We were lucky to catch up with Sophia Annello recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sophia , appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I have been an independent artist in the DFW scene for about 7 years now. I’m a pop/country singer-songwriter that has been playing gigs nation wide and pursuing music for a long while now, and recently graduated from Berklee College of Music in May of 2022. While always loving the creative side of the industry, I’ve always had a knack for helping other independent artists in booking, social media, and release planning when it comes to their own work.

After graduating college, I wanted to find a way to make a full-time living from pursuing music in any way possible. I worked for an artistic development company out of Nashville for the first few months after graduating as an agent in their booking department. Realizing quickly that it wasn’t a fit, I went on to start my own music consulting company.

In the first month of being up and running, it was an amazing experience to realize how many other artists valued my experience as a creative, and my connections in the business side of the industry as well. We quickly added 10+ artists to our roster in the first month of being up and running, and officially created Annello Productions LLC that month.

It was a nerve-racking time to think that I might not be able to make a living just pursuing my own music and consulting other artists on how to approach their social media marketing, booking, and release planning. However, I was quickly proven wrong and was able to start hiring employees for our company shortly after creating the LLC.

I believe if you have the work ethic, passion, and connections, you can make anything happen! I’m thrilled to say I make a living full-time working in all aspects of the industry, not only on my own creative projects, but planning national tours, helping others with social media, and planning other artists’ releases!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Ever since I was 7 years old, I’ve wanted to share my music with anyone who would listen. I was brought up singing, playing guitar, and learning other instruments such as piano and ukulele. I had the best support system possible, growing up with a brother who also pursues music, and parents that were singers and actors as well.

I was always pushed to love what I do every day. My parents never wanted me to fall back into a job I wasn’t passionate about just to pay the bills. I have always had a mass amount of work ethic when it comes to music. I truly believe anything is possible if you work hard enough, and have traits that set you a part from the masses in your industry.

Annello Productions LLC was created to help independent artists uncover their potential. It’s insane how many artists I’ve come across all over the country who didn’t realize how immensely talented they are. All it takes is for one person to believe in you to ignite a spark that will set the course for the rest of your career. I felt that as an artist I was screwed over so many times. Whether someone didn’t believe in my capabilities, or wouldn’t take a second look at a song I believed in because I didn’t know “important enough” people. My goal was to change the way the industry looks at independent artists and give them every opportunity possible, without the backing of a major label.

I was always told as well that you could never focus on both your artistry and professional music business career. I’m here to let everyone know it is possible to pave your own path, pursue everything and anything you want to, you just have to think about it in a way no one else does, and have a fire no one will be able to put out.

At Annello Productions we focus on regional bookings & national tour routing, social media consulting for all platforms, release planning for upcoming singles/albums, website creations, and electronic press kit (EPK) creation for independent artists. It’s been a joy to work with the existing artists on our roster, and I look forward to finding more talent to uplift in the independent music community!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part of being an artist or creative is purely having your original music resonate with an audience. Every live show I’ve ever played, it’s been the happiest moment of the night when folks tell me after that they stayed solely to watch my show and listen to my music.

I enjoy connecting with people, and I always have. I’m a very extroverted person, and I love knowing even one more person that day resonated with what I have to share in my music then the day before.

The absolute most rewarding experience was not reaching a million streams on an original song, or being listed as NPR’s 20 under 20 for North Texas (even though those things brought me immense joy), it was a comment that would left on one of my songs on Youtube.

KXT 91.7 is once of the most amazing radio stations and platforms I have come across. Their support of independent artists is absolutely incredible, and I could not be more thankful for them. They have streamed my song “Falling” 100s of times on their station, and this relates to the Youtube comment left on my channel.

A man I didn’t know commented “I’m an old man on my way home, so humor me. I was sort of dying in bed alone when this came on KXT 91.7 FM and it jarred me out of it. I grew up in Oak Cliff where making it at “17” was tough. I hop you make it good. God bless”.

This comment brought tears to my eyes, and still does to this day. Knowing I can have a song to share that makes someone look me up and leave me that message of their own personal struggle, is absolutely amazing. In my opinion, I don’t think even winning a Grammy could make you feel that way (even though I don’t know what that’s like”.
For me it’s always been the little things, and I’ll never take them for granted.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

We live in a society that focuses a lot on numbers and analytics. It’s hard as a creative, and a business owner, to think less of yourself if you don’t always have the biggest audience.

I think something that our society could do to support independent music, such as KXT 91.7 and venues such as The Rustic, is put independent artists on a pedestal, even if they don’t have a certain following on TikTok, or a certain amount of monthly listeners on Spotify.

One thing I admire heavily about the Dallas music scene, is most venues and other creatives do just that. If as many businesses could give just give one more independent artist a shot at performing live, or could be less critical about numbers and analytics, we could literally change societal standards when it comes to the support of independent music and smaller artists in music markets across the US.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.annelloproductions.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annelloproductions/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/89784140/admin/
• Other: Sophia Annello Music Artist Links: http://instagram.com/sophiaannellomusic http://www.facebook.com/1071651887 https://twitter.com/SophiaAnnello https://www.tiktok.com/@sophiaannellomusic?lang=en https://www.youtube.com/@SophiaAnnello

Image Credits
Kelcee Hardwood