In this industry, especially when it comes down
to negotiating, patience is a virtue. I have had the opportunity to interview a
friend within the music industry, Andrea P., a former employee of Sony Music Entertainment US Latin,
and currently working member for Hershey Entertainment & Resorts. While at Sony Latin, she was part of the team
that negotiated their online content with Sony’s digital partners, such as iTunes.
A point of reference she gave me, while she was
part of that team, iTunes accounted for 93% of the market according to her. She
also said that even though the digital field has grown in the past couple years
the process for getting banner space and pre-order capabilities in portals such
as iTunes is still pretty much the same. I asked her to condense how the
process between them and iTunes, in specific, went on a project-to-project
basis down to one word, she immediately answered leverage. Andrea told me that the artist’s name was not enough for
iTunes to provide home page banner space for any release. She said that
whenever a project came about to get positional space within iTunes, they knew
that they immediately needed to build a package that would appeal to them to
justify the banner space. Depending on the artist, she said, that iTunes would
ask them to add either a certain amount of bonus songs or a music video to the
album or sometimes both in a variety of quantities.
It is at this point where she said that the
relationship both companies had built with each other, and more specifically those
on the front lines of these talks, was key to successfully accomplish their
goals. Andrea said that the hardest part was not to get iTunes to hear them
out, but instead it was to build a package that would mutually benefit them
both. Some of the artists in the Latin sector of the industry she helped
negotiate with iTunes were Spanish rock acts such as Reik and Camila, as well as Latin hip-hop group Calle 13.
I asked her what were some of the lessons that
she learned while at Sony that she has carried on with her into Hershey. Aside
form learning to look for or build leverage in any given situation, she said
that some one in her position should always know their product and their
limitations. Andrea said that there comes a point where one is trying to reach
an agreement just for the sake to reach it that they forget what they are
promising, and that can hurt your relationship with the other side down the
road. Her advice for someone looking to get into this industry at a negotiating
level was that if you know your product and its limitations as well as your
company’s limitations, then you will never promise to deliver more than you
can. She added that relationships between parties in this industry are crucial
for future projects down the line. For having a better relationship with the
other side in a negotiation increases the power that you have to achieve your
desired goal.
I
would like to thank Andrea P. for her time and efforts that she took to answer
all of my questions and more.
