We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Terrany Johnson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Terrany, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.
In my field of being in the music business I believe corporate America has decided to only use the artsas a gateway selling point to move other products and not feel the desire to compensate the creatives for the initial offering of their art befor eit is used to sell other products. Also not giving an approp[riate share of revenue to the creatives for the otehr products that are sold but tie them into agreements as promotional items to promote tghe initial creation which they dont compensate enough in the beginning. Crazy right. Corporate needs to instill in its current models of creatives being businesses within themselves and negotiated and addressed as they would a fortune 500 one.
Terrany, 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?
Ill try not to make this that long as more can be found at www.teedouble.com but I was born and raised in Austin,Texas around the 11th street area on the east side. At a young age I was normally sick with asthma and the like so I gravitaed towards music,first being piano in elemntary and later into various instruments moving into rapping as Hip Hop was really starting to make its presence felt in Texas. One thing along my journey I noticed was how their were very few places to educated or support Black creatives in my city. Around 14 I formed my first group ( Dope Melody) with my friend Charles Cartter as known as Chilly Fresh. Learnign true team work and really thinking about were we and myself wanted to be in the future with this artform. I was involved in a program called Tribes which was created by music industry vet Jan Bozarth in which she took us into studios but mainly educated us on the fundamentals of the BUSINESS with terms like Publishing,Royalties,Ownership etc. Tribes received our own day proclamation in the city and years later after my many years of shows and performances I was able to secure jobs at SXSW as Music Director and Arista/Austin at the same time. Multi tasking has always been my strong point in getting thin gs done.. My company Kinetic Global Music Goup was founded arund my time at SXSW as a way to further include urban artist who couldnt afford to pay for registration but still wanted a presence at the fest by presenting my Kinetic Presents cd series,which I pressed and distributed free at the fest. KGMG soon became my hub for my film/tv/voice over sync work ( Breaking Bad,Rick adn Morty and more) ,recording studio,publishing company and artist advocate organization called Urban Artist Alliance. I recently graduated from the McCombs School of Business Executive Program in Digital Marketing to further increase my educational foundation to better serve clients as well as my current adn future opprtunities.Which has partnered with many orgs in town such as Austin Music Foundation.Black Fret,Texas Chapter of The Grammys,etc. I want potential clienst to understand through my numerous avenues of entry into various fields we at KGMG are dedicated to structuring the best possible long term situation for your art or what field of interest you approach us with.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
In the earliy stages of any busienss you are left with the question of how do I pay for this. With me being a stable performing artist with tours and numerous gigs since I was young,I learned early on about saving what I get paid and reinvesting back into my art. Dj Cassanova a local dj and producer of many in the early days of Austin Hip Hop told me to ALWAYS invest back into gear and more to sustain myself so I wouldnt have to plea with someone else to maintain my momentum. So it’s pretty simple and I think many over think it but just put as much as you are comfortable with into an account just for the art and the growth of it. Dont touch it as it could be a life saver when the time revelas.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
In regards to the sync world of film and tv I had to learn that not all syncs need to be from mastered recordings or perfect audio sources. In sync sometimes the roughness of the recording can be exactly what they desire and in some cases the perfect mix is just too shiny for the final source. Studios can add effects and so on to a sound source if it needs it once the track is chosen,. Also knowing that sometimes a sync has to travel through many hands before it is approved so even if they say you got it ,it can come down to the last sec and get rejected. So being with agents or network that has a reputable reputation helps in guaranteeing your sync will get signed off on. But once you get a great sync for a huge show or product those payouts can be nive if they are negotiated properly in the beginning, that’s a whole another interview.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.teedouble.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terranyjohnson/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/terranyjohnson/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terranyjohnson/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/terranyjohnson
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/teedouble
- Other: All things digital marketing for creatives and businesses in general. https://kineticglobal.net/