Lee Olsen - VP of KCA Artists

today i went and talked with Lee Olsen who is Vice President of Keith Case & Associates Artists. they are representation agents with also some management.

so i figured i should talk about my experience a bit. while once i got there, as i was late because i put 7th ave in my phone instead of 17th so there's that. but it was kind of awkward. he just expected me to ask questions but he answered them all. really the opportunity was more just to get me face-time with different people in the industry to just sort of start getting out there. i'll send him a thank you card soon and now if i am ever looking for a booking agent for someone i am managing maybe i'll go to them. or you never know how connections may come back.

He manages the Northeast when it comes to booking artists. When they say they want to tour in the Northeast he will send out an e-mail blast to his list of contacts (in the thousands) to see who is interested. From there he will start to put together a tour. Different agents in his company book different parts. Basically they just try to get any shows or gigs for their artists that they can.

He got started by being in his own band. He learned how to book bands by booking his own band. From there he booked other bands as well for commission. He was making a living, but he wasn't making any money. It was actually at a blue grass music convention where he met Keith and came to join his company. Really he learned everything just from doing it and by trail and error. He didn't have any background or training in business. In college he had an English degree.

He also managed a band called The Fairfield Four. He became their manager because he was there (I believe they were already using his booking services) and they needed a manager. He came on before they had some deals with Warner. He told me a story about how they were doing tracks for Garth Brooks but there was a point where one of the singers didn't know how to hit a certain note. So they had to trash everything and find someone else to do it. So after that he hired a music direction in session and made sure they were prepared. Also, they had them in headphones but they are an a capella group so they sing the best when they are singing together and can hear each other. So that's another time when Lee stepped in as manager and he arranged so they didn't have to use headphones and since then they didn't have a problem. He tried to get them into the studio whenever he could. He was given advice for that band to take every opportunity they could get and every time they had to hit it out of the park. Since that they always made sure they were prepared before they went into the studio. He wasn't making much money from being their manager until they ended up in a movie and had a few deals. It was more a labor of love.

He also talked a bit about music distribution and different deals that are more popular now. I didn't catch all of that so I am going to have to research music distribution a bit more.

He discussed also how when he first started that he would send letters to venues with a return envelope in order to book bands. Then there were phone calls. And now emails. So he spends most of his days in his office on the phone and emailing.

I think that covered everything. It lasted about 15 minutes, I didn't want to take up any more of his time. I appreciated that he took the time to talk with me. I have two more scheduled for Friday and I'm emailing a few more people. So it's excited going out and talking and meeting people and just learning some more. So yeah, woohoo!