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ALI RAYMOND: Behind every great name, behind every great label,
behind every great company, it's the humans behind that.
SINEAD HARNETT: I think that being on our phones
is so unhealthy and takes away from the thing that actually
feeds the art, which is being.
ARLO PARKS: When it comes to developing an artist and--
is the human being behind the artistry?
COURTNEY STEWART: We need to be supportive of one another,
managers to managers and artists to artists.
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NAOMI ZEICHNER: What advice would you guys
give to people who are the next person in your position?
What do you think they need and what would you
tell them to try to remember?
COURTNEY STEWART: So an interesting stat
that I ran across is every day, there
are about 20,000 songs that have been released.
So the business that we in is very competitive.
You have to position yourself to compete with those thousands
of other creatives out there.
YouTube, for instance, is a tool that is so important
to get content out.
And you have to be consistent, because if you release
a project or if you release a video
and you go away for a month, it's
just too much time that lapsed and that those--
if you're looking at 20,000 songs coming out a day,
it's counterproductive because other artists
are getting in your spot.
NAOMI ZEICHNER: Lyor, what are some ways
that you think we can--
the industry can really provide support to independent artists?
LYOR COHEN: The issue now is, because distribution is gone,
now we have many, many different artists available,
and how do you cut through the clutter?
I can't stand that when you go to a record company,
the first thing they ask is, tell me
about how many followers you have,
instead of listening to the music.
I think one of the most important things that
is being missed is the love affair
of the song in an artist.
So I think that the social media, I would say,
is a pendulum that has swung deeply,
but I suspect that it will--
you could manage your social media in a human way.
NAOMI ZEICHNER: Sinead, do you want to speak
a little bit on that as well?
SINEAD HARNETT: I do think that being on our phones
is so unhealthy and takes away from the thing that
actually feeds the art, which is being, being present.
The demands nowadays are--
I can't think of any other word than barbaric.
Where is the time for meditation, for self-care,
for relaxing?
ARLO PARKS: Definitely.
I remember, Sinead, we were talking about it before,
but I think one of the things that we really
have to focus on when it comes to developing an artist is
the human being behind the artistry,
making sure that they feel supported
in terms of their mental health, emotionally.
Because it is a career, I think, where
it's very much honed in on you and promo
and presenting yourself a certain way and almost
that commodification of the person.
COURTNEY STEWART: I couldn't agree with you more.
I know growing up, I would look at my idols as superheroes.
And you forget about the human element,
that they're real humans.
They go through real issues.
They have real problems.
But as a fan, you just think their life is perfect.
They're rich and they're famous, and everything is perfect.
We need to have these conversations,
and we need to be supportive of one another,
managers to managers and artists to artists,
because we're really going through the same thing.
It's levels to it, but we're all going
through different things in our lives
that we have to deal with.
ALI RAYMOND: It's about the human side of it,
because behind every great name, behind every great label,
behind every great company, it's the humans behind that
that are going to be invested.
And they're the ones that-- like Sinead said,
they're the ones that are going to stay up
all night thinking about your artist or about the team.
And everyone works together for one goal.
LYOR COHEN: I was going to say that one
of the pieces of advice that I love to give to artists,
to entrepreneurs in the music business,
is to enjoy the process.
And just I love listening to a lot of people so focused
on getting where that they forget the journey.
And the journey is the beautiful part of it.
NAOMI ZEICHNER: Well, I want to thank everybody
for your time and candor today.
I think we've really heard that music doesn't have--
life and music doesn't have just one starting point.
You really have to work and creatively come up
with solutions throughout your time in music,
both as an independent artist or just as a human.
So I really hope that this conversation
is helpful and inspiring to other folks who
want to work in music and grow as people.
And I really appreciate everybody's incredible input
today.
I think it was a really wonderful conversation.
COURTNEY STEWART: Happy to be here.
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