Wise Words

Through out the summer, I sat down with every employee in the office and conducted in depth interviews about their professional journeys, received a raw understanding of the industry and established many contacts that I feel comfortable drawing upon later in my career.


I have gathered my my favorite quotes and words of wisdom from some of these interviews.

Will Baber

Branding Partnerships 

"It's a one hundred percent selling job. Money is the ultimate goal. It's about asking the right questions. I’m really good at finding at a common ground by making it seem like it is to there (partner) advantage while it’s to mostly to my advantage."     

Kris Zovich

Tour Marketing & Branding Partnerships 

"Like everyone around here, I love what I do, all the craziness, watching the artists be successful and knowing I had a little part in that."

Kris Zovich

Tour Marketing & Branding Partnerships

"Adobe was the best experience I had and it wasn’t a financial one. Augmented Reality. We saw it in the office and called up Adobe and I said John is on the forefront of technology can you work with him on a music video or something. They paid for it all and we got John into a green screen room and shot it. They paid to host the extra bandwidth on the site but were grateful to be aligned with him. It worked really well…yet no money was exchanged." 

Jonathan Eshack 

Artist Manager

"We have the ability to spell something out for clients…if they have a vision we can help them construct it...Humility because the job entatils so many things. There are plenty shitbowls handed to you below your pay grade. Meticulous, organized, forward thinking, can't crumble under pressure, can't run from things if they aren’t going well...You're the one step removed from the artist, which is the asset. You’re his business arm. Your'e the guy sitting next to John (Mayer) getting the Grammy but when things go wrong you get the phone call.  A good manager can weather the good and bad news and keep its artist away from that because they are emotionally volatile." 

Jonathan Eshack

Artist Manager

"I had to prove that I was worth giving lessons to...Make yourself indispensable. If you perfect the small stuff then you grow. You're not going to get responsibility if you don’t perfect the jobs you’ve been handed to do. You need to understand failure."

Justin Eshack

Artist Manager

"When we evaluate talent (at Mick)…we ask does this fit? Is this is what's happening on pop raidio? It's simply "Is this good"? There is no branding for a label….what is a "Columbia" artist? It’s improtatnt that we protect that here. Artists don’t make intelligent decisions. They respond on feelings and emotions and that’s why they are good at their art. That’s why they don’t ask intelligent questions and you have to do it for them. You’re roster is your resume. Do you respect their careers?"

Justin Eshack

Artist Manager

"No expectations. Be willing to do everything that no one wants to do."

Taking a break from the desk and decorating the conference room chalkboard wall!

 

WALK THE MOON: Building A "Baby" Band

Mick Management recently signed and up coming, indie rock act WALK THE MOON from Cincinnati, OH. I had the opportunity to contribute to much of their start up efforts this summer and learned first hand what it takes to launch an artist's career.

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First, I created individual budgets for each of their tours. Then I converged them together in an overall band budget (also constructed by me) that included equipment fees, lodging, travel, merchandise, general expenses and their net profit.

MASTER BUDGET EXCERPT

UK TOUR BUDGET EXCERPT

Along with constructing spreadsheets for the budgets, I drew up invoices to send out to those individuals or companies who owed the band money:

Although budgets are extremely necessary they aren't always the most exciting task. Therefore, to counteract the crunching of numbers, I was able to design the band's press page that has been sent out to promoters, venues, and booking agents.

I pulled press quotes, photos, and videos that contributed the WALK THE MOON brand and designed pages that could be easily interpreted by viewers who don't have the time to sift through content.

Visit the press site here!

Press Site Home Page

So I created a budget and a press page, but what does management tackle next? Answer: WIKIPEDIA.

This task was extremely difficult to complete. I had to use proper encyclopedia language, site all of my sources and remain neutral in all of the content I chose to highlight. I got into argument with editors and had the page deleted numerous times. Visit the WALK THE MOON band Wikipedia page here.


Finally, I filled out a Tour Book for the band to keep track of all of their show advancements, venue policies, lodging and schedule information. The book is essential for the tour manager to keep the band organized and on track because they are far from their management team's headquarters.

Tour Book Cover

The progress made on WALK THE MOON's career while I was an intern this summer was an amazing process to witness. They went from brushing the surface of success to signing a record deal, playing Bonnarroo and Lollapalooza, and landing a huge tour with buzz band, Fitz & the Tantrums. 

Written Work

As previously mentioned, every week I was required to report on technological advances, fan chatter, live shows, album reviews, artist website reviews, and anything else relevant to the industry. I decided to publish all of these works in a blog created specifically for my internship call "Hot Child In the City". The writing style I chose is very casual however, the topics are extremely serious making for an entertaining read by my supervisors.  

Hot Child In the City Blog

Excerpt from "Tech Review: Instagram" :

 “...The 1970s called...they want their photo filters back! 

    No but seriously, the iPhone app, Instagram, has made quite a name for itself in the music industry since its launch at the end of 2010 with popular users such as The National, Shiny Toy Guns, and Deftones…just to name a few. Who knew that a photo filter powered by our dad’s side burns and our mom’s wide-leg jeans could produce such a powerful marketing tool? A great aspect of Instagram is that it creates a stream of all the photos posted through the application from Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. Unfortunately, users must have an Instagram account and therefore an iPhone to access the feed, shutting out many fans interested in viewing these wild photo collections. 

    Mashable.com reported on the different ways Instagram has enhanced artist’s online brand from gaining new fans due through viral photos to taking advantage of API and pulling band/fan made content into one central location. Our very own Walk the Moon was even interviewed for this write up saying that posting what might seem “mundane” to the band often times becomes extraordinary to the fans...hence why Instagram has become so successful within the music community... “

**You can read more examples of my assignments by clicking Hot Child In the City. 

About: Mick Management Internship

Mick Management is a boutique artists management  company whose roster includes: John Mayer, Ray LaMontagne, Brett Dennen, The Walkmen, Justin Townes Earle, Sarah McLachlan, Eric McCarley, Walk the Moon, and Mr. Dream. These are artists of different calibers, genres, and fan bases making the inner workings of the Mick Management extremely unique to the industry. 


As an intern, my duties consisted of general receptionist tasks such as:

• Answering the Phone
• Directing Calls
• Taking Messages
• Sifting through "info" email account
• Listening to Demos
• Answering/Receiving Fan Mail
• Becoming a Fed Ex Expert
• Going on adventures in Brooklyn
• Copy, Fax, Scan anything and everything 

These were all great skills to obtain because every young professional needs an  understanding of general office procedures. 


Artist Management is an extremely unpredictable field. Every day in the office is different, meaning my internship was always full of the unexpected. Managers would swing by my desk daily with different projects varying in intensity. These projects would have to be completed simultaneously with the receptionist duties.  I learned to work quickly and efficiently. 


Projects that were thrown my way:

• Creating and up keeping a band's budget
• Writing Invoices 
• Designing and updating a press kit
• Tastemaker "Thank You" Direct Mail Pieces
• Completing Tour Books

Along with these duties, I had a syllabus with short and long term assignments to fulfill through out the duration of the internship. 


Assignment Topics:

• Analyzing Fan Chatter
• Album reviews
• Live show reviews
• Analyzing/researching album release campaigns
• Technology article reviews
• Artist web-site reviews

Overall, this internship allowed me to understand the music industry from a managerial perspective and gain insight into what it takes to become a successful music professional in New York City. 

The Office's exterior in DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge)