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:

Platinum Mixing Engineer Jerome Rernard Shares How He Shapes Records

Welcome to this edition of our newsletter, where we have the pleasure of featuring a very special guest: Jerome Renard. 

Jerome Renard is Belgian-Born Mixing Engineer, living in sunny Los-Angeles.

As a mixer he believes that every song deserves to have an engineer who understand the deepest needs and connections you have with your music.

As someone who has lived, experienced and engineered pop music internationally, he’s able to bring a multicultural perspective to each project, helping to emphasize with goals of every artist he works with.

Jerome was gracious enough to contribute his expertise in our STRATEGY section below.

Let’s dive in.

CONTENTS

Strategy:
• The Power of Perspective (By Jerome Renard)

Pay Attention:
• Life After Music: What’s It Like To Be T-Pain Now?
• 4batz Drops Debut Mixtape ‘U Made Me a St4r’
• Shaboozey Overtakes Beyoncé at #1 for the Hottest Country Song in the World

Industry News: 
• The End of a Feud: Universal Music and TikTok Strike New Licensing Deal
• ‘Greater Compensation’ is Coming From TikTok for UMG Artists and Songwriters

What We’re Watching:
• The Recipe For Dropping New Music in 2024

Check This Out:
• Music Industry Job Openings

STRATEGY

By Jerome Renard

The Power of Perspective

As artists, producers, and engineers, it’s important to shift our perspective when listening.

It’s common to hear advice like, "You need to listen on multiple systems before validating the mix." While there’s truth in this, it requires a subtle change to get great-sounding records.

But why?

• You might not know exactly what to listen for.

• You’re likely only familiar with one or two systems.

• It can get chaotic—too much bass on one system, not enough on another.

These are common reasons why you might find yourself confused during mix or production revisions.

This leads us to a key question:

Are we truly listening from multiple perspectives?

This concept, of "Listen from different perspectives"—not just through another set of speakers but with a different approach entirely—is often overlooked.

How you listen, and what you listen for, profoundly influences what you hear. 

For those of us in the industry, understanding this is crucial.

There are several ways to listen to a song, a mix, or a production, and you should intentionally adopt different perspectives:

• As the artist: Do I feel the emotions I intended to convey?

• From a technical standpoint: Is the mix or production well-executed? Do I hear any noises, or are there issues across the frequency range? These concerns are quite natural.

These are natural.

But there's another perspective to consider:

• As the fan or audience: Do I connect with this song? What do I feel? Does it make me want to hit “repeat”?

Therein lies the true power of sound—it's not always about what you hear, but how you listen.

By embracing these different listening angles, we refine our work and deepen our connection with the music we help create.

This different approach is what truly elevates a mix from good to great.

-Jerome

Website | Instagram | LinkedIn

PAY ATTENTION

Life After Music: What’s It Like To Be T-Pain Now?

A beautiful written piece + cover story on T-Pain: someone who has been an example of what it looks like to successfully transition into a post-music career.

It wasn’t easy for him though. He came in the game at 19 years old, reached the highest heights and the lowest lows.

His story is one about leaning into the parts of you that make you different, and learning how to rebuild a fanbase when you yourself have grown into someone new.

Well worth the read.

4batz Drops Debut Mixtape ‘U Made Me a St4r’

Now that the debut mixtape is out, pay close attention to the post-rollout plays. If it’s done right, 4batz ascends to another level and becomes the template for hiphop/r&b crossover artists.

Shaboozey Overtakes Beyoncé at #1 for the Hottest Country Song in the World

Shaboozey’s making his mark in Country and he’s here to stay.

INDUSTRY NEWS

The End of a Feud: Universal Music and TikTok Strike New Licensing Deal

The TikTok & UMD feud has finally come to an end.

MBW understands that Universal’s catalog of ~4 million songs and ~3 million recordings will be available on TikTok within one-to-two weeks, at which stage, all videos that had previously been muted will be unmuted.

We are left without the details of the new “multi-dimensional licensing agreement” between the two parties, but here’s what we do know..

‘Greater Compensation’ is Coming From TikTok for UMG Artists and Songwriters

Artists are going to be better compensated for their music.

Grainge writes in today’s memo: “Under the new agreement, artist and songwriter compensation will be greater than under our prior TikTok deal, and the total value UMG’s artists and songwriters garner from this partnership will be more closely aligned with other platforms in the social music category.

“Further, TikTok will implement tools and processes to help address provenance and attribution issues, helping artists and songwriters to more effectively monetize their work.”

Indie artist Washed Out's new music video was fully AI-generated

Washed Out’s latest song, “The Hardest Part,” was released Thursday, complete with a four-minute music video. It is first entirely artificial intelligence-generated music video created by OpenAI’s text-to-video model, Sora.

Sora, which is not yet available to the public, can generate videos up to a minute long based on ideas typed into a text box. Edited together, the clips could feasibly be used to make full-length projects.

Really cool. Check out the music video below:

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

The Recipe For Dropping New Music in 2024

@crackalack_

The Recipe For Dropping New Music in 2024 #musicartist #independentartist #musicstudio #musicmarketing #content

CHECK THIS OUT..

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.

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