Hot Seat: Making It In The Music Industry… with Marc Geiger, WME
TMNhas revived Hot Seat to offer our young industry subscribers an insight into what it takes to make it in the music business.
As global head of William Morris Endeavour’s music department, Marc Geiger oversawthe booking of around 33,000 dates worldwide in 2014 alone. The US-based company’s artists, including Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Jack White, David Byrne and Tony Bennett, have received more than 75 Grammy nominations.
Geiger’s early years in the music industry saw him co-create festival juggernaut Lollapalooza in 1991 and go on to found media company ARTISTdirect in 1994, which housed a talent agency, two record labels, web commerce for major artists and one of the most popular music destinations on the Internet.
Having been with WME since 2003, Geiger is now a partner. He was also named by Billboard as one of the Top 20 most influential people in the industry.
Geiger heads to Australia next month for BigSound, where he’ll make a key note speech. Ahead of his visit, hechats to TMN about his rule of thumb for taking on new clients, his take on degrees vs. experience, and the five pieces of advice he wishes he was givenwhen he was creating ArtistDirect.com.
You have achieved success across a number of sectors of the music business, what’s your secret?
I try to understand the entire ecosystem, not just any one thing I am involved in. Then I look for ways to fix and improve or disrupt that ecosystem.
I kind of do that throughout all parts of my life not just work. It’s my engineering computer background.
Do you have a rule of thumb that you adhere to when looking for new talent?
I have to think they are brilliant or love them.Very heady requirements. As a company we use group think A&R to more critically filter out who we are going to try to work with etc.
It works as much as people hate to be challenged on what they like. Having to convince 3-5 others or more that it’s really great just tightens us up.
During your years at WME you have lead the company to invest in differing digital music firms. Of streaming’s current woes what do you see as the most detrimental, and why?
I don’t see woes, I just see early stage evolution and corresponding issues.Five years from now it will all make sense and the industry will be singing a very different and profitable tune.
By the way this year we have streamed over 1 trillion songs. Did you hear me???The industry just messed all this up but it’s finally on the right track.
For those who want to get into talent booking, is a degree more important, or experience?
Both. College is where I started and tons of others who have become successful in the industry. You get free access and experience there before you go into the “pro” business.
You're set to speak at this year's BIGSOUND event in Brisbane. What industry pressure points do you hope to touch on?
Oh I can’t tell you. It’s a surprise.
Aside from attending the conference, what plans do you have while you're down here in Australia?
We just acquired Artist Voice (now WME). I’m just coming to visit, see bands, see OZ, see our people and team, make friends and pop my mouth off at a conference.
You founded one of the internet’s first music destinations, ArtistDirect.com, in 1994. If you could go back, what advice would you give ‘1994 Marc Geiger’?
That’s an entire book!
- It’s going to take a LOT longer than you think so strap in
- Don’t go public, especially not on top of a huge market crash
- Put your head down and stay very focused, don’t pay attention to the noise and the temporary fads of the internet
- Don’t grow as fast or spend as much, you don’t have to do all those things you did
- MOST OF ALL… Buy Google, Apple, Facebook, Netflix and Amazon stock and just sit back!