We recently connected with Jeanne Rice and have shared our conversation below.
Jeanne, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
Artist Network Agency was an idea formulated decades ago. I had a very creative, entrepreneurial brain that was constantly coming up with business ideas, & inventions, in addition to songs and musings. I knew I wanted to serve creatives and the plan was a big concept. 16 years ago I pulled the domains. My old boyfriend worked in this modern industrial area and I fell in love with the exposed high ceilings and the polished concrete floors. This is when I began to envision what the space would look like. I could imagine each room, the paint, the furniture, the smell of the place. They say when you can envision something so clearly that’s when you know it can happen. I believe that still even though it hasn’t quite happened that way. It is not to say that it can’t or won’t. Where Artist Network Agency is now I feel is where we are supposed to be.
I had a wonderful photography career and I was happily riding that out and doing other things in music knowing the plans would eventually go into action to begin Artist Network Agency, when I hit some major bumps. Bumps and bruises you could say. I broke my back, suffered a 5 year carbon monoxide leak, was rear ended, and was smashed by a mosh pit breaking my elbow. You would have thought I was an Olympic Athlete with the amount of injuries and surgeries I had. Did I ever feel like giving up? Sure. But I was determined.
Prior to the pandemic I started looking for property in the LA area. I had put together a solid non-disclosure agreement and was pretty strict on sticking to it. I would say I could have been even stricter. You really can’t tell anyone your ideas without an NDA. Even with an NDA it can be dicey. I also studied how to put together a pitch deck and researched the best pitch decks. A key element is to identify how you are going to stand apart from your competitors. For me that was easy. There is too much automation and over-saturation of mediocre music. There’s not enough tight music curation with hands on service combined with modern technology.
I received lots of advice from others. Some of it was good. Most of it I didn’t listen to. I think as a business owner you have to also follow your gut. So many people were telling me that I couldn’t do this or that and they were wrong.
During the pandemic there was this light-bulb moment. There was no need to wait for this perfect picture to unfold in my head to start ANA (Artist Network Agency). I had been scouting talent and studying the music licensing side for years and I didn’t need the building for that. In fact, if I had leased a building during the pandemic I would have lost a lot of money so I feel I dodged a bullet there. Maybe it was all the therapy I had done that past year but I was able to let go of the old vision and open myself up to new possibilities. New ways of thinking. As soon as I did that, things began flowing like magic!
I received interest from investors who I didn’t even seek out, which has been a huge compliment, but have passed them up in favor of self-funding for now. Whatever is best for the artists and my clients is what I’ll continue to do.
When starting a business branding is the first step. You can’t do anything without branding. You need to think about the image you want to present. Get your logo down. Are you going to be pink & pastels with swirly writing or dark and rich with hard lines? I chose the latter. I looked at fonts. I knew I wanted to focus on the Acronym ANA (which is my Mom’s middle name). It so happens that the curve of the lines looks a bit like a 45 RPM record spindle adapter.
I reached out to some of my artists I had worked with or scouted and they willingly came onboard and have been patient in this building stage and I am so grateful to them for sticking it out with me. I know they’ll be rewarded. Last summer I began working with the USC Thornton music school and one of their amazing interns and I began building out and organizing my music library, which is the place music supervisors, film directors, and advertising agencies can come and find music to level up their production. I highly recommend working with these colleges and interns. Students are eager to learn and can get a lot out of an internship if you offer it to them and really work with them one on one.
The library being up to par in organization, and quality of music was critical. The website being live also was critical. I worked with a web-designer I know, Josh Gutierrez. I studied other agency websites to see what elements they had but it was important we were not a duplicate of anyone and maintained our own branding. Maintaining originality in how I operated was really important. I didn’t want to do things like everyone else.
I explained it to the artists like this. Think of the old Kevin Costner Field of Dreams movie quote “Build it and they will come”. So now we built it! They, those that license music, are starting to come. But, we are a well-built ship and we are also taking this ship to sea globally. We are getting the word out, letting people who buy music know that we are here. We exist to make your projects better and your life easier.
Jeanne, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My endearing love of the arts and my inability to escape it comes from my family. My Grandfather, and Uncles were singers and songwriters and had even recorded a gospel album together. My Uncle was a beautiful photographer. My birth father was also a photographer. I don’t ever talk about that to be honest. It took me a long time to accept that side of myself because of the strained relationship I had with him. My Mother and Great Grandmother would watch old movies on the weekends and I used to love to sit down and join them. That’s when my fascination with film began. I’m really grateful my Mother stuck me in piano lessons, ballet, and choir. I remember being pretty good at playing something by ear. I much preferred it than having to read sheet music. I think these elements as a whole were all a part of my early training ground without ever knowing it.
If I set my mind on doing something I was going to find a way to do it. I’ve been that way my entire life. I decided I wanted to be in real estate for a short stint at age 20 so I went and got my real estate license and was in real estate finance at a young age. After losing my boyfriend to suicide and learning I was pregnant, I realized later I couldn’t deny my creative path and went back to school to pursue the arts as a single mom. I don’t want to glide right by the fact that I lost someone from suicide. It’s so incredibly painful on its own but that story would be another on its own. I hope this story proves to you today that you don’t have to ever give up.
When I went back to school there was no degree program that fit what I wanted to learn or felt I needed to learn to be a success in my own journey. So, I created my own program foregoing any paper document. I became very educated but diversely educated. I didn’t mess around with things that I felt were unnecessary. I don’t suggest this for everyone. I think degree programs have gotten much better and broader now. I studied psychology, to better understand my clients and what people want; marketing, to understand how to present to a client; graphic design, to control my own ability to create; photography, originally to better art direct for my clients believe it or not; and film, for the love of the art. I won’t beat around the bush. I was highly fortunate in being in the right place at the right time with my photography so I was being published early on, while still in school. With professors like John Humble, Arthur Taussig, and Hadi Salehi lending their knowledge, big hearts, and a helping hand, along with numerous student friends, I made it through and even landed a scholarship opportunity to San Francisco Art institute.
I had a great photography career mainly surrounding music. I was eventually published in Spin, NME, Rolling Stone, and a phone call away from Vanity Fair. The editor of Vanity Fair called me and asked to publish a photo of mine but the New York Post had beat them to it. Throughout that time the entrepreneur was still there in me. I was always happy being able to connect people and help them in any way I could and finding fun projects or events to work on. When injuries sidelined my photography, I kept scouting and focusing on showcasing artists at my own or other people’s events. I remember walking in to a club in LA and seeing this band, The Diamond Light, and saying to myself “this would be GREAT in a film”. I began learning more about licensing and expanding my connections.
As I looked deeper into the current state of the business I saw that I could bring something a bit different to the table for both the artists and the music supervisors, film directors, ad agencies, fashion & gaming brands, podcaster’s, and others that benefit from using music in their production’s. There is a lot of mediocre music and a lot of great music sitting in giant catalogues amongst it. There is a place for the agencies that have the enormous catalogues. I want to be a highly curated catalogue that offers a wide diverse range of music but is top quality.
At ANA the goal is to provide automation combined with excellent customer service to assist you in finding the right music for your project and to get things done quickly. Our artist Parker Ainsworth wrote and performed the title track to the Netflix film Peanut Butter Falcon, “Running For So Long”. Georgia Parker and Greg in Good Co are new favorite finds. We just signed Switchfoot and they released an independent album of Christmas Music last year that is amazing! Equally important are newer acts like Edgar Everyone, featuring Jules de Gasperis the drummer of Low Hum, Winn Winn, and Tatianna Gross a 15 year old from Baltimore. We also have incredible composing talent onboard who are ready to score trailers, commercials, documentaries, games, feature films, or N.Y. Fashion Week. One of our composers, Anastasia Roupakia is a favorite of Giorgio Armani and he has used her music several times for his runway shows but she also is successful in film and is based in the U.K. Eduardo Rivera is based in LA and just finished a feature and his style is influenced by greats like Hans Zimmer. Ted Bello specializes in a sound that’s very advertisement friendly. Also, most of my artists custom write tracks as well and are able to provide an agency or production anything they need.
I’m really proud of the work we’re doing at ANA. Artist Network Agency was meant to have several divisions and right now I feel it’s right where it needs to be. I’m grateful for the artists who are taking this journey with me, and those that are getting involved and supporting, such as Lora Kirby, who is taking initiative in business development and helping us spread the word & Canvas Rebel. Your thoughtful questions have been appreciated. It’s not been an easy journey and I’m proud to still be here fighting for this vision and to represent the other single moms out there in this world who have goals and dreams.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Yes. This has been a giant pivotal moment. I had a series of injuries. It started with a broken back. I fell down a flight of stairs in 2005. Those years that I was “healing” from the back injury, there was a carbon monoxide leak in my home. After they discovered the leak, my body was in a weakened state but I was anxious to drive again. The very first time I drove on regular streets I was rear-ended by a student driver from Spain, injuring both shoulders. I then broke my elbow requiring two surgeries and badly injured the already weak right shoulder in therapy. Holding and carrying heavy camera equipment certainly wasn’t going to work well. It was definitely time to pivot. I knew I would start developing plans to put Artist Network Agency in motion. Knowing that it was a plan for many years did help but there was a grieving period for the photography career I had loved and was not doing.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I talk often about being in the right place at the right time. That’s all true but I had to climb up from there. You can only do that with having a great reputation. A great reputation is based on consistency, reliability, and great product. It’s what I’ve always tried to maintain. Throughout my career injuries and all I never missed a shoot or left a client hanging. I was so dedicated that two days after breaking my back “and breaking it big” according to doctors, I put my camera bags in a suitcase and asked my assistant to drive us to a wedding I was booked to shoot. I laid down in the backseat and slid out to shoot the wedding. I slid back in and they didn’t even know. Sure. I may be totally crazy. But, that’s the kind of dedication I have. Not everyone has it to that level. Singer Songwriter Leo James Conroy has it. He left his hospital bed and came straight to a venue to perform my first Indie Ignited showcase. He gets it. We both want to be the best at what we do. Only the best would do always in everything. Does that mean I don’t make a mistake on occasion? Sure, I do. Everyone does. But, I’ll make sure it’s rare and to not repeat them. You have to always strive to do better. Even when you think you’re at the top. That’s going to get you places.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.artistnetworkagency.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/artistnetworkagency, www.instagram.com/jeannerice_007
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeanne.rice1
- Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/jeannerice
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeannerice_007
- Other: Artist Network Agency on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/mrx3xccr Tatianna Gross on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/d98jbuvj
Image Credits
Jeanne Rice (@jeannerice_007) by Ryan Philip Lane (the.ry.lane), Parker Ainsworth (@parkerainsworth) by Daniel N. Johnson (@danieljohnsonis); Georgia Parker (itsgeorgiaparker) by Philip Etherington (@philipetherington); Switchfoot (@switchfoot) by Erick Frost (@erickfrost), Tatianna (@tatianna_music) by Micah E. Wood (@micahewood); Edgar Everyone (@edgareveryone) by Sika Senro (@sikasenro); Eduardo J. Rivera (@eduardoj_rivera) by Michelle Shiers, (@michelleshiers); Winn Winn (winn_winn) by Nick Rassmussen (@nickrasmussen)
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