MBW’s Inspiring Women series profiles female executives rising through the ranksTheir careers are profiled, from their professional breakthroughs to the senior responsibilities they fulfill today. Inspiring Women is supported by Virgin Music Group.
Marissa StevensIndependent Agency Partner and Vice President Contact the artistIn my twenties, I accidentally got into the music industry after being fascinated by the atmosphere of club nights.
While growing up in Washington state, Stevens wanted to be a teacher and then break into show business, performing in Los Angeles and San Francisco before eventually entering music.
This is a performance by an American DJ Mark Farina This marked a turning point.
“My idea of a club was that you go somewhere and have a drink at the bar,” she recalls.
“Seeing these people on the dance floor building this community is like nothing I’ve ever seen. That feeling when you’re dancing to a beat is one of those feelings that can be very powerful when you do it together as a group. That’s what it’s like What attracts me.
After desperately trying to break into the music industry by working outside clubs for free, Stevens found a job at a small agency in San Francisco called Listed.
Later, she met the founder and president of Liaison Andrew Kelsey Through a friend, he hired her as his third employee. This is where she has been for the past 16 years.
During this time the agency has grown from a bedroom office to a globally recognized independent booking agency with over 140 house, techno and independent electronic artists.
Contact celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, books 5,000 Performances occur every year, including at major music festivals such as EDC Las Vegas, Ultra Music Festival and Coachella (for the latter, in 2022, they accounted for 7% of the total number of festival artists).
Most recently, Stevens has been touring North and South America for British DJ HotSince 82, playing for DJ and producer Jayda G on her last show before her maternity leave, German techno artist Stephan Bodzin and up-and-coming Afro house DJ Nitefreak Tour.
Here, we chat with her about lessons learned throughout her career, the role of an agent, challenges in the live music world, and more…
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned while growing Liaison?
One of them: don’t take things personally. This is my whole identity, my job. I put my heart and soul into building the company and my artists. But this is a business. You’ll be friends with someone, maybe represent them, and then they’ll abandon you.
Also, work on becoming more grateful. In this industry, competition is fierce, so try to capture those small moments and really enjoy it. Remember why you are getting into it. These are my biggest lessons.
Do you have any habits or rituals that ensure you are the best version of yourself at work?
Yes, absolutely. These are things I’ve started doing in the last few years. Almost every morning, I meditate as soon as I wake up. I try to imagine how I want to spend my day and what I want to accomplish. Sometimes I’m better at it than others, trust me.
Then I walk four to six miles every morning, which clears my head. I take my dog out. Annoyingly, I’m a morning person, so I start my day at 5:30 or 6 in the morning, so I have a few hours to get ready before starting work.
What do you think makes a good agent?
You have to be very strong. You have to work very hard and be very disciplined. I think people look at it and it seems like you’re just traveling and doing all these fun things and going to festivals. Yes, there are a lot of very interesting things about this job, but it’s also very hard work.
“You put other people’s careers in your hands, you can’t really have bad days.”
I don’t know anyone who has a temp agency where it takes up a huge part of your life. You will receive calls from important people [life] Events, weekends and evenings. You can’t really have bad days with someone else’s career in your hands. You are under tremendous pressure to produce and produce at a high level. So you should like this. There are a few easier things you can do to make more money than becoming an agent, especially when you’re just starting out!
Toughness and a thick skin are also important. Ability to build good relationships with people and handle difficult situations. Sometimes your artists and promoters will object, and you’re the middle man who has to make it happen.
How have you seen the role of an agent change over the course of your career, if at all?
I do think it has changed. The electronics scene has changed a lot from when I first got into it. There are some major institutions that have been doing what they are doing, but electronic music is more mainstream than when I started. With that comes higher fees, bigger opportunities, bigger deals. You have to learn how to evolve.
An agent will also provide more perspective in strategizing for an artist, really going in-depth and providing a very complex plan over two to five years – building a career rather than just booking gigs. This involves a lot of strategy.
What are the biggest challenges in building a live career, especially in electronic music, in 2024?
After the epidemic, this scene had to rebound. The way people hold events, what artists are looking for, and the way fans interact with artists are all different.
In some ways, breaking out is easier because you don’t necessarily need to have representation to get noticed or get booked. Social media has changed the game dramatically. Artists are more accessible to people than in the past, and it is easier for artists to market themselves.
At the same time, people might think that having talent and having an agent will automatically make you successful or break through, but that’s not the case.
There are a lot of artists coming out every day. We were packed with people wanting our autographs. Every day, I might get five or six emails about a new artist. So even though the traffic is greater, because of that it appeals to more people and it’s harder to break through without a team. For young artists, it takes a lot of resources to do this.
What are your thoughts on the overall health of the live music scene post-pandemic? I’ve heard that the top 1% of artists are thriving, while it’s very challenging for small and medium-sized artists to make a profit. Do you feel this way?
Absolutely. After COVID-19, we all have to assess, what to do? In addition to small and medium-sized artists, small and medium-sized promoters are also struggling. Now, some artists are out of work, so they’re going to want to be aggressive on fees, and sometimes small and medium-sized stuff is priced out of the promoter side.
People can no longer go to nightclubs as they used to. I feel like people are looking for big events, like festivals, all day and all night. In some markets, the casual club-goer every weekend no longer exists. People say, ‘I only have so much money to spend on entertainment. Do I go to some little club somewhere, or save up to go to this festival or 24 hour party?
There are a bunch of big events going on from day to night in New York, Chicago and places like that. So they have to get more creative. I do think clubs are still trying and working, they are just more conservative with their offers and this affects artists because in most cases they are paid less.
How do you deal with the artists you work with, especially those early on who need to establish their careers?
For my young artists, we did what we could, which was make music in the studio, outside, take every opportunity we could get and maximize them.
For the financial side of things, we’re doing more bonuses or things like that on the back end so promoters don’t take losses. This could mean that if the club has a capacity of 500 people, they’ll give you $3,000 as a guarantee, and if you sell 450 tickets, you’ll get an additional $2,000. If they do well, then everyone does well, which helps give them a little bit of protection.
It also helps artists understand their value and how well their ticket sales are going. Therefore, everyone is motivated to promote the event and ensure its success. We don’t want to lose small to mid-sized promoters because that’s how you develop artists.
On the subject of representation, I know this is important to you, what would you like to see from the wider music industry to increase diversity both on the business and artist side?
On the artist side, things are already much better. There are so many talented black women out there doing their thing, and as we see things have improved incredibly since the pandemic.
On the business side, I put a lot of emphasis on mentoring and trying to engage with young women. During my last recruiting round, I saw many more women applying for these jobs than ever before. When you see women in agents, managers, or any of those roles, you’re like, “Okay, yeah, I can do that.” So this is very important.
Can you pinpoint the best career-related advice you’ve ever received?
A good friend of mine and a mentor who doesn’t work in the music industry, even though she has been in the music industry for many years, says to “always keep it real.” This can mean a lot of different things, but to me it means walking the talk: saying what I’m going to do and trying to do it impeccably.
“Maintaining the passion for this is the most important thing.”
Also, staying passionate about it is most important. We have to put a lot of effort into our work and know that what you do makes a difference [with] It’s the little things like treating others well, being fair and honest. That’s what she meant.
What do you think is the most exciting development in the music industry right now?
I love seeing how far dance music has come and how dominant it is. You have these big festivals, whereas before we might have had a little tent on the side somewhere. Now, these are the main headlines. This shows that this is not a fad.
Like everything else, it’s a very serious genre and people have been attracted to it. I never imagined that some of the major headliners at Coachella and major music festivals around the world would showcase electronic music the way they do.
Is there anything that needs to be done to ensure the continued growth of the electronic music industry?
As fees and these scenarios grow, there comes a point where we price people out and then we start falling into dangerous patterns. We all want to make money and that’s a really important thing, but we need to be mindful and look after the fan experience because ultimately it’s the people who give us jobs.
What changes would you like to make to the music industry?
This is very cruel. It’s not nice and it’s not fun. This is probably the hardest part of the job. You can sign a guy, develop them, pour everything into them, and then they go to another institution. It hurts every time. It’s really hard to change because it’s human nature.
Do you have any advice for aspiring agents?
Make sure this is something you want to do. It takes a long time to become a manager and get into the music industry. You’ll probably be working alone for six or seven years before you make decent or enough money to live on or even have a roster.
Have a very clear vision. Be highly organized and highly focused. You have to have a strong work ethic. You have to be a self-starter. No one is going to hand you a task and tell you what you need to do to get it from start to finish. Stay hungry and pursue it every day because it’s very competitive.
Virgin Music Group It is the global independent music division of Universal Music Group, which brings together Universal Music Group’s record labels and artist services businesses, including Virgin and Ingrooves.
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