Learning from the Pros

When thinking about starting your own business, it’s always important to do research on the industry and try to learn as much as possible from other’s mistakes. Team 20 Productions is a company that will concentrate on providing dance choreography within the entertainment industry. It will also include dance workshops and consultations with developing artists. We will take a look at three separate podcasts and how the information in them will help with the creation of Team 20 Productions.

            The first podcast one we will discuss is Margaret Gould Stewart: How YouTube thinks about copyright. Margaret Gold is the head of user content for YouTube. She describes the relationship between copyright holders and YouTube. This podcast was very interesting to me because I have already experienced some copyright issues with YouTube as a dance instructor. A few months ago, I posted a video from one of my dance classes to my YouTube account that included a snippet from the song “Flawless” by Beyonce’. This is extremely common practice for choreographers and dance instructors to post videos of their class choreography or even dance concept videos. A few weeks ago, I noticed that YouTube removed the sound from my video due to a copyright issue at the request of the copyright owner of the song.  Margaret’s speech gave me a better understanding of why this took place. YouTube prides itself in giving copyright owners a “choice” on how to proceed when their content is present in an uploaded video. The example she spoke about was regarding Chris Brown’s song “Forever.” A couple used this song in a wedding video they uploaded to YouTube and it went viral. The copyright owner, Sony Music, allowed this to stay and it actually had a direct impact on the song re-emerging on the charts. In regards to my video, the copyright owner chose to have the audio removed. This is the copyright owner’s choice and YouTube has created that within their policy. This podcast taught me that copyright is very important to understand and my company should be very diligent in copyrighting material that my company creates. It also taught me to make sure to get the correct clearances when necessary as well.

            The second podcast I viewed was Drew Curtis: How I beat a Patent Troll. This podcast was awesome! Copyrights and patents are concepts that are important to my business because we will be creating a lot of original content that may need certain protections. Drew Curtis is the founder of fark.com. Fark.com, along with several others, were a part of a lawsuit from a company that had a patent "...for the creation and distribution of news releases via email." This company that “owned” the patent is whom Curtis calls the “Patent Troll.” Curtis’ company as well as all of the other companies included in the lawsuit did not infringe on the patent, however, all of the other companies decided to settle because it’s cheaper to settle than attempt to fight the suit. Curtis and his lawyers decided to ask the company to provide screen shots of where his company infringed. The company’s lawyers didn’t do so and instead asked for a settlement offer. Curtis’ company said they would not pay anything in a settlement. The company agreed and in the settlement, Curtis also struck the non-disclosure agreement. This allows him to speak freely about the case. I learned quite a few things from this podcast, the first thing is the knowledge of “companies” that solely exist to purchase patents on future technology, ideas, etc. and go around filing claims on companies to get as many of these companies to pay out settlements. Curtis gave amazing tips on how to fight these “patent trolls:

1.Don’t fight the patent, fight the infringement.

2.Make it clear that you have no money, or that you’d rather spend money on a lawyer to fight the patent troll.

3.Make sure to let the patent troll know that you will make this process as annoying as possible.  This is a tactic the trolls normally use but it works both ways as well.

As a future business owner, I hope to never have to come across one of these, but it’s great to have the tools just in case!

            The last podcast to discuss is Lawrence Lessig:Laws that choke creativity. The title of this talk caught my attention the most. I like how he talked about how it’s important to embrace how young people remix or re-envision content. I think this is huge and takes us back to the YouTube issue discussed above. Lessig talks about how every use of culture will produce a copy.  He argues that the laws stifle creativity especially as we build new technology. He says that there are extremes with this debate and there needs to be a balance. I agree with him that copyright owners should make content available for “amateur use” to promote creativity. This will help my business so that I don’t have to get a license every time I want to post a video on YouTube of a dance class or workshop. This balance can also help in the reverse, like the Chris Brown/wedding video we spoke about above.

         In conclusion, these podcasts were great tools and providing amazing information that will help with the creation and implementation of Team 20 Productions.

Product and Artist Management Lessons

The journey of going back to school and making the decision to dive whole-heartedly into an industry that I have been in love with for as long as I can remember has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. When I looked at the name of this month’s class “Product and Artist Management,” I knew that it would be very interesting. I did not expect it to be my favorite class so far in the program. I can honestly say that I have learned something significant from each guest speaker in our class.  Here are three of the major lessons I’ve learned from our guest speakers:

1.     Stephanie Christie is a Public Relations expert that taught me the importance of cohesiveness within all promotional materials for an artist. In short, the music has to match the visuals and vice versa. I’m hoping to work in artist development and potentially in management as well so this lesson was huge for me. I will make sure that any artist I work with has an outward appearance that matches the music they create.

2.     Craig Hayes taught me the importance of professionalism and working your way up in the industry. He told the story of how he interned at LaFace Records after graduation. He had to do some of the dirty work that a lot of people aren’t willing to do. However, because he did it without complaints, he was able to build relationships with important people and eventually begin producing for some major artists. I am no stranger to hard work and I think this lesson helps me not be afraid to take on small tasks and even do some things for free when the bigger picture is of significant value.

3.     Samuel Allen taught me the importance of creating a culture when thinking about successful marketing. Sam’s presentation really made me think of expanding the scope of what my company can do. Not only can we help with the development of an artist, but we may be able to be a part of the creation of their marketing as well. Creating a culture, something the target market can get behind emotionally is a great lesson.

1 Million Cups: H3 (Healthy Hip Hop)

The 1 Million Cups presentation that I watched was about H3:Healthy Hip Hop. H3 is a company that produces Hip Hop influenced content that promotes youth education and physical activity. Their main vision is to “motivate families to build healthy lifestyles.”

My first impression of this company was they were very positive, fun and energetic! I love the concept. Being a Hip Hop dance instructor who works with young children, I can see that Hip Hop culture is a hugely influential medium in today’s youth. This company seems to have a good idea of how to use Hip Hop to motivate kids into creating positive habits regarding their education and fitness.

H3 showed many strengths during their presentation. They did a great job of describing the variety of products and services they offer. They have CDs and DVDs that can be purchased for Hip Hop dance/fitness for elementary, middle school and high school students. The H3 crews also perform at several schools, after school programs, recreation centers and birthday parties in the Kansas City area. This company also has a working partnership with the LeBron James Family Foundation as well as other like-minded organizations.

The only weaknesses that I saw in their presentation were more technical. There was a moment when the microphone was not working for one of the presenters. They also had a sound issue when two of the presenters were trying to perform one of their songs. They did a great job of not letting those technical difficulties negatively impact the presentation as a whole. They were also very personable and seemed comfortable speaking in front of a crowd. My suggestions for this would have been to actually start the presentation with the actual performance, then go into the speaking part. I think this would have helped with the flow of the presentation as a whole.

The future of this company is really exciting to listen to. Some of their future projects are a weekly television show, as stated above, as well as more educational based Hip Hop music that teaches history, mathematics and other school subjects. The company is very interactive. Their website, H3tv.com, is where they house all of their content. The website is very user friendly and has tons of information, games and videos that kids and their parents can access. As a dance instructor, I will definitely be purchasing some of their CDs. I think they give a great positive alternative to what is already out there. I enjoyed their 1 Million Cups presentation very much.

Negotiations: Featuring interview with Professional Athlete Greg Dilligard

Contract negotiations can be one of the most stressful conversations in business. However, when you’re able to hone in on a few techniques and utilize effective communication skills, one will see that you can have more successful negotiations than not. I’ve been blessed to meet a lot of entertainment, media and sports professionals throughout my life. To get an inside look on how the pros do it, I was able to reach out to a fellow Illinois State Alum.

Greg Dilligard is a professional basketball player. He currently plays for Aguada in Uruguay. He has been playing professional basketball for six years and in four different countries. He has two agents that have been helping to negotiate his various contracts throughout his career. Being a professional athlete, negotiations are a “necessary evil,” he said when we spoke via Skype.  

“I have one agent in the states and another here in South America. They both work together in the off-season to work out the best deals for me. They bring the options to me and we all figure out what the best opportunity for me will be.” Normally, the bulk of the negotiations are between the interested team’s board members, the coach and his agents. However, he was able to directly be involved in a negotiation when he wanted to leave a particular team in the middle of a season.

In this particular situation, Greg found out that the coach for the team he was playing for wanted to release him midseason in order to pick up another player. Greg contacted his agents and they started negotiations with another team that had previously showed interest in him. A verbal agreement was set and Greg made the decision that he wanted to move to that team. Before an official contract could be signed, the team he was already on set up a negotiation meeting. The coach of the team that he was already on had a change of heart. They wanted to see if they could work out a new deal to have him stay on the team. Greg and his agents were able to come into that negotiation with a best alternative to the negotiated agreement, or BATNA. Unless his current team came up with an “out of this world” offer, he was moving to the new team.

Greg and his agents did not appreciate the fact that they had to hear about the team’s original wish to release him from a third party source. They didn’t feel that it was very professional. Although Greg wasn’t very happy with his coach at the time, he was able to separate the person from the problem. He could have approached the negotiation angry and allowed emotions to control the conversation but they knew that would not contribute positively to the negotiation. The team’s offer ended up not being better than his BATNA and he was amicably released and able to sign with the new team that year.

Greg was also able to give me an interesting story where he was victim to a dirty trick during negotiations. During off-season negotiations with one team, another team became interested in him. The second team contacted the team that he was in negotiations with and asked for an injury report on him. He had fairly recently come off knee surgery but was cleared to play. The first team gave a false injury report on him in order to keep him from even starting negotiations with the second team. Greg found this out after he agreed to the play for the first team. The potential contract from the second team was actually for more money but he found out too late. One thing he and his agents learned from that situation was to always ask questions. On their end, the lines of communication closed suddenly with the second team. If they asked a few more questions, they may have been able to intercept the false injury report before signing any contracts.

Greg says that he prefers to leave the negotiations to his agents because of situations like the two he described for me. It takes a patient person to be able to look at all sides of an argument objectively and communicate in a way that will mutually benefit all parties involved. I’m grateful to have been able to speak to him regarding his personal experiences and learn from them as well.