Happy Gilmour . . . By Director Wayne Hall

July 31, 2009

Time for a prediction. I’m have no doubt that if the two associations which represent the Record Companies in Australia – ARIA, which licenses the right to copy music, and PPCA which licenses the right to play recorded music in public – continue to push for anything like the tariff increases they are chasing, then the B2B music market within Australia will be fully transformed within two years. In any market, increasing the cost of a product so significantly creates opportunities for alternative supply arrangements. The B2B music market is no different, and the manner in which businesses source, license and distribute music is set to change dramatically if these associations continue down their path. There will be pain, and there will be opportunities. Generally the losers during these dynamic periods are the parties who attempt to maintain a false value for their product...

 

And now to a happy place. Assisting people implement a music strategy is a very conceptual thing. It is not – as many of our clients initially think -  all about supplying music tracks (or clips), but more about matching the profile of music styles with the profile of the client’s audience. To deliver this service effectively, the music supplier must have a potent music programming infrastructure – one which is capable of sourcing and classifying songs (profiling) in preparation for servicing a client’s needs.
It’s a classic “solutions approach” scenerio, and a vital component for ensuring a “happy” client are people within the music supplier’s organisation who understand and can manage the music solution into place.

 

The following article, recently published in the NZ magazine 24/7, is from an interview with one of SBA’s team, Faith Satherley. Faith spent four years with our business, developing from a part time sales co-ordinator into an accomplished senior sales & account management executive. She recently moved on from the business to find her next “happy place”, and this interview was conducted just following her departure. It’s a good read, while have no doubt that the skills she learned here at SBA are fully transferable and will help her throughout her life.

 

Now that’s a happy thought...

 

 

So you wanna be...a music strategist?

Faith Satherley - Music strategist

 

Q. What’s your job title and where do you work?
A. Client Account Manager, SBA Music, Sydney, Australia. We are a music programming business, and specialise as a background music provider. To make it easy to understand, we make mixtapes for businesses to play for their customers, but we have the necessary licences and infrastructure in place to ensure that relevant parties are paid royalties, reproduction fees and any other associated costs.
We tailor the music selection to suit the brand or business. We have a dedicated Music Programming department who look after the finer details, along with our Customer Relations department, but I oversee and guide the process from start to finish, being the main point of contact for our clients.

Q. What does your job involve? Give us a run down of what you do in a typical day.
A. Managing and maintaining client relationships, problem solving, project management and solutions selling. I make a lot of phone calls, I visit clients and prospects here and there, and I work on putting a client brief together - to then find the appropriate solution for their business. By ‘solution’ I mean music strategy.

Q. What’s the best thing about your job?
A. I deal with some great people! Our customer base is very broad - everyone from small boutique fashion stores to large corporate retail chains, bars, clubs, DJs, coffee houses and fast food establishments. With larger businesses I tend to deal mainly with the marketing and IT departments, which is great as it exposes you to so much creativity, and I have to work out how to tailor our services to the ongoing branding and IT demands associated with a big company. With smaller businesses we usually deal with the owner/operator, which is also nice as you get to help them build and grow from the ground up. Regardless of the style of client, its great to know we are contributing to their success as a business and are part of their growth and innovativity.

Q. Any downsides?
A. Some people get stressed out. Music isn't always their main priority, so it’s hard to explain the benefits of a strategic music solution - and of course you get the added distractions, such as the licensing bodies and piracy issues that people need to be educated about before they can understand and appreciate what it is we specialise in. Our company director Wayne Hall is very good at explaining this to people, but he can only be in so many places at once, so I hope that I can help people understand and become more educated too. There are a lot of misconceptions out there about how music can be managed well within a business, and people seem to appreciate it when we clear it all up for them. They may not choose to use us then and there, but at least they will have a better appreciation for what we do, and hopefully somewhere down the line, when they think of focusing on the music side of their business, they will think of SBA Music.

Q. How did you get into your field of work?
A. I have worked in sales a lot, and done my time in retail. I came to Sydney a few years ago to have a break and figure out what I wanted to do, and fell into this job, where my role evolved into what it is now. A client focused role with an innovative music programming business.

Q. Did you study / do you need to study?
A. No, I think it helped a lot that I have worked a lot in customer facing roles such as retail and hospitality so understand our clients well, and how music could be of benefit to them if it was tailored correctly. I think that our clients appreciated that I had been in their shoes too, as it’s important for the client to know that you understand the pressures and pitfalls of their industry, so we can be proactive about the way we work together.

Q. What qualities do you admire most in a person?
A. Honesty, empathy, and diplomacy. Honesty most of all, even if it’s not always what you want to hear.

Q. Can you pass on three tips for success to teenage girls?
A. I think, as you get older, you start to have the desire to give back, and share your knowledge to help others grow and develop as individuals and professionals. I think it’s important to have the ability to share what you learn, and help others along if you are in the position to. The recipient will be grateful and you will feel like you are sharing the wealth, so to speak.

Wayne Hall
Director 

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