Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelsey Wise.
Hi Kelsey, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m originally from western New York and relocated to Nashville to get my undergraduate degree from Belmont University. In December 2015, I received a Bachelors of Business Administration with a concentration in the Music Industry and began a temporary position with Sony/ATV clearing and licensing karaoke uses. When my position was nearing its end, one of the supervisors I’d worked with regularly recommended me for a position she knew of at a boutique publishing administration company, Words & Music Administration. My temp period ended at the end of May 2016 and I began at Words & Music as the Copyright Coordinator at the beginning of June 2016. I learned everything I know about publishing administration from Kim McCollum-Mele (owner), Brandi Keown (operations/HR), Jennifer Falco (licensing), and, last, but certainly not least, my boss, Nichole Gulotta (copyright). Words & Music eventually sold to Big Deal Music to form Big Deal Music Group while I continued to build my career. At that point, I became the Copyright Manager and began offering creative services to our administration roster on an ad hoc basis. I left my role at Big Deal for a brief stint at a smaller publishing company as the Creative Director, predominantly during the COVID pandemic. During this time, I also built what I think I’m most proud of in my career to date…Able Management, a full-service a la carte music rights management company servicing independent songwriters, publishers, producers, and labels that either aren’t established enough to attract a traditional administrator, publisher, or label, or would prefer to handle the majority of these back-office services in house and hire outside vendors as needed. While I continued to develop Able, I returned to Big Deal, which had been acquired by Hipgnosis Songs Fund as its US administration operation and front-line publishing business. At that point, we became Hipgnosis Songs Group. Prior to this acquisition, I had worked strictly on the administration catalog at first followed by the front-line pop and rock publishing catalog. When we became HSG, I took over the day-to-day copyright responsibilities for the acquired catalogs in the US as the Senior Copyright Manager. At this point, I was almost 8 years into my career and, quite frankly, felt a little bored of the day-to-day management of musical composition copyrights…as bored as one can be working on catalogs like that of LA Reid, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chris Cornell, and Journey. I saw a job posting for a Rights Administrator at a label acquisitions company and decided to take a leap of faith and branch out from my current trajectory, which brings us to where I am today as Head of Rights Administration for Exceleration Music.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
TL:DR no, it has not. While I was so relieved to have employment post-grad, the Sony job was supposed to be full time, permanent. They decided to hire their current intern and use this role as a temp to clear out some backlog quite literally as I was accepting the position. However, if I’d turned down that temp position, I wouldn’t have had an “in” with Words & Music, which is really where my career started to take shape. The relationships I built at that company still exist in my life to this day as mentors, industry colleagues, and even a few friends. As a woman in the music industry, it’s also not uncommon to face gender discrimination and I’m certainly not the exception. I had been extended an informal opportunity to expand the role I was in at the time in a direction that very much piqued my interest, which I eagerly accepted and ran with. When a formal position centered on just that was finally created, a man was hired to take over work I was already doing. We had the same experience level. We had the same qualifications. We had the same everything basically except that he was a man. That one stung and I wasn’t long for that company after that. If I had listened to what that closed door whispered to me internally, I likely wouldn’t have continued pursuing that path and would’ve avoided my biggest crucible to date: the Creative Director position. For starters, I began this role 2 months before the world shut down for COVID, which came with its challenges given this was an outward-facing, interactive position. In addition, there was very little support or mentorship available to me internally or amongst my existing network. Plus, my boss was one of those women who I truly believe did not want to see other women succeed unless she could take credit for it. She also had some complicated ethical viewpoints that made it increasingly difficult for me to continue in my role there as doing so made me feel somewhat complicit. That is why I started building Able, so I had something for myself that felt like I was using my powers for good. With Able, there is no offensive line; there’s just me, the QB, taking hits left and right. That’s part of running your own business. I truly have incredible clients and wouldn’t trade them for the world, but there have been growing pains and learning curves a plenty. Six years in though, I feel like most of the kinks have been worked out and things are flowing easily and as intended. There are always bumps in the road, but I’ve worked really hard to view each as a lesson rather than a setback. Reframing my perspective in this way allows those experiences to have a purpose at the very least and each one has resulted in me growing that much more as an industry professional and person.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
On a high level, I manage musical composition and sound recording copyrights to enforce all rights each party controls and ensure maximum royalty yield while limiting legal liability across extensive catalogs. I take great pride in my attention to detail and diligence in regards to ensuring catalogs are “clean” and fully registered at all applicable royalty sources, and free from conflicts that hold up royalties. The skillsets I have cannot be learned from a textbook, try as many music business programs may. I have honed them through years of trial and error, and phenomenal mentorship from my personal “board of directors.” As such, a qualified and competent rights professional is worth their weight in gold because it doesn’t matter how viral your new song is if you can’t effectively protect and monetize it. Sure, it’s a chicken or the egg scenario…does the song come first or the back-office infrastructure? Order of operations isn’t important. As long as both are in place, you’ll be set up for success. I also have a huge heart for the indie space as you can see from my resume. Oft overlooked, under-appreciated, and lacking in resources, independent music is the bedrock upon which all other levels of the industry rely. Eminem, at one point, was just a kid from Detroit with a mixtape. Without indie music, stadium-level talent would not exist. It’s the level of the industry where the artist/creator has the most autonomy and control over their art. I got into this world to help creators do what they do best. They make art; I protect and monetize it. Some of the most amazing music is out in the world for your listening pleasure because of this simple relationship. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
Nashville and I have a love/hate relationship. For starters, I’m not much of a city girl. The traffic here has gotten astronomical and you can’t go anywhere these days without shelling out at least $10 for parking. It’s busy and smelly, and all of that irks me to no end. But where else do you have access to a live music scene this robust and consistent? There are still pockets of Nashville that sparkle and I will do my best to ensure those never truly disappear. The Bluebird Cafe, Exit/In, Third & Lindsley, the Ryman, the Basement & the Basement East, I could go on. The real Nashville is still here if you know where to look for it.
Contact Info:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelseywise/
