Many arts entrepreneurs—such as music producers—may not be aware of the personnel and itemized roles that come with executing a creative endeavor with efficiency, excellence, and expedience. It is common for producers to take on new clients’ projects within a moment’s notice, and thus, make deadlines the arch-nemesis against the perceived reliability of producers to deliver their client’s vision. The attributes of zeal, passion, collaboration, discovery, and perhaps obsession are common traits possessed by producers, often leading them to accept professional opportunities without realizing their limitations to deliver the final product/service due to the impeding influence of time. Meeting set goals and visions are essential to the 5 Stages of Enterprise Development (Ruiz, et. al, 2022) which are common for music producers to undergo during creative processes: 1) ideation; 2) organization; 3) creation; 4) ownership—determining the legalities, protocol, and level of autonomy a team has for operating a product and service collectively and respectively; and 5) informed testing—the stage in which the product is piloted for proof of concept and target audience’s receptivity.
The successful execution and completion of a product/service can ensure that efficiency, excellence, and expedience is prioritized as well as insure client’s trust, which can lead to future projects as opposed to a ‘one-and-done’ business experience. Therefore, below is a three-pillar principle called the “Initiation-Delegation-Facilitation” principle (hereinafter, IDF principle) that may serve as a guide for aspiring producers and arts entrepreneurs—especially those at the secondary education or undergraduate level—to consider implementing when aiming to yield the highest quality results for developing their client’s products/services with efficiency, excellence, and expedience. To contextualize the IDF principle, a music production service scenario between the producer(s) and client(s) will be used.
Initiation: The Roadmap
In this initial stage of production, the client(s) and producer(s) negotiate the budget, number of tracks, their respective style(s), the impetus of the project, and the deadline for when the music should be completed. After proposals are sent and contracts are reviewed and signed, the lead producer can properly prioritize the project with a schedule and strategize the logistics for any upcoming recording sessions based upon the deadline. This process can be referred to as initiation. The album producer is initiating the foundations of the project’s roadmap. Several important concepts that are solidified in this stage are 1) establishing trust, clarity, and understanding with the client; 2) developing a strategy that considers the A-school’s (arts) and B-school’s (business) pillars of impact, inspiration, translatability, community, scalability, leverage, sustainability, and multimodal functionality of the product/service that is to be created (Ruiz, et. al, 2021); and 3) formulating a compassionate contract that meets the work and ethical expectations of both parties in order to facilitate respect and responsibility.
Delegation: The Team
Once the producer has established the roadmap for the production process that lies ahead, the producer can hire a team of professionals who are masterful in their craft and who are willing to develop understanding (understanding can be operationalized as ‘the application of wisdom at the appropriate time’) for how their expertise can best serve the impetus and aims of the client’s aspired product (e.g., single, EP, album, and/or music videos). In this pillar, the production team may comprise of individuals executing the following tasks: composing, arranging, recording instrumental and vocal parts, engineering, managing the studio and personnel’s needs, editing, mixing, mastering, videography processes, and so forth. For delegation to be successful, the producer could position team members to express their tasks in a way that highlights their respective experiences, ideas, innovations, interpretations, and creative risks. The theme of trust is a recurring theme that must be cultivated within the production team during the delegation stage. Additionally, the producer may set secondary deadlines for all parties involved for the purpose of leaving allocated time for the final stage.
Facilitation: The Progress
As the producer initiates and delegates tasks with the production team, as well as setting secondary deadlines before the official deadline, it gives license for the pillar of facilitation to occur, which involves periodical communication with all personnel (i.e., production team and client) fulfilling their respective roles. During facilitation, the producer’s goal is to create a sense of ease and progress. The etymology of the word, “facilitation”, derives from the word, “facil”, which means “ease” or “easier” in the Latin. Hence, as the producer trusts every member of the production team to innovate and create at a professional level, there will always be 1) clear communication that exists among the entire team, and 2) a willingness to step in to ease the team member’s load by immersing themselves into the creative/technical processes, ultimately, to ensure that the team remains untampered and that the morale of the creative processes remains in tact. As the producer examines the progress of the team, the desires of the client are always in mind and will be the point of reference for any adjustments and refinements within the creative processes.
Productions requires a considerable amount of financial, administrative, and creative resources from a network of individuals functioning in meaningful roles to achieve a set goal. This holds true for the article’s example of an album production service. When considering the IDF principle, there is more to a creative production than what meets the eye. Therefore, consider incorporating the IDF principle as a means to yield efficiency, excellence, and expedience when working on a client’s project with a caring team that is ready to deliver their best and attune services. In doing so, the producer’s enterprise’s reputation and insurability could blossom beyond foreseeable comprehension.
Derris Lee is an arts entrepreneur practitioner and educator as well as a commercial music producer who is the Instructor of Record for the courses, Music Production in Commercial Media and Strategic Music Entrepreneurship Development at the University of Florida. A 2022 Downbeat® Music Award Outstanding Performances as Jazz Soloist Award Winner and published scholar in the Journal of Arts Entrepreneurship Education, Lee was also the keyboardist and percussionist for the 2022 Latin GRAMMY® Award Winning album, “A La Fiesta De La Música Vamos Todos” by Sophia, which won Best Latin Children’s Music Album. As a music entrepreneur, Lee won the 2023 International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences’ Anthem® Award for Education, Art, and Culture (category: Strategy) for the documentary, “Getting to the GRAMMYs and Beyond: An Insight to Student-Professor Collaborative Albums/Music Videos for Promoting Ecological Activism and Social Impact.”
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derris.lee.3
Instagram: @derrislee
José Valentino Ruiz is the Founder and Creative Director at JV Music Enterprises; Resident Media Composer/Music Producer at Hayden 5; and Inaugural Program Director of Music Business & Entrepreneurship at the University of Florida. A published scholar in numerous journals including the Journal of Popular Music Education, Ruiz is passionate about uncovering, testing, and sharing pedagogical and pragmatic frameworks for improving aspiring musicians’ and entrepreneurs’ missiological aspirations, strategies, impact value, and business acumen. As an entrepreneur, music producer, composer, and performing artist, Ruiz has earned multiple GRAMMY® Awards, an Emmy® Award, and Inc. Magazine’s 2022 Best in Business® Award, among other awards. Ruiz has produced 130+ album, performed 1400+ concerts, and led numerous mission trips in 5 continents to develop popular music education programs as interventions for providing access and opportunities to at-risk students. His Ph.D. in Music Education is from the University of South Florida.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/josevalentino
Instagram: @josevalentinomusic
References:
Ruiz-Resto, J.V., et al. “‘Getting to the Grammys and Beyond’ (Documentary) – Society of Arts Entrepreneurship Education.” YouTube, YouTube, 7 Nov. 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6jqyKtmKAE.
Ruiz-Resto, J. V., Lee, D., & Shelton, C. (2021). Entrepreneurial Responses to the COVID Era: A Qualitative Study of Five Professional Music Entrepreneurs. Journal of Arts Entrepreneurship Education, 3(2), 4.
What an amazing opportunity to share the specifics of what it takes to walk through the creative process as an artist! Well done!!!