In the future I hope to be working within the music industry and the topic of focus this month has been on negotiation and deal making. With that said, I wanted to get a closer look at negotiations made within the music industry and a real-world perspective to better understand how it all works. This week I had the privilege of interviewing Erin Hinojos who has been working within the music industry for several years now. Erin is a good friend of mine who I met during our Music Business Bachelor’s degree at Full Sail University in 2009. During that time he kept me somewhat in the loop on his business dealings, but I wanted to catch up with him as well as ask him a few questions I had about his negotiation experience.
Currently, Erin holds two positions within the music industry. His main job is with a boutique artist management company called Vedette Productions working as an assistant manager of Caitlyn Moe which consists of helping with PR, marketing, and tour management for Caitlyn. He also assists with booking and does live sound at a venue in Brooklyn called Spike Hill. In his spare time, Erin manages his own artists under the RAMC Media Collective.
I asked Erin what kind of negotiations he deals with most of the time within his positions and he said mostly performance contracts. He has helped with a performance contract for Caitlyn, and is currently in the middle of a negotiating a contract for a producer/programmer he manages. This will be a songwriting contract as well as a contract with management.
Expanding on this, I asked Erin what kind of issues he has run into with negotiating with other parties. He replied saying that usually it comes down to agreeing on money, or the length of a term and that he’s been fortunate enough to work with people who have been easy to do deals with. Hopefully his negotiations continue this way, I’d say that’s pretty lucky!
I then asked what he does to make the negotiations run smoothly. He explained that he likes to build a personal and working relationship with anyone that he may be doing business with, that way it makes negotiating and talking with each other much more comfortable and keeps the negotiation running smoothly, thus resulting in a positive outcome. I thought this response was a very insightful and helpful one. Getting to know the person or party you are going to be dealing with can only help the situation in that you know each others limits and personalities.
I went on to ask Erin if he had ever had to deal with any “dirty tricks” when negotiating. When working out a contract, apparently the writer of the contract tried to use “fancy law lingo” to get his way in the dealings. He explained that because they had a good lawyer, Paul Rothenburg, this was caught before anything was signed and set in stone. Moral of the story: Always have a good lawyer and always read between the lines. If and when I ever work on an artist contract this story will come back to me and remind me to watch out.
Erin summed up the interview by explaining that building good working relationships has been very beneficial in any kind of business deal or negotiation he’s had and if he’s learned anything in negotiating is it to be patient, know what you want, and have a good lawyer that can read past the sneaky lawyer lingo.
All in all I felt this was a great interview. I gained advice that I can carry into my career within the music industry and know what to expect when it comes to negotiations and deal making. Erin was very helpful and gave insight into what can sometimes be a tricky industry.
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