to release her next album this summer. Already she has a string of tour dates lined up with various artists, including Miranda Lambert, Justin Moore, Charlie Worsham, Vince Gill, Rascal Flatts, and Little Big Town. It’s safe to say that Ashley has already accomplished an incredible amount in her career, and we’re excited to see what else she has in store. In a time where country radio is looking for more female artists, Ashley stands as more than just a strong female artist. Her songs offer words of wisdom and allow listeners to feel what she feels, looking at life and learning. In an interview with Taste of Country, she says, “If you’re not growing, you’re dying.”

Ashley Monroe is an artist with a unique outlook on life and a talent for expressing her feelings through music. It seems that the title of her latest single is appropriate—Ashley Monroe is onto something good.

Album Reviews From A Feminist Perspective: First Quarter 2015,

by Kaydee Ecker

Album Reviews From A Feminist Perspective // First Quarter 2015

by Kaydee Ecker

Feminism continues to infiltrate the music scene through artists of varying ages, races, and styles. This quarter, three album releases stand out: Meghan Trainor’s Title (January), Fifth Harmony’s Reflection (February), and Madonna’s Rebel Heart (March). All come with unique messages and differing levels

of feminist rhetoric – from the freshman feminist with a focus on relationships and much still left to learn, to the most seasoned feminist singing largely about sexual relationships and independence. These three albums set a hopeful tone for this year’s feminist music.

Meghan Trainor // TITLE I have a love/hate relationship with this album. On one hand, it seems that Meghan Trainor has a genuine interest in empowering girls and women; several of her songs contain the underlying theme of “Know your worth and make sure the person you date knows it, too.” On the other hand, she portrays a very “No Good For You” – Trainor tells a friend that the guy she’s dating is a lousy boyfriend. She explains all of the reasons why she deserves better than what he’s offering. In the end, Trainor reveals the reason she knows this is because he called and asked her on a date. Women looking out for other women is always a winner in feminist circles.

Feminist Rating: 8/10 “Dear Future Husband” – Trainor lays down the relationship “ground rules” for her future husband. The song features some fairly reasonable requirements, but also a long list of requests that seem to feed into stereotypes. On the feminist side, it is certainly empowering for her to be demanding a certain level of respect and care from her future partner. The lines, “You got that 9 to 5, but baby so do I, so don’t be thinking I’ll be home and baking apple pies, I never learned to cook, but I can write a hook” crushes gender roles and celebrates Trainor’s unique occupation as a songwriter.

The rest of the song seems to suggest that her future husband should always comply with her demands (even if she’s wrong), and she will reward him with sex. A feminist anthem? Not exactly.

Feminist Rating: 6/10

specific type of woman in her songs – one that feeds into the “crazy, overly-emotional, demanding girlfriend” trope. I have hope for the future, though. She is such a fresh artist on the scene that she is bound to use her critiques to grow and fine-tune what her fans want out of her lyrics.

“Walkashame” – Trainor sings about a one-night-stand, but is unclear about whether or not she should be ashamed (as usual). It’s fantastic that this is a topic being discussed in a light-hearted manner, but how empowering is it for women if she calls it a mistake and states that her “daddy knows [she’s] a good girl”? There is no male equivalent of the postcoital “walk of shame,” making this song questionable at best.

Feminist Rating: 4/10 “Close Your Eyes” – In this wonderful tune, Trainor embraces diversity and expresses the importance of knowing your beauty. “I guess I could waste all my time and my money just trying to look right, but it doesn’t change who I am in my heart if I look like them,” she sings – resisting the pressure to conform to beauty standards and welcoming her individuality. She urges listeners to know their beauty and love their differences.

Feminist Rating: 9/10

Fifth Harmony // REFLECTION This fun, girl-power album is reminiscent of The Spice Girls and Destiny’s Child. It attempts to focus more on sisterhood and enjoying life than it does on chasing boys.

These self-proclaimed feminists are making

waves in the music industry, and though this album has its trouble spots, it is without a doubt a good starting point for their first fulllength record.

“BO$$” – This song is without a doubt a feminist anthem for young women. They advocate for self-confidence, independence, and making their own money as empowered women. The girls demand respect and refuse to accept anything less. A great introduction to feminist values!

Feminist Rating: 10/10 “Reflection” – Upon first listen, this song appears to be a tired expression of admiration for a man. Keep listening though, and the girls reveal who all of their compliments are aimed at – themselves.

This empowering song combats the belief that women dress for men and advocates for women to live for themselves and not some man. In today’s age of low self-esteem, this song presents a message of self-love and acknowledging one’s own importance as a girl or a woman.

Feminist Rating: 10/10

“Suga Mama” – The Fifth Harmony girls tell off a moocher. Despite thoroughly liking this guy, they acknowledge that being involved with someone using them for their money isn’t something they care to continue.

They take their money, self-respect, and kiss him goodbye.

Feminist Rating: 8/10

“Brave Honest Beautiful” – With a nod to Destiny’s Child, the 5H crew seek to boost self-confidence and selfworth by reminding girls that they are brave, fearless, honest, and beautiful. They name drop popular musicians Beyoncé, Shakira, Rihanna, and Madonna, and let girls know that they are just as capable of being successful. Featuring Meghan Trainor, these powerful women collectively create an art piece so desperately needed in a society full of girls with such low self-efficacy.

Feminist Rating: 10/10

Madonna // REBEL HEART Madonna’s career has had a number of ups and downs through the years, but this album is certainly one of the ups. As expected, the record is full of songs about sex – just one way Madonna is challenging ageism.

The rest of the album, however, is full of club-ready catchy dance songs, magnificent metaphorical music, and inspiring, empowering songs for women of all ages and a variety of persuasions.

“Unapologetic Bitch” – Madonna sings about ditching a bad relationship and not feeling bad about moving on. Popular songs often feature women ruminating over failed relationships, but this song presents a more defiant, self-respecting emotional response. Madonna knows she deserves better and she’s not afraid of being called an “unapologetic bitch” because she’s let the relationship go.

Feminist Rating: 9/10 “Veni Vidi Vici” – “I came, I saw, I conquered,” she sings in reference to her rise to stardom and the subsequent criticism of her sexuality. She ignored those who tried to bring her down and instead used their critiques to become the Queen of Pop. Turns out people loved her expressive self. Her overall message? Forget the haters and do what you do best.

Feminist Rating: 8/10

“Joan of Arc” – Madonna’s best traits shine through in this raw, vulnerable piece about the media’s words and actions cutting deep.

She expresses that she is not super human despite her fame, and explains how the lies she reads about herself can be emotionally damaging. Her honesty about her struggle is moving: “Being destructive isn’t brave, they couldn’t say it to my face, one day I won’t care, but for the moment I’m not there.” Her truthful vulnerability is eye-opening and inspiring.

Feminist Rating: 10/10

“Rebel Heart” – A song that describes the struggle of being different in a world of sameness, learning to embrace who you are, and enjoying your unique journey. Despite feeling incredibly alone and isolated for years, Madonna found a way to accept and love the parts of herself that society told her to hide away. “Hearing my father say … ‘Why can’t you be like the other girls?’ I said ‘Oh, no, that’s not me, and I don’t think that it’ll ever be,” the song says – a reminder to all girls that it’s perfectly okay to be you.

Feminist Rating: 10/10

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