Ryan Harlacher,?Laura Hutfless?
Music Agent, Creative Artists Agency; Music Sponsorship Agent, Creative Artists Agency?
CAA.com?? ?
ROCKIN’ DEALS?
Ryan Harlacher, 36, and Laura Hutfless, 31, are two of Creative Artists Agency’s top young agents to watch. Harlacher has helped boost the firm’s growth in the rock music touring space. As the responsible agent for such bands as Avenged Sevenfold, Shinedown, Slipknot and Godsmack, Harlacher also works on a team that helps book and produce festivals like Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, Rockstar Energy Uproar Festival and Gigantour. “We’re constantly trying to develop situations that create opportunities for our clients and the rock genre as a whole,” says Harlacher, who also books Lou Reed, Chevelle and newcomers Dead Sara, Nightmare and the Cat, and Beware of Darkness; he says he’s looking forward to a fall U.S. arena headlining tour with Avenged Sevenfold. CAA’s music department has also helped broker 134 sponsorship deals with 100 different acts in the past 12 months—and they’re not just with the agency’s marquee names. Hutfless helped bring fresh faces to some of the country’s biggest brands, from collaborating with Scooter Braun to bring Cody Simpson, Amber Riley and Tori Kelly into ConAgra Foods’ program with Feeding America to pairing Big Time Rush with Kool-Aid to partnering Hunter Hayes with Pepsi as well as Country Financial for an exclusive song, “Light Me Up.” Hutfless praises the work of her colleagues, observing, “This is the first year we’ve had folks who started with me get promoted and now they’re agents. Finding success as a team with them has been amazing.”