{"id":205358,"date":"2024-09-23T18:56:52","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T17:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=205358"},"modified":"2024-09-24T19:58:41","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T18:58:41","slug":"i-know-that-if-i-really-love-a-song-or-an-artist-really-speaks-to-me-others-will-feel-the-same-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/i-know-that-if-i-really-love-a-song-or-an-artist-really-speaks-to-me-others-will-feel-the-same-way\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I know that if I love a song, or an artist really speaks to me, others will feel the same way.’"},"content":{"rendered":"MBW\u2019s Inspiring Women series profiles female executives who have risen throu<\/em>gh the ranks of the business, highlighting their career journey \u2013 from their professional breakthrough to the senior responsibilities they now fulfill. I<\/em>nspiring Women is\u00a0supported by\u00a0Virgin Music Group<\/a>.<\/em>\n
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Katie Welle, who is today SVP of Creative A&R at Sony Music Publishing, has been involved in a mightily impressive array of success stories across her career.<\/p>\n

Her highlights include working closely with Odd Future at the hip-hop collective\u2019s inception to, more recently, signing hit songwriter Charlie Handsome, who co-wrote Post Malone’s Billboard Hot 100 No.1 I Had Some Help<\/em>, and 2024 Grammy Songwriter of the Year Theron Thomas, amongst many others.<\/p>\n

Welle signed Jeff Bhasker\u2019s first deal at SMP, the Grammy-winning producer\/songwriter well known for his work with artists including Kanye West, Harry Styles and Jay-Z, plus pop writers extraordinaire J Kash, Tyler Johnson and Mikky Ekko. One of her newest signings is Teezo Touchdown, who has featured on tracks by Tyler, the Creator, Travis Scott and Drake.<\/p>\n

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Welle grew up in Indiana, where she didn\u2019t know the music business existed. So, even though she was a rabid music fan who obsessively dug into credits, she thought she\u2019d do something else with her life and decided to pursue a career in international relations.<\/p>\n

However, after meeting an A&R who worked at Epic Records and realizing that a job in A&R was a real thing, she tracked down the contact and secured an internship based on her music taste.<\/p>\n

An assistant job shortly followed and soon, Welle was going to five shows a week on LA\u2019s Sunset Strip, meeting other A&Rs and getting absorbed into the community. The first artist she signed was Hitmaka, who was then called Yung Berg, and her career path was set.<\/p>\n

Welle remembers: \u201cAt the time, my boss was Keith Naftaly at Epic Records, and I was always being like, \u2018I want to do A&R.\u2019 The best advice he gave me, which I still think about to this day, was \u2018Well, no one’s going to stop you.\u2019 That’s what A&R is all about. It’s entrepreneurial. You have to make your own business, create your own activity, and have a vision to make it happen. You just have to go out and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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After Epic, Welle moved over to Sony Publishing before getting the itch to return to the label world in a more senior position, where she could experience what it was like to put together a release from start to finish and break new artists.<\/p>\n

A six-year stint at RCA Records followed before Welle returned to Sony Publishing in 2020.<\/p>\n

Here, we chat with her about her career journey, lessons learned along the way, the evolution of publishing, and much more.<\/p>\n

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You returned to music publishing four years ago after a stint back at labels. What do you enjoy most about your job?<\/h6>\n

I really love being a music publisher. At the end of the day, whatever play I’m making, if a Sony writer is involved, and that could be someone signed anywhere in the world, I’m doing something that’s good for them and their part of the equation; I’m doing my job. That leaves limitless possibilities for everything exciting that’s happening in music.<\/p>\n

I also feel that I can really get involved in the DNA of music. And it doesn’t matter if I’m not the A&R for one particular artist, I can have an impact via the songwriters and other artists I work with via their songs, sessions and connections. It’s so fun to watch a landscape of music and know that I had an impact on these releases in some way.<\/p>\n

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What’s your approach to A&R? How do you get the best out of the creatives that you’re working with?<\/h6>\n

A lot of times I view it as coaching. Our main job is to bring opportunities and help add value to their career, but the other side of it is giving advice on how best to approach a situation, manage a relationship, get the most out of an opportunity or help them see what they might be missing.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say we set up a session, I might say, \u2018I think the best result could come from approaching it like this\u2019 or \u2018this person is really good at this, so let them lead there\u2019 and \u2018I think you could be helpful by doing XYZ\u2019.<\/p>\n

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Can you pinpoint the biggest lessons you’ve learned across your career in the various different roles you’ve held?<\/h6>\n

When you first start out and don’t really know all the obstacles that exist, you have this fearlessness to push through, no matter if there’s some authority figure that you\u2019re contradicting or disagreeing with.<\/p>\n

It’s a tough industry and as you go through it, it can be discouraging. Looking back now, that’s the thing I tried to instil in myself. There\u2019s examples in the music industry all the time of surprises and new artists breaking through. The disruptions that happen all the time are so inspiring.<\/p>\n

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