Just met Taylor Swift’s Talent Agent – NBD…
This past Monday I had the fortunate opportunity to attend a Belmont hosted “Insider’s View” lecture with speaker Greg Oswald from WME Talent Agency. Just to name a few of his clients: Taylor Swift, Wynonna, Gretchen Wilson, Kenny Rogers, Hank Williams Jr., Brooks & Dunn, Vince Gill, Rascal Flatts, Brad Paisley, Alan Jackson, Dwight Yoakam, Gary Allan, and Blake Shelton. Needless to say – this guy is promoting some of the BIGGEST names in music today.
The lecture was very insightful and inspiring; he shed light on how achieving your dreams in the music industry isn’t always about luck – it’s about hard work and ingenuity. If you have a good idea, think it through and execute! He was also brutally honest about the industry – if you want to work in the business side of things, you are going to have to get used to grunt work for years until promotion, sometimes regardless of your degree.
I stayed and talked with Mr. Oswald for about 20 minutes after the lecture. He graciously spent some time answering specific questions and being honest about the stiff competition out there, the relationships between artists and agents and the ever-changing nature of the industry. He was extremely friendly and approachable – something that directly refuted the preconceived notions that I had, considering how cut-throat Taylor Swift’s agent must be.
This talk didn’t discourage me at all, but rather inspired me to start thinking through who I want to be as an artist, but most importantly as a person. My plan is to have them both be the same thing. I have decided who I want to be as an artist is who I want to be as a person, and vice versa. I wanna be ME on stage!
It’s just SO COOL how close we are to the arteries of music production here in Nashville. I literally drove just several blocks to get to the lecture. I am really looking forward to more of the networking opportunities I will be exposed to in the coming years!