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Toughing It Out
The manager of Destiny's Child mixes cold reality and warm optimism during a music business lecture.
By Rob Hochschild
Berklee.edu Editor
March 12, 2003
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Mathew Knowles stresses the importance of thinking "outside the box." |
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Photo by Justin A. Knight |
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Mathew Knowles grew up in a small town in Alabama and was so poor he felt he couldn't invite his friends to visit. His family used an outhouse and the side yard was littered with old batteries and refrigerators and cars. "I used to be so embarrassed about that," Knowles told Berklee students during a lecture last month.
But the lessons he learned from watching his parents cope with poverty helped turn him into one of the music industry's most successful businessmen. His father earned $25 per week driving a produce truck but used that same vehicle to operate a busy junk business during his off hours. And when his mother was finished working as a maid and nanny in the daytime, she knitted quilts and sold them for additional income.
"I learned this entrepreneurial spirit. I learned about marketing," said Knowles, who manages Destiny's Child and several other top-selling pop artists. He also developed a philosophy rooted in his childhood experiences that applies perfectly to the state of the music business today, and decided to make it the subject of his talk: "Tough Times Don't Last, Tough People Do."
Brought to Berklee's David Friend Recital Hall as this year's speaker in the James G. Zafris, Jr., Distinguished Lecture Series for Music Business/Management, Knowles also spoke as a centerpiece event in Berklee's Black History Month Music Celebration, which also featured Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and vocal group Take Six.
"You have picked the worst time ever to enter the music business," Knowles said, referring to industry layoffs and declining record sales. "I want you to know what you're going into," he told the audience of nearly 200 students, faculty, and staff.
Declaring that the music industry is in a "state of emergency," Knowles said that among 30,000 albums released in 2002, more than 29,000 were "bricks," citing diminishing numbers of gold and platinum recordings. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, 128 releases went gold (exceeding sales of 500,000 units) in 2002, and of those, 57 went platinum (sales exceeding one million). The numbers spell drops of 12 percent and 21 percent, respectively, compared to 2001, when 146 records went gold and 72 platinum.
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Mathew Knowles's Music World label has released several hit albums. |
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Photo by Justin A. Knight |
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Those gloomy figures notwithstanding, Knowles remains optimistic about the chances of making it in music, provided people take a positive approach. Knowles cited four key ingredients to success: passion, a hard work ethic, giving back to the community, and thinking outside the box, demonstrating his last point by stepping inside, then out, of a cardboard box on the stage.
"When you think outside the box, you start to realize your potential," said Knowles. "Change is good. Embrace change, especially in the music industry, where change comes every month. Outside the box, you stop wanting other people's approval. It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission."
He also urged students to avoid "box thoughts," or self-defeating ideas that keep people from evolving. Most people fail not because of lack of talent, he said, but because low self-esteem makes them afraid of success.
"Don't you ever, ever give up on a dream you have," he said. "Give it everything you have every night, every day. Try something new every day."
Knowles took several questions from students, striking a tone similar to the one present during his speech, mixing sad-but-true industry stories with encouraging bits of advice.
One of Knowles's most telling comments came in response to a question about how he promoted the career of Destiny's Child, one of whose members, Beyoncé, is Knowles's daughter.
"It's not about music...You have to recognize that it's called the business of music. Anybody who thinks music is before business, you're wrong and you will fail," he said. "Music is important, but you're doing the imaging, the marketing, the promotions, all in sync...I marketed 15-year-olds (Destiny's Child) as 17-year-olds. We aged them up."
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| Students lined up after the lecture to speak with Mathew Knowles. |
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| Photo by Justin A. Knight |
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Several questions related to how young music professionals begin their careers, particularly as it relates to making connections with people who can promote careers. But rather than tell students how to go about finding a successful manager or attorney, he encouraged students to find other students with complementary skills and build business relationships while still in school.
"The answer is right here in this room," said Knowles. "If I was producing on campus, I'd find a vocalist and songwriter and engineer to work with. The synergy has to start right here....there's bright people in this room."
Students responded enthusiastically to Knowles's advice with shouts of approval and applause. "We've got to work together!" one student yelled.
Internships are also an important way for aspiring music business people to catch a break, said Knowles, who has 12 interns on the staff of his Music World label. He named two industry giants who started as interns: Producer Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and Def Jam President Kevin Liles.
Near the end of his lecture, Knowles said he wanted to establish an internship program at Berklee. He also announced that he would give back the day's speaking honorarium—$1,000—as a scholarship for a qualified student.
As the audience began filing out of the room, Knowles made one last offer to students that not only demonstrated his openness and willingness to help, but completely set him apart from almost every other well-connected industry pro who has ever lectured at Berklee: He invited students to give him demo CDs. He grabbed the box he had earlier used for his "outside the box" demonstration, and, without a speck of irony, asked students to put their music inside of it. Whether or not they make it out of the box, metaphorically speaking, is up to them.
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