“The money will come and go, but the impact you make on people’s lives that’s the real success.”
Jenny Powers is a Myrtle Beach-based music marketing strategist and founder of Blue Avenue Music Group, empowering independent musicians to thrive on their own terms.
Interview
Transcript
Emma Plutnicki
Okay, so to start, what do you do for work and where are you currently working from?
Jenny Powers
So I live in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. My husband is the men’s tennis coach at Coastal and I am here in my office. And I own Blue Avenue Music Group, which is a music marketing and management company, and so I work a lot with artists and musicians from everyone from ground up to Grammy nominated artists
Emma Plutnicki
Cool, and how long have you been doing? That for?
Jenny Powers
I’ve had my company for seven years, and then I’ve been managing a tree house the local reggae rock band for about 15 years.
Emma Plutnicki
Amazing. So what does a typical day look like for you? What kind of responsibilities are expected of you, and what do you get into?
Jenny Powers
Oh, well, it varies from artist to artist. So right now, with Treehouse, we have a new song that will be coming out in a few weeks, and so we’ve been working on their content plans and their tour and making sure everything is uploaded and ready for those releases
Emma Plutnicki
cool and so how do you manage kind of like having a work life balance, because I’m sure, like creativity strikes at different times of day and things like that. So how are you able to kind of manage that?
Jenny Powers
Oh, that’s a good one. Definitely set boundaries. I mean, my clients are on tour, so they are up at all times of the day and night, and so for me, it was really about setting those boundaries that I am available between eight in the morning and five o’clock in the evening, unless there’s an absolute emergency that cannot be taken care of. So definitely setting those work boundaries, especially because I work from home, so making sure that I allocate the necessary time to spend with my family and do the things I love to do like I even like I don’t respond on weekends either. So those are, those are my times, and those are times that I think everyone should be be bound to, yeah, for sure, 40 hours, yeah, and working from home.
Emma Plutnicki
Is it sometimes hard to separate work life from personal life? Or have you been able to kind of overcome that?
Jenny Powers
Oh, I have, even in my family life, it’s, you know, eight o’clock until five o’clock here at home, and if my door is closed, I’m in meetings or I’m actively working on something, but if my door is open, then my kids are always welcome to just come on in and see, see what I’m doing and what’s what we’re what’s going on.
Emma Plutnicki
Yeah, for sure. And so living in Myrtle Beach, does South Carolina play any role in your work? Does it influence your work in any way? Or have you lived in other places where you notice that living in South Carolina kind of has a different influence on what you do?
Jenny Powers
So that’s that’s a really great question. I was born and raised here. I graduated from the academy of arts, science and technology in entertainment technology, my sister is one of the first graduating students from the Governor’s School in Greenville for music and arts, and she went on to found the longest running Girls Rock and Roll camp, and now we have our our nonprofit in Nashville. So South Carolina’s definitely given me and my family a lot of opportunities. My brother’s been a touring musician for 17 years. My sister was a touring musician for 10 years, and and I’ve been doing this for a long time too, and so we’ve always had that philosophy of bloom, where you’re planted. And we’ve, we’ve done so well.
Emma Plutnicki
Yeah, amazing. So coming from such a musical family, have you been given any advice along the way from family members or mentors that kind of helped you in this career path?
Jenny Powers
No, no, no, because think about think about it like the major hubs for music are New York, Nashville and. And LA with Austin having its own central like Texas is like its own music world. Honestly, there’s artists that only tour Texas and never leave it. So being in South Carolina that wasn’t a music hub. I had to learn those things. And I was very lucky to meet Ari Herston, who is, you know, the go to guy for independent music. And what I learned from there, I was able to bring and work with my artists and really elevate them from where they are and take them to where they want to go.
Emma Plutnicki
Yeah, for sure. Did you have any fears when you started in this career?
Jenny Powers
No, no. Like, I didn’t have a choice. Yeah, my brother called me up, and he was like, I need a manager. And I was like, I have no idea how to manage you in your music career. Yeah, we’ll find out. And once I found out, made a plan. We’ve been trucking along ever since.
Emma Plutnicki
So yeah, amazing. So throughout your entire career, have you had one specific project you worked on, or one specific person that you’ve worked with that has really kind of had a significant impact on you, and you kind of see as maybe, like the pinnacle of your career, just something that stands out in in your career so far.
Jenny Powers
I mean, every day is kind of magical, because I love that you never know what’s going to come your way. So I mean, I’ve had some really great people in this industry that I really do lean on. So Ari. Ari was one of them. And I have all kinds of great friends that I lean on, but I think I forgot your question.
Emma Plutnicki
No, it’s okay. How is, how is the local working community in South Carolina? Is there a network that you rely on in South Carolina specifically, or are you kind of just a lone wolf out here?
Jenny Powers
I am probably the lone wolf of South Carolina in the way that I work with artists, and the amount of artists I’ve worked with and the impact that I’ve actually made in the music industry. So one of my other positions is the VP of community of artist hub, which is a music marketing company. And we’ve, you know, we actually changed how you market music. So through those, those deep links, we’ve, you know, revolutionized how you market your music. And right now we’re working on building direct distribution through the blockchain. So that is going to be, you know, taking the way things are right now and looking into the future of how the whole industry is going to be moving forward.
Emma Plutnicki
Yeah, makes sense. And so to succeed in this career, you know, in creative fields, it can be kind of hard to figure out what success looks like, because it’s different. So how would you define success in your career? Is it financial? Is it projects you’ve worked on reaching success? Like, how do you kind of gage your success and your professional life?
Jenny Powers
Well, okay, that’s a that’s a good one. I mean, yeah, it’s hard. That is a hard one because I have been able to literally take everyone else’s platforms that they’re working on and help them succeed, and by helping them succeed, that is my success. So the money will come and go, but the help and the impact that you make on people’s lives is what really is my driving force?
Emma Plutnicki
Yeah, I love that. And what kind of skills do you need to have in your career to find success? Like, what are, what are important qualities to have for someone in your position,
Jenny Powers
One, knowing the ins and outs of how the industry works. So one of the big things in our industry right now is the independent music voice was about 40% of streaming revenue, and they were doing it so well that the major labels but. Up all the independent distributions, and that was a big scary thing for me, because I’ve seen where the major labels would actually use independent artists and take them off of platforms to negotiate with like Tiktok and things like that, so the artist who thought they were independent really weren’t independent. And so now artists have almost no true autonomy over their careers without new independent sectors coming in and giving them that opportunity that they had before. So that’s really where I am, is making sure that, you know, all these artists that I love back here have the ability to have full control over their music business. You know who’s managing their catalogs and who is managing their publishing administration and where they’re just distributing their music on these platforms, because if they don’t know up the chain who owns those they could be giving their rights away without knowing it. That’s my, my biggest concern.
Emma Plutnicki
Yeah, and how were you able to learn those ins and out ins and outs? How were you able to kind of establish your knowledge within that?
Jenny Powers
Oh, definitely. I mean, I read, read a book, not much about the structure of your businesses, like the music business itself has changed, but being able to use the new ways that are implemented to your advantage is really, you know, staying ahead of the curve while everyone is talking about things I’ve been doing for the last year and a half, they’re just now like, this is what you should be doing. And I started doing those things because you can see those trends if you’re paying attention.
Emma Plutnicki
Yeah, makes sense. Amazing. So just as we wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to add, any advice you’d like to give, or anything else you’d like to add about your career?
Jenny Powers
Oh, wow, yeah, if you’re going into you know, if you’re going to be a musician that wants to tour and distribute your music and have, like, a real business and that be your livelihood, then make sure you know the ins and outs of what that means, the contracts, the the everything, because you have all of these rights. And with every step of the way, everyone wants a cut of it. And so by maintaining your rights, gives you the power to have that autonomy over your career. Amazing.
Emma Plutnicki
That’s great advice. Well, thank you so much. I’m going to stop the recording. Okay, bye.
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