MUSIC SMALL BUSINESS CONSULTING

Jake St. John

WHY?

The longer I've helped artists, studios, and labels with tracking their catalogs and income, the more I've realized that many aren't maximizing the benefits of their hard-earned work.

This happens for a lot of reasons, from the benign (too busy hustling and creating to deal with all the administration), to the annoying (too many catalog-related registrations and other intricacies to track), to the troubling (well-meaning entertainment lawyers and accountants whose practices aren't nimble enough to unravel idiosyncratic problems before racking up too many billed hours).

Consequently, whenever a studio, artist, or label client initially hires me, I've found inefficiencies and errors that are the natural result of music-speak and business-speak getting lost in translation, and I end up working closely with the clients to identify and manage the peculiarities inherent in making their catalogs as profitable as they can be.

As a consultant, that is what I offer: peace of mind. An ally who gets this stuff and is on your side, who can patiently walk you through things and help you make decisions, or just chime in as needed. Everything we do as musicians has value, even if it's not immediately apparent; let's capitalize on it.

THINGS I DO

Business Strategy and Planning

Translating “music-speak” into “business-speak” for lawyers, tax accountants, and other contracted white-collar professionals

Using on-the-ground experience to provide contracted professionals with the necessary music-related context to efficiently handle idiosyncratic situations

Negotiating and editing contracts, rates, agreements, and fees, directly or in tandem with legal counsel, with labels, publishers, artist management, collaborators, contracted professionals, utility companies, and insurers

Interfacing with banks, payroll, insurers, compliance

Royalty Processing

Using proprietary systems and advanced software to comb through aggregator statements and provide easily digestible results as well as concise reports on amounts owed to collaborators and management

Sharing proprietary “Royalty Map” with clients to help them take stock of different royalty streams and whether they are being collected

Aiding clients with complicated publishing arrangements, especially between different entitled parties with dissimilar claims, parent/subsidiary companies, and non-entitled parties who have nonetheless been paid by mistake

Assignment of royalties to a partnership or corporation, including both arrangement of deal and subsequent processing

Accounting

Budgeting, financial analysis and planning, reports

Familiarity with tax-based and GAAP accounting

Inventory management

Account reconciliation and accounting cycle implementation for new clients

Invoicing, receiving payments, client interface

Arranging guaranteed payment and distribution structures for equity holders, including within complex parent/subsidiary structures, as well as general payroll implementation

Tour accounting, both on the road and remote

Capital investment, asset, and equity management

Catalog Management

Administering publishing splits, master ownership, territories and distribution, contracts for entitled parties, royalty payment waterfalls, licenses, guest artists, remixes, metadata coordination

PRO registry and management, including royalty tracking and dispute resolution (needed often when publishers change)

Coordinating master-side and publishing-side registrations and administration contracts to make sure all royalties are accounted for (HFA, SoundExchange, etc.)

Registry and maintenance with copyright office 

Name and Likeness Management

Marketability consulting, with regard to project narrative, image, written copy, social media presence, “vibe”

Coordinating the above with artist management, PR firms, other promotion

USPTO registry

MORE ABOUT ME

My experience working with ledgers, numbers, contracts, and all other sundry business management concepts dates to 2011, when I began working as the personal assistant to the principal of a mid-size fund advisory firm, and eventually as an occasional analyst for the firm itself.

Through connections I built in the music industry playing drums and composing, I took those concepts and began business managing several bands and an award-winning commercial music production studio, learning the nuances of the music business from the inside-out.

Since then, I have expanded my client base to include two independent record labels, a mastering studio, pop music producers, new music composers, a music video production company, a performing arts nonprofit, and, as an invigorating bit of new pasture, fashion models and an online homewares retailer based in Brooklyn.

Currently I am in-house as the Head of Finance at commercial film & animation boutique Dress Code while continuing to work with select music-industry clients. Don’t hesitate to drop a line.

M.M., NYU, 2011; B.A. with Honors, Vassar College, 2009.