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