The new remote workflow: How agencies, supervisors, & artists are working together in 2020
Almost everyone in the music industry is adapting to a new way of working and in many instances, a new way of life. No one knows how long this pandemic will have an impact on our professional lives, or what its lasting effects will be. We do know, from speaking to people in the industry, that many folks are using this time to look at work differently.
To follow up on our recent article uncovering the “State of Sync” across several territories and categories, we spoke to rights holders, publishers, and recording professionals to gain a deeper understanding of how they’re working remotely, collaborating with creative partners, filling income gaps, and re-imagining their workflows.
Finding new opportunities for artists
Re-packaging and releasing assets
Tom Stanford is the founder of London-based music supervision and licensing company, Theodore Music, and co-founder of Wake the Town, a bespoke composition studio. He’s placed music for global brands such as Samsung, Estee Lauder, VW, and Stella Artois. Tom and his team are using the lockdown to generate new opportunities for artists they work with.
He said, “During the lockdown, we’ve asked ourselves: what are we doing with the assets we have? We work with some amazing composers and even though a track might not be perfect for a campaign we’re working on, we can still find life for it outside that campaign. So when we hear a stand out track, we’re working with the composers to extend the length of it and produce more tracks to create EPs. We’re then releasing them properly on DSPs [digital service providers like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon] and also using the new DISCO Libraries feature to get them out to agencies and trailer houses. We’re working with amazingly talented people who are creating great work and we need to get it out there.”
He added, “Having the music available to both clients and the wider public on Spotify, even without loads of promotion adds a level of gravitas. Plus, after a track is licensed, you can link it to Shazam and build up a following for that artist.”
Greater access to clients, creators, and collaborators
“The versatility of the talent we have access to now is awesome. When the expectation isn’t set that you have to be in the studio with someone, it means basically anyone’s an option.” — Leyla Varela, Electric Dreams Studios
The team at Theodore has seen greater access to creatives at ad agencies during the lockdown. Tom shared, “they’re typically pulled in so many different directions with constant meetings and urgent items to tend to while expected to come up with all these creative ideas. In the past, it’s been difficult for them to sit down and do anything. Now we’ve had more access to them.”
Leyla Varela, the Executive Producer at Electric Dreams Studio in Melbourne, has found that producers and composers are being included in the creative processes earlier than usual. “We’ve been a lot more involved in the creative and concept parts of projects. Music is traditionally a part of post-production but because of video conferencing and ease of access, we’re being pulled into projects a lot earlier, which is great.”
As both a composition studio and a music production company, Electric Dreams’ reach of clients has also expanded. Leyla shared, “Melbourne isn’t a massive production city so we’ve always, to a degree, collaborated with people on productions in Sydney or LA. The current landscape has further leveled the playing field for developing relationships with studios in other cities.” They’ve also experienced greater access to a wider range of artists. She added, “The versatility of the talent we have access to now is awesome. When the expectation isn’t set that you have to be in the studio with someone, it means basically anyone’s an option.”
Without touring, the team at Melbourne-based music publishing company Native Tongue has seen greater access to their artists to help them find new opportunities. Head of Creative Services, Matt Tanner, shared, “We’re seeing just as much — if not more — music released. But rather than full LPs, it’s more singles and EPs. With these shifting release patterns, labels are asking, ‘How can we get songs from you? How can we get writers involved in these projects?’ I think labels are happy to put things out there and if it doesn’t work, they don’t have six-month campaigns behind singles. They can move onto another.”
Native Tongue’s Head of Licensing, Kate Mills shared that supes and directors seem genuinely open and excited to receive all this new music. “Personally, all the new music helps break up the monotony of the day. Servicing hasn’t changed much, we’re just relying on email more rather than the occasional in-person meeting. But people generally seem happy to receive new music for consideration,” she said.
Clemenger Group, a Melbourne advertising agency and part of the worldwide BBDO network, has been hosting bi-weekly artist showcases on Zoom for its team members.
Karolina Bozajkovska of Clemenger said “My goal was to keep connected with our people through music. When Covid hit, and hit hard, I realised how devastating this was to the music industry so I thought it would be awesome to connect our agency with musicians to support both our mental wellbeing and the music industry too. What started off as a temporary idea (four weeks of lockdown, sure!) has been going on for seven months now.”
She continued, “I don’t think anyone can believe the incredible talent we’ve been able to see live in our lounge rooms. The response has been overwhelming. When someone like Gordi or James Reyne appears on your Zoom chat, that’s pretty amazing! People have become fans of artists they never knew about too. The feedback we get every week makes it all worth it.”
The realities of livestream licensing
Native Tongue is also navigating the online performance space, which has meant helping to educate artists and brands on licensing. Brands and artists didn’t realize that the songs they’ve been performing need to be licensed. Kate said, “There was a real spike in those kinds of jobs that required a bit of education and conversations around how music should be licensed. People just wanted to be able to perform. But as time has progressed, I think people are feeling a bit fatigued about the livestreams. They’ve slowed down.”
The role of music in moving picture today and tomorrow
Tom shared that with filming and gathering restrictions, advertising creatives have leaned much harder on music than in the past. He said, “Music has always been important to ads. It’s wild how late it’s thought of in the process. I think music is even more important now in pandemic times as ads are produced so much faster and agencies can’t shoot everything they want to. Music is being leaned on to tell more of that story.” But he added, “That said, I’m sure it will go right back to the way it was when this is over.”
“I think music is even more important now in pandemic times as ads are produced so much faster and agencies can’t shoot everything they want to. Music is being leaned on to tell more of that story.” — Tom Stanford, Theodore Music
Adjusting to remote work
While some smaller agencies and independents may have worked remotely for decades, the teams who used to be in an office together have had to adjust.
Tom from Theodore and Wake the Town shared that he’s (cautiously) hoping he can start looking for new space in early 2021. He said, “there’s not a lot of banter with my plants at home. I’m looking forward to the camaraderie of being in an office. There’s something about having people around you and being able to shout something out. We use Slack and stuff like that. You can do that virtually, but there are some things you might shout out that you’d never type out. It’s much easier to drag someone over and say, look at my laptop…to explain it a lot quicker than doing it virtually.”
From a workflow perspective, Native Tongue felt prepared for the remote work transition. Kate Mills said, “it didn’t feel too disruptive because we were doing quite a bit of work with staff that were in different places. It just meant that suddenly we were all satellite offices. We usually save brainstorming for our regularly scheduled meetings anyway.”
She continued, “Almost half of the creative licensing team are elsewhere, so we were used to talking about briefs on Slack and email rather than face-to-face. We’re quite responsive to each other and can have those conversations naturally without getting on Zoom. We use DISCO in real-time as well to build playlists and see what other people are adding. We kind of cobble our pitches together that way, curate them, and send them out.”
In this together
For better or worse, everyone is getting a glimpse into each other’s personal lives. Leyla from Electric Dreams said, “There’s a lot of people I’ve been working with for years that I’ve only met a couple of times and mostly worked with over the phone. Being able to see them and be in their space, it’s really weird. But it makes everyone feel like they’re on a level playing field. There might be someone who’s quite high up and they’re sitting on their kid’s bed, trying to find the right light and quiet room, you know? That stuff is nice.”
Better briefing
A useful skill in adapting to online-only communications is being as succinct and clear as possible. Briefs can be notoriously vague and sometimes unhelpful. Leyla said, “people have had to get a lot better at briefing. Even with Zoom, you don’t get the same level of concentration as a person-to-person experience. There are delays and people get distracted because they’re not in the same space.”
She added, “For us, that means taking a conceptual idea and answering, ‘practically, what does that mean? How is this performance going to come across? What do I need to actually be focusing on?’ There’s a lot of technique that supports those concepts.”
Solving for Zoom fatigue
Tom Stanford from Theodore said that initially, his team was having daily Zoom calls because that’s what they thought they had to do. He shared, “you get to the point where you’re doing them for the sake of doing them rather than needing to. So now we’re just doing two [Zoom calls] a week, and then a social one every few weeks. There are so many forms of communication and so much chat going on. We got to the point where you knew what everyone was going to say. That doesn’t add a ton of value.”
Kate from Native Tongue shared that in Melbourne, where people can barely go outside, it can start to feel like groundhog day but the regularly scheduled meetings help break up the day as long as they’re succinct. Matt Tanner added, “I typically travel a ton, which I enjoy but is quite taxing. In comparison, Zoom is like having a break. And I get to eat more meals with my family. I’m enjoying it.”
Learning just how possible remote work is
Toddrick Spalding of entertainment marketing agency Mob Scene shared that he had to move his entire music server over to cloud storage to share music with their editors. He said, “Our management team came up with a plan and made it so our entire team could work remotely and remain secure. You have to keep high security with a lot of that work. And they did it all in a few days.”
He added, “Things move a little slower because you’re relying on everyone else’s internet connection and all of that but the actual creative is still strong. We’re working on some great stuff. Over the last two weeks [in September], we’ve been busier than we’ve been in months.”
More flexibility moving forward
Most people we’ve spoken to want a hybrid of remote work flexibility mixed with sharing creative, physical space when it feels safe to work under one roof.
When re-envisioning what the Theodore office will look like, Tom feels ready to offer more flexibility. “I want a space where people can come and go. Maybe they only have to be in the office a day or two each week for meetings and creative collaboration. I’m interested in having a recording studio composers can work from or the team can play around in,” he reflected.
Native Tongue also predicts that their new way of working will incorporate more flexibility. Matt said, “Pre-pandemic, there was an assumption that if someone said they’re going to work from home tomorrow, it’d be like a bit of a wink wink. ‘Okay, cool.’ But we’ve all been busier than ever and we’ve been getting a lot done while we’re all working from home.”
Leyla feels similarly. “I’d love to have a mixture of remote and in-office. I find that I’m a lot more productive by being able to put myself into a space and concentrate at home. But I miss the community. We’ve tried to keep that up with Slack and Zoom calls. It’s not the same. I miss the sharing of music, films, and life. I look forward to being face-to-face with artists again and the real-time collaboration that can happen when coming up with briefs in person.”
She envisions a similar approach for working with composers as well, adding “I hope that as we come out of this lockdown, there will be a good mix of in-studio and remote session work. I still like being in the studio, it’s a special thing that I really miss and it’s always going to be important, but having that flexibility and knowing that it can work is exciting.”
A new way of recording
“Moving forward, hiring an artist could mean providing them with what they need for their setup.”
Artists have had to adapt too.
Leyla from Electric Dreams Studio shared, “A lot of artists have had to diversify their skill sets to record themselves instead of us doing the recording. We’re guiding them through the recording process then polishing it up. It’s a lot of logistical work and a lot of spreadsheets. Sometimes we’re in on the session via Zoom or source connect to control their setup, depending on their digital interface. Some of those programs are really expensive.”
To that point she added, “That has been a little bit troubling for me. Some artists might get left behind by not having the proper equipment or technological know-how. There are a lot of bedroom producers who are incredible at that technical side, but there’s a lot of people who aren’t. We’ve been trying to figure out how we can manage that.”
Leyla has thought of solutions. She said, “Moving forward, hiring an artist could mean providing them with what they need for their setup. Temporary solutions that are out of reach for some artists are affordable for brands, agencies, studios, etc. You can simply rent and courier someone equipment.”
Now more than ever, it’s evident that artists should learn how to record themselves. As people cut costs and explore alternative solutions, artists need to be able to keep up. Leyla reflected, “I hope that this doesn’t in any way discourage the use of real musicians. That’s something I’m also worried about. Using live musicians can already be seen as a bit of a premium product rather than using samples.”
With the right set of instructions, learning to record can be simple. She added, “Getting an incredible dead recording can be hard. But to get something that sounds decent at least for a demo is really possible, especially if you have someone to produce it. It doesn’t need to be such a big blockade for people. It’s pretty easy to get something recorded with step-by-step instructions, a good mic, and a computer.”
Toddrick of Mob Scene added that when it comes to working with composers on bespoke projects, “Most of the time I give notes over the phone anyway. It’s a lot of ‘We need the changes to happen at 1:26, give us a big drop and a big rise here,’ that kind of stuff.”
He added, “The only real difference is, and there’s a real change, is that there’s a different energy when you’re in a room with somebody doing creative. I think the creative comes out better. That’s the piece that’s missing. But when it comes to the actual physicality of the work, being remote has been fine.”
A gradual return to a new normal in recording
Leyla shared, “I think the first step out of lockdown will be a pod of sorts. A small group of people we’ve decided we’re comfortable being with and then hopefully expanding it.”
“Since April, we’ve done one vocal session in the studio when the first lockdown orders were briefly lifted. We made sure everything was as sanitized as possible and there was nothing reusable. We created a one-way corridor that someone can walk in and walk out with no close interaction. We’ve kept the vocal booth separate from the recording space. It’s people just talking through glass, which is weird.”
A new way of doing business
Many of the people we spoke to mentioned one good thing to come from the pandemic slowdowns has been the opportunity to reflect on how they approach their work. A lot of it comes down to professional and personal priorities. It’ll be interesting to watch how the industry incorporates these new insights as work picks back up.
Kate Mills from Native Tongue said, “It’s been quite humanizing and humbling for most of us, I think. Your day-to-day can be so transactional as you’re just trying to get your job done. But at the end of the day, you think, ‘Oh, there is this human element to this business that we work in and we do care about it and we care about each other and the music.’ I think that can sometimes get lost in the mix. That kind of human element to what’s been going on the last few months has provided an opportunity for a bit more connection.”
Fred Schindler of Europe-based music supervision company Too Young, LTD, said the pandemic had helped them improve how they work. “A lot of our work is fielding urgent and chaotic requests that often don’t result in anything. Moving forward, we can learn to filter better, create a set of standards or qualifiers for ourselves. We can focus our energy on fewer clients that are committed to building long-term partnerships as long as we provide an outstanding service.”
If any industry knows how to be scrappy, it’s music and entertainment. We’re optimistic that the new solutions and newfound flexibility artists and companies are finding will help them through this difficult period, and lead to better ways of working on the other side.
