Sigh…it’s been a rough week kids. I came off of a great weekend celebrating the 35th birthday of one of my oldest and dearest friends. I ate a lot (I love Southern franchises. Chick-Fil-A is crack. So is Cracker Barrel). I caught up with people I haven’t seen since as far back as high school or college, and even got to spend some time with my mommy (yes, I still call her Mommy). A great weekend…then my flight back got canceled due to storms and some kind of mechanical malfunction. We were moved to another airline that was flying into Newark (nobody who lives in the city wants to fly into Newark). I got home mad late, but at least I got home the same night, and I was able to keep up with the Healthcare Reform discussion and vote on Facebook and twitter (again, gotta love social networking sites when something big is going on). Sadly, I seemed to have brought the rain back to NY with me, and that dreary weather set the tone for pretty much the rest of the week.
You know, a lot of people have this conception of the music industry as being all parties and hanging out with artists, traveling and bottle poppin’ and killing the expense account; all the trappings you see in videos and in the snapshot you get of the lifestyle on blogs. Last week a commenter said she loves this blog because this is what she wants to do (although she did say she doesn’t like that I’m anonymous), and I have cousins, friends of friends, mentees and more who are always basically asking how to get down. Entertainment can be all the things I listed above. It can be fulfilling and exciting and rewarding, but it’s also a tough game to be in, and has become increasingly more so in the past several years. Since this is supposed to be the “pull the curtain back” view of the industry, I gotta let you in on the downside, too. Granted, in the late 90’s and even in the early 00’s this was the best gig ever. If you had an entrepreneurial spirit and you were willing to hustle and build relationships, you could pretty much write your own ticket. Creative ideas were abundant; labels and artists were breaking new ground consistently and pushing music into new realms. Music, fashion, movies and brands were merging in a way that hadn’t before been seen. It was exciting! Then bubbles started bursting: major labels started merging, joint ventures starting folding, and the industry that was once considered “recession-proof” was feeling the hit of the digital age and the faltering economy.
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At the end of the day, the music business is a business, and just like every other industry, it’s a numbers game. Label heads are always looking for ways to cut costs, diversify revenue streams, and stay profitable, and it’s not easy. To that end, a lot of times the solution ends up being a cut in staff. Sometime between January and now, depending on their fiscal year, most if not all record companies have had cuts, and it’s hard. It’s hard to focus on work when you know it’s looming and you’re wondering if you’re safe. It’s hard because cuts are not always performance based; you can be busting your ass and delivering, but you still may be let go. It’s hard because these people become your family, just like at any other company. You’ve been in the trenches with them, coming up with ideas, creating great work, keeping late hours. Having to watch people you’ve come to love leave a job where they’ve given so much is heartbreaking.
All this is to say that my team has been going through an adjustment period after losing some people we really cared about and respected. You have to keep moving because there’s still work to be done, but you still go through a mourning and loss period. It’s easy to lose focus and you have to fight to stay motivated at times, but at the same time everyone knows that t
