Cat's Mother of the Month - Imogen Reay
Introducing the wonderful inspiration that is Imogen Reay - our #catsmotherofthemonth. We thought we’d treat you to an exclusive insight into the world of Sync and who better to do that for us than Imogen Reay, Sync Associate at Concord Music Publishing.
Like many of us, Imogen is a few years into her music career and is steadily and impressively climbing the ladder herself. So who better to hear from than her?!
Imogen’s dedication, perseverance and passion is clear in the way she has excelled so early on in her career - not to mention, in an area of music business that is tough to break into! In this interview, Imogen shares an insight into her growth in music business, what she enjoys most about the world of Sync (and what Sync actually is!), how she gained access to the creative industry and more.
What do you typically get up to as a Sync Associate at Concord?
The biggest part of my day is spent responding to client briefs. I might need to find some uplifting, dynamic tracks with lyrics about expressing yourself for a fashion commercial, or it might be some dark, cinematic music with a big build for the trailer of a new thriller series. It really ranges from brief to brief. Whatever it is, I need to find them the best possible options from our catalogue. If they decide they want to license one of those tracks (hooray!) I’ll then need to work with the licensing team to negotiate the right fee for the usage, and then get an approval from the songwriter.
Aside from that, I’ll be listening to all the new tunes that are being released by our songwriters every day. I’ll be having meetings with their managers and the A&R team about where we think their music is best placed, and I’ll also be reaching out to music supervisors, producers or directors and bringing them to gigs - a part of the job I will never take for granted ever again!
What route did you take to get you to where you are today?
I studied Law at University, and quite frankly hated it. But I stuck it out after learning about music law, and seeing there was a way to combine my degree with my real passion. So with that realisation, I threw myself into finding work experience placements alongside my studies. I shadowed people in music licensing, interned at a local record label over the Summer holidays and hassled a lot of people to let me spend a week at their company. Thankfully, it paid off and I got a brilliant paid internship at Beggars Music after graduating where I learned a lot about publishing and sync, which led me to my first job at Concord and where I find myself today!
Tell us about some of your proudest career achievements to date?
The first time a track I had pitched made it onto a commercial was a pretty sweet moment! It was a cover of a song called ‘New Day’, originally released in the late 60s by Jackie Lomax and reimagined by one of our amazing artists, Lyra. It was mega rewarding to read the YouTube comments on the advert wanting to know what the song is and who the artist is, as that’s the best result really! There was also helping to launch Concord Art Prize successfully and putting on a 3-day exhibition of art and music. It was completely terrifying as I had never done anything like it before, but it was a proper achievement.
Who was your Cat's Mother (role model) at the early stages of your music career?
Most definitely my incredible boss (and Cat’s Mother), Sara Lord. Not only is she brilliant at everything she does and handles any situation with bags of class, she also manages to be massively supportive and builds everyone up around her at the same time. I’m very aware of how lucky I am to have met her at the start of my career, when your confidence is easily dashed and so important to grow. There’s been a lot of wonderful others too – shoutout to Hilary Burt who gave me my first work experience in sync and patiently explained to me the difference between publishing and master rights probably about 380129 times before it clicked (it’s really not that complicated). She’s someone I know I could always go to for career advice, which I’m very grateful for.
Are there any obstacles or challenges that come up a lot in your role and if so, how do you overcome them?
There are absolutely challenges. Sync is a highly competitive area of the music industry - for every 1 commercial, there’s a whole lot of songs being pitched on it – and of course every songwriter and their manager wants you to land their track on the job. So there’s a lot of expectation when the odds are very slim. Also, you can get really close to a great placement, and then the director might change their mind on the song at the very last moment for reasons that don’t always make sense to you. You’ve just got to keep ploughing on and know that you’re doing your best to get those syncs, and not feel too disappointed if it doesn’t happen. A good vent to my team mates in the pub always helps too!
Where do you get creative inspiration from?
I’m lucky that I can spend a lot of hours watching TV and call it creative research! But really, there’s so much amazing audio-visual content being made. I find I’m most inspired when I come across a really unexpected music to picture decision. Something that makes you think “What?! That?! How is that working so well?!” – it can make you approach the next brief your receive from a more creative angle. Another source of inspiration is seeing an artist play live. It often makes me realise new ways in which their music might work, as you experience it with a different set of emotions compared to just listening through your headphones.
What skills and characteristics are key in your area of work?
Most importantly a love of music and a good ear. You need to be happy spending hours with your headphones on searching for the right tracks. An ability to negotiate and an eye for detail is also useful when it comes to the licensing side. Also, people skills are quite key, as a large part of the job is about building relationships with clients so that they want to come to you and trust you with their music needs.