Legacy Recordings

Let me introduce myself. My name is Chris Smith. I am a full-time MBA in Digital Media Management student interning for 2.5 months this summer with Legacy Recordings and the Commercial Music Group. I own a small post audio and music house in Austin, TX called Lois Earl Entertainment (www.loisearl.com). I’ve worked in higher education for 5 years at The University of Texas at Austin, and I have about 6 years of music and entertainment business related experience as a producer, SXSW stage manager, engineer, sound designer, publisher and composer. I turn 30 on the last day of this month and am very happily married.

My 1st week so far at SonyBMG has been exactly what I hoped for. I hit the ground running after lunch Monday examining new pricing and partnerships by researching a list of the top 100 digital Legacy artists. I always knew that major labels had a lot of content, but I have to admit that I am a bit in awe of the depth and breadth of SonyBMG’s catalog. After talking with my new found friends in new media marketing who are tasked with digitally monetizing older SonyBMG assets, I learned that there exists loads and loads of stuff in the coffers that even they haven’t been exposed to. For instance, I got an idea as to what a new music discovery experience might be like for Legacy A&R when I stumbled upon an old home demo recording of Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean” while researching the top 100 downloaded artists. At one point you can hear the creative process as he hums the melody as if the lyrics are unfinished.

I’ve been introduced to most of the staff and executives and have already attended two meetings. This is going to be great! As I applied for internships for over 6 months, I wanted to be sure it was something of substance, a conversation holder, challenging, with clear learning outcomes, and worth the sacrifice of being away from my wife. So far it’s turning out to be just that.