360° Digital Artist

I recently had the privilege of coming into contact with Verna Miles, a veteran of the music industry as an A&R professional. After attending New York’s Hofstra University (where she received her degree in Vocal Performance, Jazz, and Commercial Music), she joined the team of Epic Records as A&R Manager. With several years of success behind her, she left Epic to start Wisdom Entertainment in partnership with Laura Williams.

I requested an interview with her and she graciously accepted my invitation. I posed a few questions concerning negotiation deals in the music industry. Here is the result of our discussion:

Please tell us a little bit about your current company, Wisdom Entertainment, and your previous work as A&R Manager for Epic Records.

As A&R manager at Epic Records, I oversaw all A&R administration for the label, which included album budgets, backend payments, sample and side artist clearances for soundtracks, and compilation albums for such artists as B2K, 3LW, Jill Scott, Mandy Moore, Ghostface Killa, and Glen Lewis. I was co-executive producer for “A Season of Soul and Sounds of Christmas” album and A&R Director for the Ghostface Killah “Bulletproof Wallets” album. I organized and executed special projects for Epic Records that included the negotiation of production contracts and the processing of development and demo deals. Being the direct contact for all departments at Epic Group for business affairs and A&R administration gave me the ability to understand the clients’ business needs, while staying true to their aesthetic sense to being creative.

I am now doing artist development, artist management, music production, and A&R administration.

In past negotiations, what were some ways that you were able to separate the people involved from the problem or issue being negotiated?

It is important to remain calm and stay focused on the key points of the negotiation.  Compromise enough to make sure that you get what you want, without giving in to all the demands that are being made.  The client needs to trust you and know that you have their best interest at heart, which is very important!

When negotiating, it is good to have a BATNA or Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. Do you have an example of when you brought a BATNA or “Plan B” to a negotiation and how did it effect the outcome of your agreement?

When we offer an artist a production agreement (depending on the artist), we have a Plan B that offers a Management Agreement Plus! It’s more than a Management Agreement, but less than a Production Company Agreement. It is best to have your BANTA or Plan B & C before the process begins. We went in with the intention of doing a production deal, so we then offered a Management Contract that offered some of what we offered in that production contract.  The artist signed with us using our Plan B the one time that we used it. My business partner and I have to discuss, agree, and/or come to a compromise so that we will know how far we are willing to go and determine this by how badly we want to work with the artist prior to the meeting.

How important is building affiliation or relationship with the other party involved in negotiations? What are some ways a sense of affiliation can be created?

Just how important the building an affiliation or relationship with the other party involved in negotiations can be depends on your track record.  The affiliation or relationship is as important as the negotiation.  If you have a proven track record, it would be easy to convince someone of what you are able to do for them. A person or company just starting out would need to be more creative!

I would say that it is important to build some sort of relationship before the negotiation process, if possible. We offer a “Give Me” at our company, which is a gesture or a small opportunity to give something or show something we can do before the process of negotiation.  For instance, we may do a small recording session or take the artist to meet with popular producers before signing that artist.

Creative people such as music artist can bring a lot of emotions to a negotiation. What are some ways to effectively deal with potential negative emotions?

Creative people such as recording artist will almost always bring a lot of emotions to the negotiation.  The important thing we have found is to let the artist know that we understand their vision and that we have a common goal of doing what is best for their career. We present the outlook of possible outcomes of the situation, if they can look at it calmly and clearly, the management/production viewpoint, so that he or she can have a clearer understanding of both sides.  Often by repeating back what they have said and then offering positive solutions and alternate ways to look at it, we then make sure that they know that we are on the same side and for a common goal, which is the success of the artist.

Finally, how can unsigned artists get more leverage or power when negotiating a deal with a record label?

One of the best ways to negotiate a deal as well as get more leverage with a label is to create a buzz with media/marketing numbers! You can use what I call Media Numbers from places like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, websites & webisodes!

One thing about the entertainment industry is that people want to be associated with people who are wanted, watched, and listened to by others! Unfortunately, the music industry does not always have executives who will get what the artist is about or the music, so they look to their staff to compare the artist with other successful artists and how they can break this artist. In the days of the 360 deals, the more an artist has in their arsenal, the more they have to negotiate with. Artists who already have a fan base and have people listening to their music while bringing something to the table, like acting or promotional ideas, are more interesting than an artist who can sing, rap, or play.

I truly believe that unsigned artist can have more leverage by making sure that they have undeniable project (which means that they need to know the strengths, weaknesses, their market and audience, their competition, and show how they are different, yet similar to what is currently hot).


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For more information concerning successfully negotiation deals, see the excellent books "Getting to Yes" and "Beyond Reason."