Senior Director, A&R Administration
Sony Music
New York, NYThis was removed by the employer on 2/24/2020 8:49:00 AM PST
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Full Time Job
Overview
This position will work closely with A&R, Business & Legal Affairs, Finance, Marketing, Royalties, Joint Venture Accounting, IT, and the rest of the departments to administer recording budgets, perform deal analysis, review royalty statements, review JV statements, track artist options, and prepare various ad hoc reports. This position is responsible for coordinating all aspects of the recording process from start to finish including overseeing recording budgets and deadlines.
Responsibilities
A&R Admin
• Administer artist projects
• Set up projects in recording cost system (ARTS) including requesting royalty accounts, video accounts, project codes, product lines and FLoRs. Make sure recoupable marketing terms are accurate and loaded into PRS
• Track options with our artists, summarize contractual terms to continue with the artists, summarize history with artist, including P&Ls of prior releases, calculate how much is needed to sell/stream on future release to achieve our targeted rate of return.
• Prepare reports for artists with 2 albums or less or with catalog reversions so that Chairman can review if we need to begin negotiations. Such reports will include artist contract summaries, sales and P&L information, reversion dates, etc.
• Prepare artist summary reports of royalties, profit split, and reversion terms, including royalty penny rate calculations on an apple-to-apple basis.
• Interact with A&R & artist management to ensure all recording/mixing/mastering is completed to meet product release date.
• Interact with artist attorneys about contractual issues, producer agreements, side artist agreements, sample agreements
• Work with release planning and production departments to ensure we have all approved masters in house and label copy has been confirmed.
• Create recording budgets and obtain approvals from executives and finance.
• Track all recording costs as the project progresses; informing A&R, producers, artist management & label attorneys of possible over budgets and recommending solutions (including less expensive studios, mixers and mastering engineers).
• Attain artist and furnisher approvals of producer/mixer budgets and deal terms.
• Prepare remix agreements and pay remix costs. If remixer is getting points, make sure that we receive a letter of direction and pass on to the royalty department
• Prepare video production agreements and pay video production costs
• Prepare reforecast budgets/memos and circulate for approvals.
• Work with A&R and artist management on remixes (budgets, approvals, and delivery - agreements, credits, masters.
• Collect and confirm all Delivery requirements including fully executed agreements, masters, lyrics, credits, etc.
• Process contractual costs including advances & fees (artist, producer, mixers, samples etc).
• Issue POs to vendors and pay invoices.
• Complete and submit union contracts (AFM/AFTRA); collecting materials from producers, musicians, vocalists and interfacing with the union and union payroll company.
• Attend various meetings including Production/Scheduling meeting, Business & Legal Affairs.
• Coordinate with BA Admin for sample review and informing them of side artists; liaise with them on sample & side artist clearances.
• Prepare and send producer declarations upon confirmation of producer deal terms, side artist & musician grant forms, and remix agreements.
• Ensure receipt of producer agreements and LODs (communicating updates to royalties & copyright departments).
• Maintain positive relationships with artist/producer/mixer managers and attorneys to help with negotiating fees and royalty points for assigned projects.
Deal Analysis
• Analyze complex deal proposals and their profitability, internal rates of return, net present values, returns on sales, recoupment, etc.
• Work with Business Affairs regarding counter proposals. Help to suggest ways to make a deal more profitable if its current terms do not meet financial targets.
• For on roster artists, pull existing sales from SAMIS and other revenues, such as licensing from the GOLD system.
• Analyze past revenues to determine trends and predict future billings.
• Review prior release marketing spends and other P&L items to develop a full P&L for the proposed project.
• Use Nielsen to get US sales information for non-Sony artists. Predict foreign revenues by comparing Nielsen US results vs. results from providers, such as Spotify and YouTube which provide worldwide results.
• Look at various deal types, such as royalties deals, profit splits, distribution deals, worldwide or multiple territory profit split, and profit splits within a profit split
• Isolate earnings by track, remix, or video
• Review unearned balances and help with cap analyses.
Royalty/JV Accounting Review
• Review royalty statements and JV Accounting statements before they are issued.
• Make sure that all royalty rates have been coded correctly.
• Make sure that all recoupable or chargeable costs have hit the statement.
• Make sure that recoupable marketing was calculated correctly.
• Review ancillary income, such as licensing
• Work with the Royalty and JV Accounting departments to ensure that they have all the information that they need to prepare statements, such as producer agreements, sample agreements, side artist agreements. If agreements are outstanding, work with the artist attorneys to obtain those agreements and provide estimated rates for the Royalty department to accrue
• Help the Royalty and JV Accounting Departments to interpret language in the artist agreement or joint venture agreements when they have questions or if the language is unclear.
• Work with the Royalty and JV Audit departments in order to reduce the dollar amount on audit claims
Qualifications
• At least 10 years of A&R Admin experience
• Strong Finance and Accounting skills required. Specifically, strong understanding of how an artist P&L is developed, including royalty calculations, copyright calculations, marketing forecasts, and build-up of revenue among revenue types, such as Sales, Streams, Licensing, and Public Performance.
• Experience in reading and interpreting contracts is required. Be able to answer questions about assigned artists' recording agreements such as royalty terms, copyright terms, marketing restrictions, etc.
• Strong decision making & problem solving skills.
• Must possess an ability to prioritize and differentiate multiple pressing situations requiring immediate action.
• Strong computer knowledge/skills including Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
• Knowledge of audio files (multitracks, stems, mix passes) and recording systems is a plus.
• Strong communication skills
• Ability to follow through with projects in a timely manner.
• Strong Organizational skills and attention to detail.