Welcome to The Manager’s Playbook, my personal newsletter where I share weekly insights for aspiring artists, emerging music managers and executives on how to navigate the music industry, by Ruiz.

Note: For any links that are behind a paywall, copy the URL and paste it into this paywall ladder to read the article without any issues.

Ruiz Note:

“It All Starts With Preparing The Artists for The Career and The Journey That They’re About To Go On”

This week, I’m thrilled to feature a conversation with Kevin “Chief” Zaruk & Simon Tikhman , the dynamic duo behind THE CORE Entertainment for this special edition of our TMP Newsletter.

These two are powerhouses when it comes to cultivating talent. With a growing roster of new acts blowing up like Bailey Zimmermann and Nate Smith to legacy mainstays like Nickleback, Chief and Simon have definitely carved a path for what the music business looks like in this era.

The key to their success? A willingness to veer right when everyone else is going left.

They’ve made a name for themselves by embracing risk and carving their own path in the competitiveness of Country Music. As Chief puts it, the growth of the genre and the expanding fan base are undeniable, but with that comes heightened competition.

Their story is a powerful reminder that in the ever-evolving music landscape, success often comes to those who dare to be different. They embrace the new landscape (Tik Tok) but still remain true to the art form (song-writing and performing).

Below is an excerpt from the full conversation which will drop NEXT TUESDAY AUGUST 13TH on ‘The Manager’s Playbook’ Podcast YouTube Channel.

‘The Manager’s Playbook’ is the #1 Insider Music Industry Podcast. Available on ALL platforms HERE

-Ruiz

KEY PLAYS 
(FEAT. THE CORE ENTERTAINMENT)

My Conversation with Kevin “Chief” Zaruk & Simon Tikhman (The Core Entertainment)

Ruiz: Why has the genre of country music exploded?

Chief: I mean, it's not just one reason. I think there's a bunch of reasons, but I think it starts with, you know, I think the culture of country music is really changed. Where, you know, it used to be so much of like Nashville based, which was based on small towns, farms, dirt roads, trucks, and that was the culture. That was Nashville. That was country music for a really long time.

And then I think when artists like FGL brought in Nelly and they brought in Jason Derulo and they brought in Backstreet Boys, and then they brought in Bebe Rexha, they started bringing other influences into country music. And then I think that started to expand the fan base. And I think as the fan base started to expand country artists had no choice but to be like, wait, our country fan base is now more cultured in someways than it used to be. And now we can expand how we're writing songs and how we're delivering songs, how we're recording songs, our sonics like everything about country music was now more acceptable because your fan base was more open to it. So I think the combination of like other artists coming in and then other sounds, other sonics and then the songwriting starting to change and write more global songs. I think that really helped like make the genre bigger.

Simon: Yeah, and culture is everything, right? Like, everything drives culture. Like culture drives everything. You talk about hip hop or all that. It's all about the culture. And I think there was kind of a shift where you used to hear everybody be like, “Oh, I love all genres of music, but just not country.” Right? That's kind of like a thing and all of a sudden it’s like shifted right? Country is cool. Like country is cool. Like if people listen to the new Morgan songs like “Last Night” is a hip hop song, right? It's a hip hop song. Like it is cool again. It's part of culture.

There's a reason that Drake, who's the face of culture, puts Morgan in a music video of his right? It's driving culture in such a different way.

And then I think the outside world all of a sudden are like, “Oh wait, these country stars aren’t playing like these small venues. They're playing like NFL Stadiums.” Like multiple nights. There's a reason.

It’s I think information now is so much easier to get than it used to be, right, because of social media and people are fascinated. They're like I might have never heard of Morgan Wallen. There's a lot of people in this city who've never heard of Morgan Wallen, but then they go and they’re like “He's playing SoFi.”

Ruiz: But you know the records.

Simon: Exactly! The second you press play they're like, “Oh, I've heard this song,” and all of a sudden people are interested. They want to know what is this? What is it all about? And then they start listening. And for us, I know for us, we love being kind of like a little piece of that. Like, “No, no, no, I know you say you don't listen to country, but just listen to this one Bailey track. I promise you, you’ll like it.”

Ruiz: What are some of those challenges that you come across from the mainstream acts are coming into the genre of country? Is it the authenticity of it? Is it the songwriting process of it? What is it?

Simon: I think it's both. I think now there's expectations, right?

When you're playing with house money, it's different. You know what I mean?

All of a sudden there's expectations when Beyoncé and Post and they're all jumping into the genre, you’re like “Oh dang.” Like this is now elevated to some of the biggest stars in the world. Now there's more eyeballs on it and there's bigger critics. It's very different now the level. Everyone's leveling up, so that just makes it harder for the artists already doing it because like now they're competing with people who have already been playing stadiums around the world before they even jumped into the genre. And I think it's hard and I think that the issue I have and we both have this, is that I think it's great for the genre when outsiders come in, it's only great. More eyeballs is great. The problem is sometimes there's like kind of the old heads who like the old boys club, but why?

Ruiz: But that's a lot of genres.

Simon: You know? It’s like, but why? If Beyoncé thinks country because she grew up in Texas. She's got the accolades. If she's like, “I want to make a country record.” That's a testament to the genre. That's amazing! All of a sudden, Beyoncé fans are listening to a country album and who knows? There's Shaboozy and all these like Takeoff and Tanner and all. It's only great for the genre.

Ruiz: Yeah, I agree.

Chief: Yeah, and I think, I don't know if it's like bigger challenges. I think what it is, is like how many risk are you willing to take. Right? So even though the genre is growing and the fan base is bigger and everyone's more accepting, but you still have to make your own path. You still have to carve your own way because as much as it's bigger, it's also more competitive now than it’s ever been. So how do you separate from the pack? And I think what we like to do and, you know, knock on wood, it's worked very well for us. But we do like to be like, “Oh, everyone's going left. Let's go see what's over here on the right side. Everyone's trying to do this? Well, maybe we can do this and see if that works.” And I think it's exciting because you can take the risk that maybe normally you wouldn't take or you wouldn't want to take. We thankfully have signed some artists that think exactly the same way. They're like, we're down to take the risk to see if we can carve own lane out and make a name for ourselves instead of trying to follow trends, which always happens in music.

Ruiz: What does artist development look like today versus what it looked like let's say, 10 or 15 years ago? But let's more drill down on like the artist development of today for how you guys do it because you guys do it at a very high clip and a very successful rate and it's incredible. Congratulations by the way. It's amazing.

Chief: Thank you. I don't – I mean look, we have been doing this longer than a lot of people. I think the artist development part actually has not changed. And when I say that, I mean, like, you know, whether it's 20 years ago, 30 years ago or 5 years ago or last week, it all starts with preparing the artists for the career and the journey that they're about to go on and that starts with songs, performance, voice, movement, lessons, press and PR lessons, like how do you move on stage? Do you have a good live show?

Like to me it is like going top to bottom and being like where are your strengths, where are your weaknesses. Wherever your weaknesses are, let's make you stronger. Where you're already strong, let's hone in and make you even better. And you know, we compare a lot of what we do to like sports, like being an athlete. Right?

You go in the gym and you train, so when you get out on the field, you're ready to play and you're not even thinking because you've already prepped. You've sat in the coaches room, you know the plays, done the training, you've done the practice, you’ve done the preseason. So, when you actually go to play the game, you just got to go play the game and you're confident because you know you're ready.

For us developing new artists, it's the same thing. What do we do to get them ready, so when they go on stage and they go out into the world and they do press and they perform and they meet their fans and they do social media, they're not thinking about it because they know they're good at it. You know they're prepared and they can handle it all. So that part hasn't changed.

Now, has it changed in like, you know, social media wasn't a thing before, now it is. Sure, but press and PR was there before and you would still get bad articles and radio would talk shit about you and you still had to deal with it. It's just more enhanced now and obviously you have your phone, it's right in front of you, but the idea of taking a young artist like Bailey that's never done this before and seeing there you go and how do we prepare you best so you can succeed and do your job that you want to do? That's artist management and I just think people either don’t have the time or they don’t have the money and they don’t have the staff, or they don’t have the resources, so it just kind of gets pushed aside, and it's easier to just like put out a song and an artist and see if it works and we don't do that.

Simon: And I think also, I love the sports because I was just reading the Tom Brady speech or watching the Tom Brady speech because he always talks about like people always talk about the Super Bowls and all that stuff, but they never talk about like the dog days of summer or that like training camp where like, you're just like when you're 7^th, 10^th  day and like, you don't want to be there. It's like, not the game. And we talk about that. We really talk about that with all our artists.

It's like the little things that you think don't matter, the radio interview, the little thing that you hate to do at the meet and greets, all those little things, I promise you they add up and help you have a career. You're not just here for a minute and then you can talk to people one day. “Oh, I was in the industry for a few years.” But if you want to be a career artist, it's the little things that you do that separate you from the pack and the thing is for us, look, everyone's kind of looking for the same stuff and you know the Shwa de Vie of an artist, like the juice, but I think people nowadays because of social and DSPs and all that, they're too busy looking at algorithms and numbers and the difference for us honestly, and I say this, and maybe there's other people doing it too. We don't care as much. If there's someone with crazy numbers and we don't like the music, or they don't come into our office and feel like they got something, the numbers are irrelevant for us. I'd rather someone come in with a crazy voice, a crazy dream, all the stuff with no social numbers at all. We rather work with that person. We can do some there. But someone with all the numbers, but, like, I don't know, feels like they've already hit it before they've actually gotten anything done. Because, you know, the world we live in, followers and engagement. People lead with that.

Ruiz: Yeah. Instant gratification and we saw it over the pandemic. How many artists were being signed based off of one record or more? Where are they today? Right? We've seen a lot of that.

Note* This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Music Industry Job Openings

Have a look at ROSTR’s job board for paid work in the industry.

Stay hungry. Stay open.

Bio

I’m Mauricio Ruiz, the Founder/CEO of 8 Til Faint, an Artist Management company with over 5 billion audio streams worldwide. Our past and current clients include Grammy nominated, Juno Award winning multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Jessie Reyez, Marley Bleu, Skratch Bastid and more. I am also the Co-Founder of Mad Ruk Entertainment, a content agency with over 3 billion long form video streams worldwide. Our client list includes The Weeknd, Eminem, and Celine Dion, along with renowned brands like Nike, Pernod Ricard, Canon, and the NBA.

Follow me on IG @mauroisruiz

Follow me on LinkedIn