Hello and welcome to the only Industry Spotlight we will run all week! We have been working on this feature since the middle of January and could not be more thrilled with the final results. If you have any interest in pursuing a career in digital media within the music business, consider the interview below a must read. If you have any questions regarding the content of this blog, or if you would like to learn more information about the services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
We have featured a number of professionals in this series who have been lucky enough to work for the same company since college. These people have the type of career longevity we all hope to find in this crazy industry, but positions like theirs are admittedly few and far between. Most young people making their way through the ranks these days have several jobs, sometimes simultaneously, before settling into anything longterm. The person at the center of today’s feature, Shan Dan Horan, exemplifies this lifestyle perfectly, and fortunately for us he was willing to share his knowledge with our community.
Shan Dan Horan was always interested in the technical side of the business, but when he graduated college he had no intentions of pursuing a career in the music industry. He moved to Chicago and focused solely on postproduction work, which lead to him being part of major advertising campaigns for people like Barack Obama and companies like McDonalds. He was happy, and by all accounts quite successful. Along the way however, he realized his love for music and working in the industry was greater than he previously realized and over time he took steps towards re-entering the wild and crazy world known as the music business. He now works in media production for Century Media Records and freelances with several other labels. He’s living out his dreams, and below he tells us how it all came together.
If you would like to know more about Shan Dan Horan, take a few moments out of your day and follow him on Twitter. Additional questions and comments can be left at the end of this post.
H: For the record, please state your name, job title(s), and the companies you work for/with:
S: My name is Shan Dan Horan (Shannon Daniel Horan). I head up the media production department for Century Media Records and freelance for a ton of other labels doing everything from social networking to A&R.
H: We have a lot of ground to cover, but I like to begin by learning a bit about your history with music. When you think of formative moments/experiences in life that lead you toward a career in the industry, what comes to mind?
S: I had always played music, being it in a band or through school curriculum. So that played a huge part. When I turned 18, it was time to decide what to do with my life. I could either keep touring as a musician, pick some ultra-boring topic to go to conventional college for (if I could afford it), or do nothing and become that 75 year old man working a drive thru down the line. So with some luck and hard work I ended up attending The Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences for post-production and music business. That was another huge moment that pushed me even further into the music industry.
H: What was the first album you purchased with your own money? What format?
S: I was growing up right at the moment CDs started becoming the new media format. First cd I ever purchased was “RATT’s greatest hits” It was pretty ridiculous.
H: I know we touched on formative moments above, but do you have any records or artists that you believe pushed you to pursue career paths in entertainment?
S: No specific record or artist had an impact on my career path. While I idolized certain musicians and loved music, I just never identified with being a rock star. I ended up being focused strictly on the technical and production side of the industry.
H: When you were young, where did you turn when you wanted to discover new music?
S: Before the internet era, your one source for new music was either shows or compilation albums. I remember these cheap “Punk-O-Rama” albums at the local underground cd store. For four dollars, you could get a cd with fifteen songs on it. It was killer marketing tool to expose kids to additional releases/bands.
H: We should say that you were not always pursuing a career in music, at least not directly. If my research is correct, you originally went to school for media production, which lead to some of your first work experience outside of school. When did music come into the picture?
S: Towards the end of college I decided I wanted to get away from the music industry and pursue strictly post production. So I moved to Chicago to work at a postproduction facility called Bosco Productions. So for a while I worked strictly on TV and radio advertisement. I worked on campaign ads for Barack Obama, commercials for McDonalds, Kellogg’s, basically a ton of huge corporate entities. After a while though, I started missing the music industry and decided it was time to get back.
H: In 2011 you joined the team at Century Media Records. How did you learn about the position and what can you tell us about the interview process?
S: At that point, I was doing a ton of media projects for bands from different labels and it grabbed the attention of Century Media and a new imprint they had decided to start up. The interview process was fairly quick and easy. I flew out, talked to the President (Don Robertson) for maybe ten minutes they loved my work, and then I flew back to Arizona. Later I was offered a fulltime position and decided to take it.
H: Century Media is not the only label you work with at the moment. What can you tell us about your other roles and how they came together?
S: I work with my friends at Standby Records as well, creating content, running social networks, doing A&R, amongst many other roles. As well as run a successful production facility that creates content (music videos, commercials, and lyric videos) for labels like Nuclear Blast, Warner, Fearless, Earache, to name a few.
H: Without going too in-depth, would you please run us through a typical work day?
S: Every single day is different. One day I will be editing quietly in my office. Another day I will be at a studio filming, or on a set making a music video. It’s extremely sporadic, but anyone that works in the music industry is well versed in the art of chaos.
H: Outside of life in the music industry, you have been known to do some outreach work mentoring aspiring musicians. When did you begin doing this, and what inspired you to share your skills with young minds?
S: I grew up in a household that was focused on helping people. My dad and mom work for the VA rehabilitating wounded veterans suffering from PTSD or brain injuries sustained from primarily IEDS (improvised explosives). As well a sister that’s an RN. Growing up in a household like that, you learn the importance of educating and lending a helping hand.
I’ve spoken in front of schools, on panels, in books. Let alone the amount of interns and young professionals I have mentored. When I can’t continue my craft I hope that one day they will.
H: Staying on the topic of helping aspiring industry professionals, what advice would you offer someone hoping to have a career in the music business (other than artists)?
S: Work hard, and never grow the expectation that you are entitled to win. If you know what you want to do with your life, do it! Don’t wait for permission or someone to make it happen for you, just do it. “Ready, Fire, Aim”
H: Do you have interns? If so, what do you look for in new recruits? I’m sure many of our readers would be interested in working with you in the future.
S: I do have interns! Many of which have gone on to win awards, and done big things. It makes me super proud. What I look for, is someone with the mentality that nothing is beneath them. Someone that loves the craft, as opposed to the image surrounding it. I mean you have interns that help you peel gaff tape off the floor, and interns that take selfies with talent instead.
H: Let’s turn the focus to bands. I know a lot of artists contact you regularly in hopes of being considered for a record deal. What advice would you offer young talent to help themselves stand out from the competition?
S: Still to date, I have returned every single one of their emails. I’ll listen to their music and give them free advice. It’s something I feel honored to be asked to do.
What every band should realize is, they are entering the music business. It’s a “business” so money is the primary driving force behind it. The one thing I get allot from bands are “Just give us a chance, we are going to blow up” In reality, this band has no catalog, no merch, mediocre internet stats, and hasn’t toured out of their hometown. As a label, it would be a risky move investing in a band like this with no track record. When being a “rock star” starts to suck and becomes a job instead of a fantasy, it tends to crush fresh bands.
So the best advice I have for bands is, get fans, start making money, work your butt of generating buzz (and not just internet buzz), and treat your band like a business. If you start making money, a label will love to multiply that on a grander scale.
H: What’s one mistake you see a lot of young artists make?
S: The mistake of expecting someone to come along and make their dreams come true. Bands nowadays want to skip the touring, buzz generating, work stage of their evolution. They expect to be picked up by a label and instantaneously have their faces in magazines and on huge tours across the world without working for it. While they wait for something like this to happen, they often just break up because it never comes along. Why would anyone want to push your band if you don’t do it yourself?
H: Unlike many of the professionals we have featured up to this point, you had a successful career in other areas of media before coming to music. Now that you’ve been engrained in this industry for the better part of a decade, do you see yourself leaving the business to pursue other interests anytime in the foreseeable future?
S: With the onset of YouTube monetization and the amount of money original video content is creating for labels and bands, I feel as if, I can’t leave at this point. While labels debate about how to make money as physical sales decline, I feel strongly this is one of those solutions that need to be developed. So for the foreseeable future, I will be focused on that middle ground between music and video.
H: As a follow-up, what career goals do you have at this point in life? How have they changed since you first found work in music?
S: My only goal in life is to be successful and never stop learning. It’s been the same goal I had since enrolling in college a decade ago. Never being content and always adapting.
H: A number of the labels you have been involved with use Haulix for their promotional distribution efforts. What is it about the services offered by Haulix that keeps you coming back?
S: Haulix is amazing. My favorite feature on Haulix is the ability to show how many publications have accessed your content. So for future releases, I can see what artist has developed the most industry buzz before the initial release date.
H: There has been a lot of talk online about whether or not it’s important in the modern music industry for bands to build a following in the local/regional scene. Some believe the age of the internet has created easer avenues for success, while others feel a career built on social networks is no career at all. As someone who has worked with finding and signing a variety of bands, what insight can you offer?
S: I feel with the internet era came an era of “fabricated hype”. Bands “cultivating” millions of plays to only end up selling ten albums once they got a record contract. It was interesting to see. With Facebook buckling down on band exposure, effectively limiting a bands post to 9% of their entire following (unless you pay for it) it made their social media clout useless.
The only stats I take seriously for a band anymore are their Youtube plays. Youtube is ruthless in its punishment for fabricated plays. I mean look what happened to RCA and Sony/BMG.
H: That is pretty much everything I wanted to cover. Before I let you go, would you care to share any final thoughts or observations with our readers?
S: Nope, you were extremely thorough hahaha. Thanks again for including me!
