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.

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Ruiz Note:

It gives me extreme pleasure to bring you another edition of "Key Plays" with The Manager’s Playbook Newsletter featuring the incredible multi-hyphenate Shara Senderoff.

Shara’s career defies categorization.

From selling a script to Steven Spielberg at 21 to founding Sushi Intern, and launching a tech investment fund with Scooter Braun and Zack Katz, Shara has consistently operated at the highest level.

Now, the Philly native is breaking new ground in Artificial Intelligence with Jen, an ethical AI music company that’s set to shake up the industry.

Don’t miss our conversation, airing next Tuesday at 1 PM ET on ‘The Manager’s Playbook’.

Ladies and gentlemen, a conversation like this doesn’t come cheap.

-Ruiz

My Conversation with Shara Senderoff

Ruiz: I believe you mentioned to me that at the age of 20, when you're now exploring this world of film, you sell a script to Steven Spielberg. Not just anybody sells a script to Steven Spielberg, especially a 20 year old. How in the world does that happen?

Shara: It does sound crazy when you say it like that, doesn't it? 

Ruiz: It sounds crazy any which way!

Shara: Yeah, well, I mean, that's kind of a product of manifestation. Like, I grew up watching every Spielberg movie. I, in my head was like, I read this article once where Spielberg was like, oh, being a film producer means that you put out fires and you solve problems, and I thought to myself, oh, I do that in my family all the time, so like, if I could do that on a movie set, like that makes a lot of sense and that kind of always stuck with me. 

I always kind of thought about Spielberg and just his career and how he had a vision for every story he told and every character that was just magical. Just the way he directed scenes and set up worlds and from the narrative to the visuals to the music, it was just all magic. It just made you feel something that you could never really explain and I was like, that's what I'm going to do, whatever that is, that's what I'm going to do. And so, what ended up happening was I went through traditional Hollywood. I started as an assistant. Fate kind of put me in the right place, right time. I worked for a big producer named Mark Gordon, and at the time he had ‘Grey's Anatomy’ and ‘Criminal Minds’, and I was his assistant. 

I ended up getting my hands on a script that I ended up submitting for a couple of big actors and it ended up coming together. That kind of became my first project when I was like 21 years old. I was a part of putting together a project, and then after that I turned around and said, “Oh, I love the movie ‘Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead’ with Christina Applegate.” It was a movie I grew up loving and I was like, “Hey, Mark, can I go get the rights to remake this movie?” And he was like, “You can go try.” Like, he was kind of like, I think didn't expect me to be his assistant and be like, “I want to go put this together.” So basically, more or less without saying it, he was like, if you don't fuck up being my assistant, you can go put projects together. So I went and got the rights, put a writer on it, who's a friend of mine to this day.

Ruiz: Hold on, how did you get the rights? 

Shara: Okay, so yeah, I brushed past that. So, you kind of do your homework to figure out who had the rights. At the time, they were controlled by HBO. So, I worked at the Mark Gordon Company, so it was a phone call in to say like, “Hey, we want to talk about getting the rights to go remake ‘Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead’”. And I'm oversimplifying, but like, when you call from a place that has a prestigious producer and you can navigate the conversations, you can give them a pitch that gives you a period of time that you can go out and pitch the rights for, try to come up with a story and go pitch the rights to make the movie. So, it wasn't a one phone call. They weren't like, “Oh yes, you can have the rights.” It was a bit of a process, but we got it done and then I put a writer on it, who was a really brilliant writer, and she came in and came up with a take, and we decided how we would spin a remake of it.

And then we went out and pitched it to all the studios and one of the first studios that we were at–so you go out and you pitch it to multiple film studios, and either someone buys or they don't. Sort of oversimplifying, but that's a good way to oversimplify. They either buy it or they don't. 

So we go take the pitch to Dreamworks. It was one of the first meetings of the day or the first meeting of the day. And we're sitting in the lobby, the writer and myself and one of my friends who also developed the project with us, and we were sitting in the lobby and shooting the shit and like, being kids. I mean, I was like 21 years old and in walks Spielberg with one of his lawyers.

I kind of like had this moment where I'm like, am I dead? Like, is this like, is this real? Is this reality? Am I dreaming? Like, what's going on?

Spielberg at the time was very active, but I did not expect him to walk into the building. So he walks in and we kind of freeze and look at him and he's like, “What are you girls doing here?” And we're like, “We're here to pitch a movie.” And he pulls up a chair and he's like, what's the movie? What's the pitch? And the rest is history.

Ruiz: How does someone, especially a woman, who thinks the way you do and has carved out so many frontiers, get to the place you’ve reached in the world you operate in?

Shara: One thing I've never done, and I just thought of this the second you brought that up, I've never thought that I'm any different. I've worked with a lot of powerful men. A lot of amazingly powerful men at the top of their industries, moguls of their industries, and I've never thought I'm less than or I'm not like, I don't have a voice in this conversation. 

A lot of these people that I've partnered with or I've worked with have responded really well to that. I mean, reputationally, and I think this is cliche when you're very direct as a woman, you often get a reputation for either being intense or aggressive or whatever it may be, but I've just viewed a lot of what I do as giving my perspective and you could take it or leave it and with no hard feelings. And I've done that. Scooter will tell you I've done that with him. Mike Caren, who I've worked with for now, eight, nine years, and he is a brilliant genius in everything that he does, I've sat in front of Mike and I said, “Mike, I think this is how it should be and this is how I see it playing out.” And he'll conversationally say, “Yeah, well, if that happens, like, we could get to that by way of this and we can get by way of that.” And he is a mogul in his particular domain as well, but I never look at anyone as, you're a man, I'm a woman or as a result of my age or anything about me, I don't have an opportunity to tell you my perspective. And I think that's maybe one of the things that women don't have to do is they don't have to view themselves as less than. 

Once you view yourself as someone that is deserving of respect and appreciation, you often get that in return. And so that's not to take away from some of the challenges of the paradigms or a lot of the state of the world, but I think that a lot of it is also up to you.

Ruiz: What are three books that you would recommend? We talked about one, Blue Ocean Strategy. 

Shara: Yeah. Oh, I love Blue Ocean Strategy. I have three books easily. I have ten books. I have a hundred books. I'm an absolute book person. Let's see what order I want to go in.

So, this is an interesting one. It sounds religious, but it's not. But my first one would be ‘Conversations with God.’ 

Ruiz: I thought you were going to say the Bible. Low key, I’ve always wanted to read the Bible.

Shara: No, not the Bible. I'm not religious. Respect all religions, but very spiritual. But ‘Conversations with God’, that absolutely changed my life because I think that we all believe, no matter what our religion is, that there's some higher power or there's some magic that's guiding us. We can tap into when we want to tap into it and ‘Conversations with God’ is an interesting perspective on what if you met God? What would God say? And it is absolutely mind blowing. 

The second one I swear by is ‘The Four Agreements’. Did I give you a copy of ‘The Four Agreements’ in my office? Because I give it out like it's water.

Ruiz: No 

Shara: I didn’t? I feel like I remember giving you one. 

Ruiz: That's Paulo Coelho?

Shara: That's Don Miguel Ruiz. See, it's meant to be! You need to read it. 

‘The Four Agreements’ teaches to not take anything personally and to not make assumptions and that's where you don't think about dream killers because you're just–

Ruiz: Yeah. I'll be clear. I don't take it personal. 

Shara: Yeah, you know they exist. 

Ruiz: They exist, but you know what it is? To your point, I think about it as more like, I wasn't ready to communicate that. they were confused and how I was communicating it. That's on me. So, I gotta get better at that.

Shara: Yeah. Speaking of getting better at communicating, my third book would be ‘Nonviolent Communication’. 

Ruiz: ‘Nonviolent Communication.’ I've never heard of it. By who? 

Shara: By Marshall… Aw Man. I'm forgetting. 

Ruiz: That’s okay. All good.

Shara: But ‘Nonviolent Communication’, highly recommend. It teaches you how to communicate with people nonviolently and it reminds you and enlightens you to the fact that we communicate very violently. We don't listen. We don't stop to think about somebody else's needs in a particular moment of time and as a leader and as an entrepreneur and as a sister and as a friend and as a human, I realized that there is no moment where someone else's needs shouldn't be at the forefront of my mind to understand how to communicate better with an individual. So if you know what someone else and I use this in business as much as I use it in personal, if not maybe more in business. If you understand what someone needs in a particular negotiation or a particular deal or whatever it may be, you know how to create a mutually beneficial opportunity.

Elliot Grainge’s is the New CEO of Atlantic Music Group

Warner Music Group appoints Elliot Grainge as the new head of Atlantic Music Group to address challenges such as declining marketshare. Elliot still sits as the founder and head of 10K Projects. This will be huge for Atlantic.

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Chartmetric Year in Music 2023

You will gain a strong understanding of where the music industry is right now, and where it’s headed just by reading this report.

Enjoy, and stay informed.

Understanding Your Analytics - Apple Music for Artists

Success means something different for every artist. Knowing how to read your Artist Analytics can help you decide what specific areas to focus on.

Artists + Managers, let’s open up the discussion..

Are you paying attention to your artist analytics? Do you understand them? What sort of picture are the numbers painting for you?

What does this tell you about where you’re at in your journey? Based on the information what do you think should be focusing on?

Roblox Strikes Deal with DistroKid – but Indie Artists Won’t be Paid Any Money From it

Roblox partnered with DistroKid to allow indie artists to distribute music on its platform, but those artists won’t earn any money from it. It will be interesting to see what comes from this..

Will we have artists blowing up on Roblox?

Note: To be eligible, artists must own 100% of their publishing rights and not be registered with a PRO such as ASCAP or BMI.

Roc Nation Label Merges With Equity Distribution to Form ROC Nation Distribution

Roc Nation has merged with Equity Distribution to form ROC Nation Distribution, leading to the departure of label co-president Shari Bryant. This move streamlines Roc Nation's operations, likely giving independent artists more resources and support.

DONE DEAL

Chinese tech giant Kunlun Tech launched a $4.8 billion AI-powered music streaming service called Melodio.

This move pushes the boundaries of AI in music, but it raises questions about the impact on traditional music rights and artist compensation.

SoundCloud Ventures into Merch with SoundCloud Store

SoundCloud launched the SoundCloud Store to sell exclusive merchandise, targeting superfans. This is a great new way to engage with and monetize your most dedicated followers.

I’ve already seen rapper Armani White add this to his repetoire.

What is Artist Development? - The Manager’s Playbook

Check out this clip from my incredible conversation with Kevin “Chief” Zaruk and Simon Tikhman on the Manager’s Playbook podcast. Kevin and Simon are two powerhouses in the booming country scene.

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.

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