INTERVIEW ANALYSIS- RONNIE TRAYNOR

As a part as one of my modules, I was asked to interview professionals within the music industry. I spoke with Ronnie Traynor, the general manager of a full-service music and artist management company Various Artists Management. Within this interview I was able to identify different management principles. I have attached the follow up report I did from this interview, and includes my research into Ronnie and the interview.

Within the music industry, many of their jobs acquire the knowledge of the management principles within. There are many different principles in order to succeed and excel within the job title you gain. I chose to research into people that are currently or have previously worked as an A&R manager, I did this because I felt as if this job requires an extreme amount of knowledge in the management industry.

I am going to be evaluating an interview I had with a lady named Ronnie Traynor, she kindly agreed to have an over the phone interview with me to answer a few questions I had to learn more about the industry and how certain managers apply the marketing principles within their work line. Ronnie has had a lot of previous experience within the music management industry and has worked with some amazing people. Ronnie is currently working at ‘Various Artists Management’ and managing many artists/bands.

Within this interview I had with Ronnie, I noticed she relates many management principles into the way that she works. One Management principle that was mentioned is People Skills. People skills is a very important principle to have especially when you’re working within the music industry as an A&R manager. A main part of your job is to work the artist hard to produce music, however you need to be able to know where to go from there and where you can promote it. In the music industry, the more people that you know within the industry then the more it will benefit you and your artist as it widens your choices of how to go further with your artists. It was clear to me that Ronnie notices the fact that this management principle is very important in that line of work as she mentioned “you have to build relationships, which can be tough”. However, as much as building relationships within other people in the industry, it is also extremely important to build relationships with the artists themselves. The reasoning for this is, if the manager and the artist do not get along then the work that is needed to be done may not be done promptly and with all effort, which can result in less success. Ronnie stated, “Happiness of my team, successful but miserable, no one’s getting along would be stressful” Another reason behind this is that it would also mean that if you were to get along with your artist or manager, then is allows your work to be a lot more enjoyable and you would work a lot more efficiently. Once again, during this interview Ronnie had acknowledged the fact that it is also important to have friendships with your artists, however she claimed that is can be hard sometimes. “We are the best of friends, but sometimes you need to know the balance between friendship and work” This shows that Ronnie has an excellent understanding of People skills within her work line, it is evident that she knows it is important to have this skill, and she knows how to apply it correctly to her job.

Another striking principle mentioned was Flexibility. This means being adaptable and able to work in stressful situations whilst keeping a level head. Flexibility is once again an important principle to have in this industry. Being an A&R manager, you need to be able to plan, organize, coordinate and control aspects within your artist, and this will be needed for all of your artists, UK or global. In order to allow yourself to be flexible within this role, it would mean that you would have to be very organised and on top of the work load, and you would also need to be very time-aware. A quotation for this principle is “Every day brings a different set of questions that need answering and problems that need solving”. Within my interview with Ronnie, one of the questions I asked was “What is your average day as an A&R manager?” and her response provides proof for the quotation that I stated above, “there isn’t an average day to be honest, no days are ever the same. Especially when you have developing artist and artists who are releasing globally” This is evident that Ronnie herself is very aware that as a part of her job role this management principle is extremely vital, due to the fact that there are different jobs to do every day with different artists, and artists with different skills. This shows that she is very aware on how to control this principle effectively, allowing her to excel in this principle meaning its creating a positive affect onto her artists. In my opinion, another aspect to this principle would be knowing the latest updates with the music software and the news affecting the music industry, I feel as if this is a massive influence as it could affect your working rota and how you release music. Ronnie stated “Working on a global landscape, where we used to be able to stagger releases on Spotify, so we might’ve released an album in the US at a later date than the UK, its changed now and everything is released on the same day which is difficult” Stating this shows that Ronnie is very aware of how the software’s work, this allows her to use her flexibility principle in order to plan and organize around the parts that are changing within the music industry.

Yet another management principle that I noticed was organization. The importance of organization within a management industry is extremely important, when you are managing artists, it means that you are almost in charge of them and you control where they go and what they need to do. In the music industry, as a manager, the tasks that you need to do are often within a time frame, therefore organization will allow you to get the work done efficiently and it won’t be rushed. “I deal with developing acts, and looking for producers and writers to go into studios with and we’re scheduling stuff with other managers of other producers, writer etc. I’m currently working on a release schedule plan for this next album and we have got to take in to consideration how long artwork will take and photos etc so we work quite far ahead” Ronnie had shown that she is very organized by stating what she did on a regular day in her job title. What she had said, has shown that she plans and takes in consideration of many different aspects that could affect her timeline, and she uses that to help plan. Ronnie claimed that she is always planning on her day-to-day basis. Once again, this shows a good use of organization, if she did not plan how she was going to promote/create an album etc, then it would not be up to the highest standard it could be. Organization is absolutely vital if you have to manage artists globally as well- in which Ronnie does. “I have a lot of acts out in the US, in the UK the day usually ends around 6ish, but then I will have conference calls in the US at 7/8 pm till 11 o clock at night because their days are obviously 8 hours behind. So sometimes we have to work around the clock” This shows that even though Ronnie has acts out in the US in which is a completely different time-zone to UK, she still manages to organize meetings etc for them in order to allow them to exceed to their full potential.

Overall, within this report, I have explained a few different management principles and related them to my interview with Ronnie. As clearly shown throughout the essay, it is evident that Ronnie follows many Music Management principles. This allows her to be a successful manager for her artists and for herself. Management principles are extremely vital within the job title that Ronnie has (artist manager), but evidently through all her experience and expertise, she continues to excel within the industry, allowing the artists she manages to reach the full potential and have the best chance of succeeding within this industry.

RESEARCH

Ronnie Traynor- Artist Manager/Branded Entertainment Specialist

Experience

Producer – Channel Four

September 1997- 2000

Labelling and marketing manager

Distinctive Records / Avex inc.

1999-2003

Managed the London division of Avex Inc.(Avex is a large Japanese record label)
My main area of responsibility was the day-to-day running of the label. This included coordinating releases from delivery of track to getting it onto the record shop shelves, marketing and licensing, coordination all TV, press and radio activities and support to the A&R managers.
Additional responsibilities included organising videos for certain acts and arranging artwork and photo-shoots.

COO

Tunetribute.com

2003-2007

Responsible for brokering all digital content deals with record labels for content including all 4 Majors, the independent sector and individual content owners.
Secured exclusive content both live and recorded from artists and labels.
Management of day-to-day TuneTribe activities and HR responsibilities including recruitment and employee reviews.

Music Director

Euro RSCG KLP

2007-2010

KLP Entertainment is an award-winning experiential marketing agency.
As music director my main role within the agency is to respond to all music briefs and activate and manage all subsequent music activity.

Artist Manager/Partner/GM

Various music management/vision artists Ltd UK & US

Manager / Co-manager of RIVRS, BARNS COURTNEY, MILLIE GO LIGHTLY, YONAKA MSTR.ROGERS, & producer / songwriter Olly Burden (Prodigy / Barns Courtney / Girli / Romeo / RIVRS) & LA based Songwriter James Carrington.

Various Artist Management is a 360 degree management company based in London and Los Angeles working across multiple artists such as Charli XCX, The Libertines, Spirtualized, Reverend & The Makers, Tom Grennan, Barns Courtney, RIVRS and many more.
Vision Artists – a subsidiary of Various – is a specialist entertainment agency that brokers talent for brand partnerships, sponsored & corporate events and other brand related opportunities.

http://variousartistsmanagement.com/holding/