An Artist's Arsenal

In addition to the obvious necessity of a repertoire of musical talents and skills, an artist will benefit from an arsenal of professionals. Through our conversations with Doug Mark, an entertainment attorney, Liv Seltzer, an artists and repertoire consultant, Miranda Martell, Chief Growth Officer at Quadio Records, and Abir Hossain, VP of Quadio Records we will reveal how these professionals support an artist. 

Episode Transcript

Jay (00:06):
Welcome to the Drop the MIC podcast where we'll dive into
conversations with some of themusic industry's most
established professionals.
Like all of our episodes, whatyou will hear today has been
created and curated by Stanfordstudents who are breaking their
way into the music scene.
I'm Jay LeBouef and I leadStanford University's music
industry initiatives.
Whether you're aspiring tolaunch your career in the music
industry are already a musicindustry pro, or just curious to

(00:29):
learn more.
We've got you covered.

Keao (00:32):
Hey, welcome to the podcast.
My name is Keao.

Annella (00:35):
My name is Annella.

Sean (00:36):
My name is sean

Kiara (00:37):
And I'm Kiara

Annella (00:38):
So for this podcast, we're going to be talking about
the management of a musicalartists brand.
And we talked to a bunch ofpeople to bring this podcast
together.

Keao (00:45):
In addition to the obvious necessity of a repetoire of
musical talents and skills anartists will benefit from an
arsenal of professionals.
Through our conversations withDoug Mark an entertainment
attorney Liv Seltzer an artistsrepertoire consultant and
Miranda Martel, chief growthofficer, and Abir Hussain VP of
Quadio records.
We will reveal how theseprofessionals support an artist.

Annella (01:06):
The arsenal professionals around an artist
can help or seriously hinder anartist's ability to focus on the
creative process and developtheir brand.
Our interviewees share theirpersonal stories and experiences
at varying levels within themusic industry, bringing
different perspectives ontopics, such as the love for
music,

Sean (01:24):
Firstly, we would like to introduce Doug Mark.
Who's a music attorney.
His professional career foundits roots from a childhood
surrounded by constant flow ofgreat music in the city coined
as the entertainment capital ofthe world.
Los Angeles.

Doug (01:37):
I was a kid from Los Angeles and therefore Oh, who
also happened to love, likeevery song on the radio, I would
sing knew I didn't, I wasn't amusician myself.
I would sing in bands sometimesfor like high school
graduations, because I was theguy who knew all the words.
So the real musicians would askme to sing and I love the

(01:59):
movies.
And then as I bounced aroundthrough my undergrad, my law
school career in different townsand the traveling the world, I
was cut out to be a lawyer.
My skill set was that of alawyer.
I could speak it was eitherjournalism or law or politics.
And so when in doubt, go to lawschool in those days.

(02:20):
And then I figured I bouncedback to my home town, which is
like a company town to a greatextent, the motion picture and
music, industries, andtelevision.
So I knocked on doors till Ifound somebody because what you
do as a, as an entertainmentlawyers, you negotiate contracts

(02:42):
rather than final lawsuits.
It seemed like a funner way toex law though, negotiating
contracts than on the court.
So I knocked on doors and theguy who happened who was willing
to take a shot with me, it was amusical air.
We just left a big firm and hadhis own practice.
So he mentored me and through, Ilearned my skills suit him, and

(03:04):
I was able to pick up clients indifferent ways.

Kiara (03:08):
What exactly does your job entail?
Because I know we're doing likeartists, branding and
management.
How does that correlate to beinga music attorney?

Doug (03:18):
Okay.
So artists' branding is okay.
Let me start.
Beginnings music.
Lawyer is the person who isthere.
Artists is doing their thing.
Maybe they're on the streamingservices themselves, or working
with producers and somebodycomes into their lives that they

(03:41):
either need to help their careerto negotiate their agreements.
So you never know what it'sgoing to be in a manager first
or a lawyer first, or thatdepends on how much they have
their own.
Hustle going,

Annella (03:55):
And what's the role of a manager in all of this.

Doug (03:58):
what a manager does is really everything.
They have to be like a shadowrecord, record company.
They have to be making sure thelawyers getting the deals done,
making sure the finances aregetting done by the accountant,
all the business manager.
So the manager is really likethe, almost like the president
of the company.

(04:18):
And the artist is like the CEO,

Annella (04:20):
then what is the lawyer like?

Doug (04:22):
the lawyer is like the head of business affairs of the
company.
No artist has gotten anywherewithout managers, really running
interference for them in amillion different ways and
creating.
And the manager is is differentfrom a lawyer, because the
managers on the ground with theartist 24 hours a day, lawyers
just doing the contracts, maybegiving some advice about how to

(04:45):
do the branding contract.
Now maybe the manager brought itin the lawyer, negotiates the
agreement, more boring.

Kiara (04:55):
But I guess you have more of a connection with managers
than the artists themselves?

Doug (05:02):
Yeah.
That's a very good question.
And typically, yes, I would saymy career, I spend more time
talking to the manager for myclient than my client themselves
because the manager acts as afilter or everybody to the
artist So in, in overseeing allthe business deals, if the
artists frequently doesn't wantto get into them, my new shop,

(05:25):
the manager does and thentranslates the artists and that
some artists that I'm on withsimultaneously or separately
asking me all the questions andmore often than not a talking to
the manager of the contracts.

Sean (05:40):
So once an artist has a lawyer and a manager when does
branding come in?

Doug (05:45):
the branding comes from two ways.
One is an artist who has a good,strong sense of their own image
and works social media so thatyou know what they stand for.
Maybe they've created a littlelogo.
Maybe their vibe is unique.
The image of a guy like Snoopdog, nobody could be stronger
because of the way his words andhis voice flow from day one.

(06:08):
You heard that and you're like,that's a brand right there
because nobody ever did thatlike that before.
And so that has nothing to dowith a lawyer, that's an artist
creating an image, maybecreating a logo, it's bringing
it to the public oftentimes ofthe manager's help.
But I don't think in Snoop'scase, for example, The other
form of the term branding isidentifying them with brands.

(06:33):
You represent Billie Eilish.
So brands are dying to beassociated with Billie Eilish.
It doesn't matter if they'reenergy, drinks or Gucci they all
want to do, they all want to beyeah.
Identified with an artist thatrepresents a certain type of
Demographic.
And so that's a Durham form ofbranding.

(06:54):
That's where you have createyour own Cola drink or Billy's
creating her own perfume.
Famously JLL and Brittanyspirits, these fragrances, they
pick some cute name, but youimmediately or puffy in Ciroc
vodka, an artist that identifieswith a brand, maybe it's a
pre-existing brand.
Maybe the artist created thebrand.

(07:16):
And that's branding of a productwhich helps make money and sell
something.
That's not music.
So it's two different thingsthat represent the term branding
that artists benefit from doingboth.
They can do their own brandingand they have to it's really
like their image.
That's going to make thempopular.
And then at some point afterthey're popular, they merge with

(07:39):
other things and create neweither enhanced brands.
Like Coca-Cola.
Or create their own brands.
Like so many people do.

Sean (07:50):
So Doug Mark has given us great insight into the working
relationship between a musicattorney that has decades of
experience in the industry,working with artists, such as
Billy Eilish that have a moreestablished following.
Furthermore, being an attorney,Doug is slightly detached from
working directly with theartists and being college
students.
We're curious what the processof uplifting artists at earlier

(08:12):
stages of their careers looklike.

Keao (08:17):
In addition to that, being a college student and having
friends that have made music inhigh school, who never really
made it to any kind of fame andhaving friends in college that
are still trying to go theirlisteners on Spotify We don't
get to see how they interactwith independent labels, that we
don't get to see how they managetheir brands outside of their
small support groups.

Annella (08:34):
So now that we have the perspective of a lawyer, we
turned to the label'sresponsible for pushing an
artist's brand to the nextlevel.
Claudio records is anindependent label geared towards
representing the next generationof artists.

Miranda (08:46):
Quadio is really the Genesis of the brand.
And Quadio is a couple of yearsold and was founded by Marcus
and Joe Welch, who our stepcousins and Joe had just
graduated from Williams college.
He was an econ major and ahockey player, But he also made
beats in his dorm room andcouldn't really get anybody to

(09:07):
listen to them.
And the second semester of hissenior year, He took a, like a
non-major songwriting course.
And he realized that there werea bunch of people in there that
he had already known, but noneof them knew the other was
making music.
And so they started collabingand just had some sort of like
virality on campus.
Like their songs were played atthe warmups and at graduation.

(09:31):
And they all just really feltlike it would have been.
It's such a game changer.
If there was a way for them tohave known earlier in like
freshman year that they weremaking music and they could have
had all this time together tocollaborate.
So Joe sat off to build aplatform that would do that for
college musicians and thusQuadio was born.

Sean (09:53):
So Quadio focuses on the music and the journey of the
artists.
They focus on developing each oftheir uniquely individual
artists, pushing their talent.
The music industry too often, dowe see labels, prioritizing
analytics instead of seeing theartists as individuals?
This displays a commitmentfurther displaying, real love
for music instead of theconstant focus on just the

(10:14):
financial aspect of theindustry.
Here's a beer and Miranda tospeak more on what their
mission.
Is as an independent recordlabel

Abir (10:22):
There's a lot of focus on trusting your gut.
It just depends on where you arein the spectrum of labels.
And I think for me, Quadiooffered us a clear picture of
we're looking for the bestcollege talent.
And that was like this thingthat wasn't really mine.
And that sense of yeah, there,like there can be analytics to
support our investment.
There can be like the gutfeeling to support them.

(10:44):
But the overall goal is how dowe like continue to push
emerging talent in college?
Because they're a unique thingbecause students are people who
are.
Obviously very invested in theireducation while also pursuing
art.
And they take both things veryseriously.
And I think sometimes they'rethere's parts of them that feel
like they might be missing outon opportunities and by being a

(11:04):
student or vice versa.
And I feel like I didn't wantthat to be a detriment to why.
And artists gets an opportunityand there's just so many, so
much amazing talent, like in thecollege, like round that it was
exciting for me to get here andmine it with everyone.
And every now and body hadalready had their yours to the
streets of what was working atdifferent campuses.
And yeah, it was just a reallyexciting moment to help amplify

(11:25):
what these kids were doing

Miranda (11:27):
and just.
To finish answering yourquestion.
As far as the future, I thinkwhat's really organically
happened amongst our communityis that it has started to expand
beyond just the musician andreally like organically we've
had designers and videographersand photographers and.
Managers and like all of thekind of people that support

(11:47):
informed this team and like crewaround that artist's career and
success.
And I think college is such aspecial and important place to
do that.
And I feel like we're reallyseeing this moment in time where
the artists that are allbreaking have that.
Team around them like thatthey've come up with.

(12:08):
And I think that there's areally cool opportunity with
Barrio to help people form that.

Kiara (12:15):
We come to Liv from Brooklyn, who is a manager for
producers and artists whileQuadio record represents the
next generation Liv is the nextgeneration.

Liv (12:24):
My name is Liv.
I'm in Brooklyn.
I work in the music industry.
I'm 24.
Yeah.
I started out doing managementfor an artist friend of mine, my
last year in college.
And I was brought into the, Iwas I was sorta like born into

(12:45):
the music industry cause myfamily is really deep in it.
But I started managing thisartist, my senior year of
college and we actually saw somesuccess which was awesome.
And yeah, that's, it brought meinto the whole world of it.

Annella (13:02):
So aside from your family, how did you get your
break in the music industry?

Liv (13:06):
I had done this internship at this management company in
For like my sophomore and junioryear of college.
And it was just this really biglike management company.
And I was like an assistant and.
Just like seeing how things workthere.
And I was like, okay I think Icould like, do this on my own

(13:27):
and it could be fun.
And so I was just like lookingfor, project and I ended up
linking up with this artist whohadn't even been making music at
the time.
And she had just been likeposting on Instagram and I was
just like, you are likehilarious.
And I think if you don't makemusic, maybe you should try.
And she was like, turns out Iactually have an album done.

(13:48):
And so like we linked up andyeah, and just took off from
there, but just building likeorganic relationships with
people and like supportingdifferent, artists that you
really have a good connectionwith the music.

Kiara (14:05):
So, what is it like being a young person and being
transgender in the musicindustry?
What were some of the strugglesyou have faced?

Liv (14:14):
Younger person.
It's an interesting industrybecause a lot of pressure is
actually put on young people tolike, or at least like in an ANR
sense to like, know what's up.
And so it's once you reach 30,you're just Oh I don't I'm not
supposed to keep up with thisyoung kid stuff.
Isn't that your job?
You're supposed to be on TikTOK.
You're supposed to be knowingwhat, what the kids I'm not a

(14:36):
kid.
So it's it's it puts an extradimension onto it because like
maybe in a different industry,you'd be like, Oh, you're just a
kid.
You don't really know whatyou're talking about.
In this one, it's the kids, arethe ones that are dictating,
what's making like billions ofdollars.
So you're the kid in the roomyou tell us.
So it's fun in that way that youcan hold some more.
If you choose to wield it, youcan hold some more power as,

(15:01):
putting yourself forward as likea tastemaker.
I'm also transgender.
So it, that is like a big partof blazing my own like path
forward in the industry alsobecause there's nobody that I
can no real trans people that Ican really look up to in the
industry or Mentor me in thatsort of way.

(15:22):
And so just like by nature ofbeing trans often it's sorta be
confident or die pretty muchjust sorta, just if you're not
confident, like how the hell areyou going to get other people to
believe you?
If you want them to call you acertain thing, it's if you
can't.
Walk into a room and own it.

(15:43):
Like how are you gonna expectother people to, do the same?
And it's that's like a harsh wayto put it.
That's like a harsh reality andnot all industries are like that
at all.
But the music industrydefinitely still is.
And it it's fun, but it requireslike it requires the thick skin.

Annella (16:01):
So what's managing an artist like.

Liv (16:03):
It's a 24 seven job when you're managing an artist.
And that just means like doingit.
It means like the really fun andamazing times when you're like,
In the audience of a room that'slike totally packed for someone
that like, for someone thatyou're managing, like you like

(16:25):
made all this shit happen andpeople are going crazy for it.
And that's a really awesomefeeling.
Whereas like I thought theywould go crazy for this.
And like I did, would it taketo, actually have that happen,
to see it, but it also means ifyou're.
Artists has food poisoning.
You're the one cleaning up afterthem.
It's you're the one on 3:00 AMon the phone because like

(16:51):
they're crying for whateverreason, and every reason is
valid.
It's just it's a really intensejob.
And that suits some peoplereally well.
I have a good friend who is justlike an incredible manager and
he manages this artist who Isigned recently.
And he gets frustrated sometimestoo, but it's also like a, it's

(17:15):
a very close relationship thatyou have with an artist where
they basically become likefamily to you.
And everything then becomespersonal because of that.
So it's not only just businessanymore, just because you care,
you end up caring a lot aboutthis person and they're, in
their future.

Kiara (17:36):
Just like Miranda and Abir fromQuadio Liv touches
briefly on some of the behindthe scenes efforts in creating
an artist brand in rise to fame.
Essentially breakthroughs arehard.
That's why it's crucial toestablish a fan base and
identity.

Liv (17:52):
Oh authenticity is usually number one.
Yeah, these days a loyal fanbase because nobody really just
goes viral out of nowhere.
It's a lot of building behindthe scenes of, like Billie
Eilish.

(18:12):
Didn't just drop a song one dayand then just Ended up on the
charts.
Like she was building like areally loyal fan base for like
ages and on maybe on thesurface, it looked like she just
popped out of nowhere, but thesepeople have been like really,
pushing her through the fullway.
And that's what makes her, likea long-term success as opposed

(18:36):
to someone like.
No shade for Lil NAS X, but likehe blew up and didn't have that
loyal fan base and now is tryingto grow it.
And that sort of just the songsort of gets ahead of him in
that way rather than the otherway around.

Keao (18:55):
So after we hear from Liv we come back to Quadio where
they talk about the fluidity ofan artist brand and the
importance of staying true andgenuine, but also not being
afraid to challenge the fan baseconsistency of brand can take on
many different forms.
Here's Quadio

Abir (19:11):
for me, it's basically, I always loved artists that from
album to album changed what theywere doing.
Like David Bowie and Prince aretwo of my favorite artists.
And David Bowie literallybecomes a different person from
the album, and it works.
So I think it goes back to forme, it's if you're writing great
songs and there's a reason whyyou're transitioning to this
other point, people are going tofollow along with that.

(19:33):
I remember I was reading anarticle about Kenneth Lamar.
And he, when he wrote to pimp abutterfly, they played it for
Jay Z and they were nervousbecause they were like, this is
very different, like from goodkid and all this stuff.
And Jay Z, he was like, if youdon't drop this, now you'll
never be able to do it.
Cause you have to show your fanbase early on that you're
willing to challenge them.
And I've always held that on.
And that's like something thateverybody will have started at.

(19:55):
And I've always made it a pointto bring that story to all the
artists that I work with to letthem know that That's like where
I hold the vision is it's okayto challenge your fan base.
As long as you're making art,that's really true to yourself.
People it's going to cutthrough.
I think a lot of times, like we,we try to like all these moments
they're made from an artistbeing genuine and everyone
amplifying that, that piece ofthemselves.

(20:17):
So it doesn't really work whenit's not real.

Sean (20:20):
And evolving image comes in many shapes and forms for
different artists, Abir andMiranda elaborate on developing
uniqueness in terms of anartist's brand, while also
staying true to who they are.

Abir (20:33):
Yeah, I think that, I think number one, the one that
goes from the onset, right?
If you're an artist who'sconstantly challenging your fan
base.
I think that they'd be ready forit.
I think that I know Lil UziVert, Burt's a little weird this
week because he put a pinkdiamond in his forehead, but
Other than that he from theonset, he was always challenging
his fan base with what hisinfluences were and who he

(20:54):
really wanted to be and all thatstuff.
And he lived in these differentworlds of, I listened to rock
music and that's very common nowin hip hop, when he first came
out, it was like, he was thisKaty like anime and but he had
all these like different typesof interests that weren't so
normal.
And I think if you start offlike that, no one questions when
you're.
Going a little off the deep endin terms of your art or how you

(21:16):
present yourself.
Because I think that, they areready for you to be ecentric I
guess is the word, but it all,that also both boils down to how
good the art is.
So being weird for weird sakedoesn't work, and then I think
that people also sometimesthey're like Like you can be
weird and be vague.
And it's yeah, you have to bereally good and different.
And for a reason, you can't justbe different to be different,

(21:37):
but York works because it'struly compelling music that
people are just obsessed with.
It.
It's just that good.
And I think that it there's somany artists now that are doing
this well, and I think we'reliving in a really great place
right now where.
Like people have all theseinteresting like hobbies and
interests and they're not afraidto put it out there on the
internet.

(21:58):
It's like a much, all the thingsI grew up with that were
basically like considered likenerdy or counterculture are very
normal right now.
And I'm like, gosh, I'm like sonormy right now.
But that, that really is likethe thing.
And it's a beautiful thing tosee, because, and I think that
just goes hand in hand with justcontinuing to challenge yourself
and learn more about differentart forms and.
And finding different thingsthat inspire you and trying to

(22:18):
combine that.
I think one of the things thatwe do at Quadio now is obviously
we're trying to be a home forall college creatives of all
types of art forms.
And I think that one of thethings that you'll see in great
artists is they're inspired byall sorts of different types of
art.
Not just music, not just likesomeone's production, not
someone's musicianship, but likethe stuff that they see at the
MoMA, or this or that.

(22:39):
And it's a culture as a whole.
And that's what what are likegreat artists really are.
And I think that's just, yeah,it's important to bring all
those things together to makesomething truly unique.

Sean (22:49):
to my understanding, consistency is one of the key
things when developing a brand.
How do you walk that fine linebetween staying true to your
brand and taking on somethingnew and challenging your fan
base?

Miranda (23:00):
Sean, about brand building.
I think that like consistencycan take a lot of forms and
there are things you can likealways remain consistent with
while leaving flexibility to letthat brand take shape.
And so for me, it's what's thatbrand essence or what's the
vision, or what's like theumbrella message that is always
true.
And then what are all of thedifferent ways that you can

(23:22):
ladder back up to that truth?
And I think that there are a lotof ways and with certain
artists, those parameters aretighter than others, but I think
that Especially now with brandbuilding, like there's a lot of
room for flexibility becausethere are so many different
touch points where you cancommunicate that brand message.
And I think it's just reallyidentifying what is that truth?

(23:42):
That is, is like always true.
And then what are the differentways that you can like manifest
the brand around that?

Keao (23:49):
As the podcast comes to an end, we think it's useful to
look at Doug Mark and hisexperience in the management of
artists.
And we think it's, you sort ofsee how they operate in these
new and challenging times.
We turn back to Doug

Doug (24:04):
Maybe the, the most maybe unique contract I ever created
is already been torn up whichwas almost by design.
This gets a little bit eclectic,but it'll be easy to understand.
I think ans route bands havetrademarks.
Trademark is the name of theband and no matter, and people

(24:27):
leave bands and people pass awayand the bands go on new members
all the time.
No, the temptations are all new.
There may be one originaltemptation now, so they all move
on and spikes over trademarksand who gets to keep it.
And then they all say thereinfrequently and say, this is

(24:48):
our final tour and it isn'ttheir final tour.
Maybe one member doesn't go outand the next member does.
And so I represented a clientcalled Motley crew.
I still do represent them.
They're a rock band from theeighties and very big and it
stayed.
I had a lot of longevity severalyears ago, they had told the

(25:08):
public, this is going to be ourfinal tool.
So the tickets were at a premiumand they are really expensive.
And Amazon arenas all over thecountry and all the press said
something.
where everybody says that it'snot true and you're ripping off
the consumer, et cetera, etcetera, et cetera, was that no
proving.

(25:29):
We put together, I put togethera contract.
It said anybody can use thetrademark, but it's not being
used the majority analyses.
And I said, call the contract.
The cessation of touringagreement said nobody's ever
touring again with the nameMotley crew and none of none of
the four of us, because the waytrademark works and partnerships

(25:50):
work is like I said, themajority could go off and do it
and make a lot of money.
These four guys, all agreed.
Nobody could use the name, ofcourse.
And so we showed it to thepress.
Nobody can use the name.
This is the final tool.
Those people, it got a lot ofpress in the wall street journal
and New York times.
And I was on CBS Sunday morningand you could look it up, but

(26:12):
those journalists who want herto really Bri said Can't before
them all agree to tear up thecontract together because
there's nobody to enforce it,which is exactly what happened.
It was four or five years later.
They did agree to tear up thecontract, but it was still a
unique freeze.
The trademarks of it had to beunanimous.

(26:33):
We used, I don't think anybands.
And so that's one of the moreunique contracts I've been
involved with.
You had a sort of a part two tothat question about.

Annella (26:43):
Yes, curious about how you're navigating the pandemic

Doug (26:47):
Because of zoom and everybody's bored.
I'd found a guitar teacher andtaken guitar lessons.
But I assume much like the livestreaming of concerts that this
concept of video telephonecalls, which are just as easy as
making audio telephone calls.

(27:08):
Will catch on in the future.
It's like halfway between aphone call and a meeting rather
people would rather see peoplehaving meeting without having a
trout.
I don't know.

Kiara (27:21):
very interesting to see based off of this pandemic, most
of the meetings andconversations we have can be
through texts or email and don'tneed to have some things don't
even need to be face to facecommunicated.

Annella (27:31):
It seems like the pandemic has affected more than
communications within theindustry.
It's affected how.
Companies like Quadio recordsinteracts with their audiences.
Here's Abir with more insight.

Abir (27:44):
So one of the things that we did and the reasons why we
focus so much on the label waswe realized that recorded music
is more important than ever,just because right now people
are home.
For the most part, they'relistening to music at home,
they're streaming music.
they're watching videos onYouTube so we made a really big
concerted effort to make surethe artists that we work with.
They were ready to constantlyrelease the music.

(28:06):
Like for bands generally they'llrelease an album and they'll
tour on a cycle for about 12months and then take off for two
months, work on it, a record,put that out, continue like that
process basically.
But instead, what we're tryingto do is model it off, like the
hip hop model of you want to putsingles out all the time.
Like you, you want to keepconstantly creating and like
collaborating with differentpeople and really trying to push

(28:29):
our artists to constantly writeconstantly do stuff because they
can't bring, they can't make arecord now and just bring it to
different people in differentmarkets.
As a show like that's been takenfrom us by this pandemic.
So what we can do is constantlygive them a barrage of great art
that they have nothing, but.
A choice to buy into thisartist.
And by the time, hopefully theworld changes and it's safer.

(28:50):
And all of that, that theseartists will have fan bases that
have really bought into thestory that they've created
musically.
And they're ready to buy ticketsand see them and experience this
in person whenever it's safe todo so.

Annella (29:04):
Through our interviews with Doug.
The Quadio crew and Liv, weexposed the array of
professionals in an artistcorner.
We got to pop the hood and takea look at all the working pieces
that aid in an artistdevelopment.

Keao (29:16):
we really valued getting to see all these different
perspectives.

Annella (29:19):
from Doug Mark, we uncovered how a legal team
protects artist interests Inorder to protect the artist
brand.

Keao (29:26):
And then from Liv, we got to learn a little bit about,
what he does as a youngup-and-comer and kind of a
manager to all these differentartists

Sean (29:35):
Yeah.
And from Quadio, we learnedthat, each artist is unique, and
in their uniqueness, an artisthas to stay true to themselves
and really challenged their fanbase sometimes.
But the key thing is to staygenuine so that they can convey
their brand, to their fan base.

Annella (29:53):
It became very apparent to that an artist, I mean, while
they can and do do it alone,it's very difficult.

Keao (30:02):
I think it really opened our eyes to, as to like how many
people will go into makingsomeone successful from the
ground or from already having afollowing, the amount of people

Annella (30:11):
So many people.
There's so many working piecesgoing on behind the scenes of
some of our favorite artists.
It really takes a village.

Keao (30:19):
it really does.

Kiara (30:21):
Not only on top of that, you have to make sure you have
an identity.
You know exactly what you wantcoming in, to this music
industry and you can't letanybody change you.
And that's why you probably needa legal team to protect you, a
record deal that won't shift youand Liv showed that if that's
the case, you make your own pathand make sure you, you still
identify who you are.

Keao (30:42):
If anything, it's almost terrifying if we ever wanted to
write music or make music theprocess of going up and being
someone Billy Eilish or Motleycrew, like what, what Doug
talked about.
It's.
Insane to see how much workthere needs to be done to make
everything go well to make thecar run, you know, hoods.

(31:04):
And I think lastly, we all wantto stay thank you to our
listeners.
And most importantly to ourinterviewees we want to think
Doug, we want to thank Liv andwant to thank Abir and Miranda
who, really helped open our eyesto what it's like to manage
somebody's brand.