Made It In Music: Interviews With Artists, Songwriters, And Music Industry Pros

Check out the DEEP DIVE for this episode! Seth shares about creating a "Vivid Vision" and how you can use it as a framework to set goals for your music career and pursue them as fast as possible.

Access the Deep Dive here: https://members.fullcirclemusic.com/made-it-in-music-deep-dives

A&R, Creative Director at Altadena

From an early age, Noreen knew she wanted to be in music. From listening to her mom play piano to writing her own songs, music has been a huge part of her life.

How do I listen to songs all day? That’s what I want to do

Starting as an intern at BMG Publishing in Nashville and New York, Noreen realized her favorite thing to do and what she was good at was listening to other people songs.

After finishing her internship, BMG offered her a position as a receptionist her last semester of school.

I think you should be a publisher...

The turning point for Noreen’s career was when her boss recommended a different career path to her. Up until that point, Noreen was struggling if she should become a songwriter, or stick to the business side of the music industry.

Do the job, before you get the job

Noreen’s advice to people who want to grow in their career as a publisher, even as an intern, is to create a job for yourself before people ask you to. As a receptionist at BMG, Noreen researched how to get writers in a room together, how to get emails of people to pitch songs to, and all other aspects of getting a song heard. She decided Pop was her ticket in and started focusing her attention to getting pop into Music City before anyone thought it was even a possibility.

Now, she looks for this quality in assistants and coordinators. What are you doing now to advance yourself? Who are you working with already? What are you doing because you love it, even if you don’t get paid for it.

Altadena

As a Creative Director, Noreen’s role is to get artist’s in a room to set up cowrites or sessions that will hopefully turn into a song placement for the writers. She also listens to songs submitted by her writers and provides feedback to help improve the songs and hopefully get them placement.

What does Altadena do? They serve as a hub for writers, artists, and producers where Altadena serves as the intermediary between an artist’s label, publishing company, or management company. Their partnerships are Warner Chapel on the Publishing side, Warner Records for label and print, and the management partnership with Red Light Management. Altadena keeps artists from feeling forgotten and falling through the cracks. Some of their talent includes Carley Peirce, Ryan Griffin, Conor Matthews, and more.

Listen as Noreen expands on how she brought Pop to Nashville and how they are trying to keep Nashville pop competitive with the rest of the country.

Follow Seth on Instagram:

➜https://instagram.com/thesethmosley

This episode is part of a podcast SERIES called "Made It In Music." You can find other episodes on YOUTUBE and you can also find the AUDIO versions on any podcasting app!

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ABOUT FULL CIRCLE MUSIC:

Full Circle Music is a Music Production Company, Music Publishing Company, Record Label, and Music Education Academy based in Nashville, TN. They regularly work with some of the biggest names in music, such as Newsboys, High Valley, Casting Crowns, Skillet, Francesca Battisteli, and For King & Country, just to name a few. Their team has several Grammy Awards, Dove Awards, and over 20 #1 songs at radio. Through the Full Circle Music Academy, Full Circle Music aspires to teach the next generation of musicians what it takes to make it in the modern music industry.

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Love & the Outcome, the CCM husband-wife duo, share their story of singing jingles and practicing in the basement, to finally becoming an influential and highly successful band.

Although a spouse duo, Jodi and Chris are very different. Listen as they discuss their individual starts, as well as how Love & the Outcome formed. Jodi explained it as, “U2 meets Amy Grant”. They had to learn how to work together. Having your ego in check is important when it comes to band chemistry.

“Trying to give space for the other person to bring who they are to the table”

One of the ways Jodi made it?

“Just say yes to everything that comes your way... Fake it till you make it.”

What makes Love & the Outcome stand out? They take their destiny into their own hands. They never had to rely on others to do their work for them- they booked their own tours and shows, connected with fans, etc.

“Own your career. Own your platform.”

Listen as Love & the Outcome talk about what they did in their ‘in-between’ times of putting out music. They learned to focus on what they could control in that time and be intentional. With prayer and purpose, they even started their own podcast and doubled their followings!

Jodi also focuses on the importance of respecting yourself and being authentic. When she reaches out to her fans, she never tries to seem perfect and is transparent through her social media.

She documents instead of creates

“When you’re loving people and respecting people, it’s not a pitch. When you know what you’re worth, it’s not a pitch. When you know what you’re called to do, it’s giving value to someone else.”

Follow Love & The Outcome!

Website: https://loveandtheoutcome.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LoveAndTheOutcome/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/loveandoutcome

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loveandtheoutcome/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Check out the DEEP DIVE for this episode! Seth shares about creating a "Vivid Vision" and how you can use it as a framework to set goals for your music career and pursue them as fast as possible.

Access the Deep Dive here: https://members.fullcirclemusic.com/made-it-in-music-deep-dives

If you have been a listener to the Made It In Music Podcast for a while, maybe you've actually heard episode 1.

Our very first episode featured Seth Mosley, songwriter, producer, and owner of Full Circle Music. He started this podcast, and he hosts almost every episode.

To start our podcast off right, it made sense to have Seth share his vision for the company and talk about his experience in the music industry and why it lead him to create the Full Circle Music Academy.

At this point, that was several years ago! Episode 1 came out all the way back in late 2015, and so much has happened since then!

So, to start Season 3 off right, we thought it would be fun to revisit the very first episode, and give it a little bit of a "reboot."

One person who heard episode 1 was Logan Crockett, and having once started as just a fan of the podcast, he now leads the marketing team at Full Circle Music and is responsible for overseeing the podcast and the Full Circle Music Academy.

As Logan is now directly in charge of the podcast, it made sense to have him "re-interview" Seth for this special episode of the Made It In Music Podcast.

Now that the company has much more history under its belt, Seth shares in this episode about the process of building the Full Circle Music team.

While Seth is a songwriter and producer, and that is still where the majority of his hours fall, Seth also has a much larger group of employees that he is responsible for.

Because of this new responsibility, Seth has had to learn how to manage a company as a CEO, which he explains is a completely different skillset from writing songs or producing music. Even though the business is based on those activities, managing humans, projecting revenue, and setting the right company goals takes a completely different approach compared to making music.

Full Circle Music has had a lot of ups and downs along the way, and the company is continuing to grow and evolve.

One thing that Full Circle Music is known for is being a small, flexible, very modern music company. Full Circle has multiple arms, including Publishing, Production, Songwriting, and the Academy.

And each of these arms has multiple revenue streams.

Because Full Circle Music is small, it has the flexibility to make dramatic changes whenever necessary.

RESOURCES:

Follow Seth on Instagram: instagram.com/thesethmosley

Vivid Vision (book by Cameron Herold): https://amzn.to/3aEiSNM

FEATURED MUSIC CLIP:

'Til The End by Jeremy Camp (written by Seth Mosley and Jeremy Camp)

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR THIS EPISODE:

YouTube

FULL CIRCLE MUSIC LINKS:

Podcast Website

Company Website

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

YouTube

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Cris Lacy, Executive VP A&R at Warner Chappell, discovered her passion for music at a young age. She remembered listening to a tape of her and her grandfather singing “You Are My Sunshine” and she was correcting him on how to sing it! She has still been helping artists such as Dan + Shay, Kenny Chesney, and many more make it in music.

Cris Lacy was always surrounded by music. She went to Vanderbilt, interned, worked for a publishing company, and eventually became a song plugger for twelve years. Cris reminisces on what it was like to be around writers all the time. She explains her love for when “somebody shows up with something that didn’t exist 5 or 6 hours before.”

“I think it’s the most magical thing. And then...you go and try to find a home for that”.

She describes the difference between roles in publishing versus A&R. She did not want to relinquish control from the songs while in publishing. Moving to A&R allowed her to keep control of the song from start to audience.

What does it look like to find new talent?

1. Great team scouring to look for new songs and live shows. (You go to shows every night of the week and travel on weekends.)
2. Recommendations for artists come from everywhere: writers,, publishers, club owners, agents, etc. (Main question asked from writers, producers or musicians: “Is this worth my time?” If they are spending time with these people- they’re worth it!)
3. Research and analysis team watching for trends on DSP’s.

What does it look like to get signed? Every artist has a different journey.

She explains how she met Cody Johnson and saw him play 8 years ago at a show for 20 people. “His voice was so unique”, she remembered. However, it took him 8 years to sign. Ashley McBryde is another artist she signed. “Incredible vocalist. Great personality self deprecation very funny. Clear perspective in her banter.” They signed Dan + Shay on the spot. Even the time between signing and putting out music is different for every artist.

“We call it fairy dust... even if the songs aren’t perfect, the fans aren’t perfect, the venue isn’t perfect- there’s just something that's intangible with artist.. It's like there is a light emanating from them.”

What does it feel like when you know? Cris explains, “It feels like something in my chest.. It's a very physical specific feeling... It’s a warm & fuzzy feeling.”

A&R’s role? “It’s our job to dive deep on finding new people”. If people are talking about something big that’s happening, A&R has to see who the artist is. “It's finding out what their vision is and trying to figure out if we can add value to that.”

What you really need a label to do is to be “honest and tell you your babies are ugly.”

You don't want everyone to agree- you need someone to tell you the truth.

“An artist needs a label to tell them when their art is ready”

Does an artist need anything in place before being signed?

Biggest thing: Know who you are! It’s good to have a big following, put music out, and play shows, but if you don’t know who you are then it’s going to crumble. All the artists who were successful: they never waited for someone else to do it for them.

“There is no substitute for hard work”

Advice for artist who has been in Nashville for 5 years and has not gotten a deal:

Keep going!! “It can take 10-12 years. It’s like winning the lottery! You’re gambling a lot... but the win is big. I don't think it's a game for anyone who can do anything else.” Also, “Creating. That feeds your soul- find joy in the creation. Put emotion into whatever you're doing. People can hear that.”

“If you can’t imagine doing anything else, that’s probably a good indication you’re on the right track.”

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John Butler, former Head of Christian music curation at Spotify, was the mastermind behind playlists like Soft Pop Hits, Just Good Music and Top Christian. Prior to joining Spotify, John was VP/Promotion at Curb Records for over a decade. He brings an extensive strategic knowledge of streaming combined with a radio promotion background.

Many have referred to him as the streaming guidance counselor. He says one of his main goals with streaming was to make the artist’s experience the best it could be. He did this by getting their music to the right people so the artist could foster a close relationship with the listener.

“People make judgement calls about music every time they hit play”

With years of experience, John is able to provide a lot of wisdom to up and coming artists. He advises all artists to take the time to figure out who they are because if they have been authentic while building their audience, that audience will probably follow them wherever they go.

John also dives deep into how to use the Spotify playlist submission tool (aka the pitch tool, who listens to the submitted music, and how valuable it is for artists. John does state blatantly that Spotify truly cares about artists, that they actually care too much, and that every tool that has been created is for serving the artists.

“You need an ear and someone who is going to be able to think objectively [about your music]”

With streaming in the bottom half of the third inning, as John says, it’s still relatively new. He believes that the algorithm is eventually going to know what you want before YOU know what you want. Thinking a couple years from now it will be interesting to see the power of streaming and how it has evolved.

Keep up with John on his Linkedin!

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SOCIAL LINKS:

https://facebook.com/officialfcmusic

https://instagram.com/officialfcmusic

https://twitter.com/officialfcmusic

CONTACT US:

[email protected]

ABOUT FULL CIRCLE MUSIC:

Full Circle Music is a Music Production Company, Music Publishing Company, Record Label, and Music Education Academy based in Nashville, TN. They regularly work with some of the biggest names in music, such as Newsboys, High Valley, Casting Crowns, Skillet, Francesca Battisteli, and For King & Country, just to name a few. Their team has several Grammy Awards, Dove Awards, and over 20 #1 songs at radio. Through the Full Circle Music Academy, Full Circle Music aspires to teach the next generation of musicians what it takes to make it in the modern music industry.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.