What did you wake up thinking about this morning? The New York Giants. I am concerned about their defensive secondary not being deep enough. But I quickly pivoted to the challenges facing the independent music community. We do our work in three areas: advocacy, commerce and member services. We have a great team but it is a small team, so we have to target where we will have an impact: What can we do today to make a better environment for the members of our community? How can we do a better job communicating to our labels’ business partners that the independent label community isn’t an afterthought and worthy of the same deal terms as any other copyright owner? We have 34% market share, and you ignore that share at your own peril.
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Describe a lesson learned from a failure. If we don’t try to push the envelope on behalf of our members, then we are not doing our job, so we fail on a weekly basis because we don’t succeed at everything we try to do. Pragmatically, we then prioritize our failures and figure out which one presents the greatest possibility for future success. For example, we made international commerce trade mission funding one of our priorities. When I went to MIDEM I saw every other country had a stand, and found out that their governments were helping finance their stands. So we applied to the U.S. Commerce Department’s International Trade [Administration] in 2011 and lost. We reapplied to that agency and to the New York State Small Business Administration and in 2012 won both grants.
What will define your career in the coming year? Access and monetization. Our mission at A2IM, as well as that of the World Independent Network, and Merlin, is ensuring our labels and the artists they invest in are treated fairly and equitably. Pandora, Rdio and Spotify were early and strong supporters of indie labels, and they’re being joined by a growing number of our digital partners in supporting equal treatment on all commercial deal terms on behalf of indie labels. Likewise, the growth and success of our digital partners is very important to us.
Who is your most important mentor, and what did you learn? Danny Yarbrough, who was president of Sony Music Distribution. While I came over there as CFO, I was eventually put in charge of distribution operations. It was my first position where I had both non-financial responsibilities as well as a large organization reporting to me. He was very supportive and also very constructive in all of the advice he gave to me. He was a great listener, asked good questions and then was willing to make decisions.
Name a recent project you’re not affiliated with that has most impressed you. Nacional Records in Los Angeles runs the annual Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York. It’s great for education and music and every year that I have gone, it has grown. [Also], Pledge Music has created a great music-focused mechanism for financing.
Name a desert island album. Bruce Hornsby & the Range, “The Way It Is.”