Moses Supposes

Moses Supposes: Epic gives up the Ghost

Moses Avalon is one of the nation’s leading music-business consultants and artists’-rights advocates and is the author of a top-selling music business reference, Confessions of a Record Producer. More of his articles can be found at www.mosesavalon.com.

Ah, what happened to the days when being a music executive meant that you could party with the acts in your office, sleep late, yell at underlings, and get rewarded even if your numbers were bad? Well, they’re still here, unless you happen to have one important character flaw: a vagina.

You gotta read this Hollywood Reporter article on the firing of Epic president Amanda Ghost first, if you haven’t already.

You know, I’ve always said that as far as sexism is concerned, the music space defied the odds. We have far more female executives in positions of true power than probably just about any other industry, except maybe TV.

In my first book, Confessions of a Record Producer, in the “Miscellaneous Myths” section, I actually have a chapter called “Are Women Discriminated Against in the Music business?” Using statistics and raw data, it proves that the answer is “no.” We have a great deal more gals in the driver’s seat than any other biz. But after what Epic and, independently, the law firm of Boies Schiller have done, I think that I need to take another look.

Blackout Film Festival: Breaking From Routine

When Austin Chu, 25, was laid off from a Bay Area Internet startup in December of 2008, he did what many Californians might do: he went surfing every day, made plans to travel across the country to film a documentary, and diligently sent out a flurry of applications for PR and marketing positions.

As Chu discussed documentary plans with his 23-year-old brother Brian — what if they made something different from all the dark, disaster- oriented coverage? — companies started calling him for interviews. One offered him a job.

“If there’s a window of opportunity, you have to jump through,” Austin says. “It’s like, you see a girl in a bar and you make eye contact. If you don’t go then, it’s over. You won’t get another chance.”