WEBVTT - Scott Borchetta: “This is the future – we better figure this out.” 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:06.160 You're listening to Math and Magic, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:12.240 All the major forms of current pop music came out 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:16.800 of the South, country, blues, rock, jazz. What happens here 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:23.000 travels well, but it always doesn't get the understanding of 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:24.959 the depth of how important it is and the true 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:27.760 artistic value of the artists involved. 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:32.519 I am Bob Pittman and welcome to Math and Magic. 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:35.440 Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. Today. We're going to 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:40.360 explore some entrepreneurship and specifically about the modern music business 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:44.000 and how country has evolved to be the biggest music format. 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:47.120 Our guest is the founder, president and CEO of the 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:49.960 Big Machine label group and also the founder of Big 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:53.840 Machine Distillery. Scott is a Southern California kid of the 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:58.000 sixties and seventies bicycle, motocross and skateboarding and empty pools. 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:00.000 By the way, he's still a racer. Will dig it 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:02.880 that more later. His dad was in the music business, 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:04.560 so he grew up with the big stars of those 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:08.039 days stopping by his house. He has been there at 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:11.319 the beginning for artists and assigned deals with Tim McGraw, 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:15.360 Jewel Lady, a, Zach Brownband, Thomas Rhett Florida, Georgia, Lyne 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:18.959 and many more. He was also a mentor on American Idol. 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:22.520 He is a strategic and flexible thinker who runs a 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:26.240 tight ship. He gets things done. It's not just about ideas, 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:29.440 it's about execution. Best of all, he's a good guy 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:30.440 and good friend. Scott. 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:32.919 Welcome, Thank you, Bob. It's great to do this. 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:36.080 Now, before we jump into the meaty topics, I'd like 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:39.280 to do you in sixty seconds. Ready, let's rock. Do 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:43.960 you prefer Nashville or La Nashville, Early Riser or night Eye? 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:50.279 Both listening to music or playing music? Now it's listening dogs, 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:57.120 are cats, Dougs, mountains or beach beach? Vinyl or streaming, streaming, 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:01.520 cooking or ordering in country or rock. 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:03.840 Depends on the mood. I'm gonna say both. 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:06.080 Watching car races or racing cars. 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.400 For me, racing Okay, it's. 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:11.440 About to get harder. What was your first. 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:15.640 Job working at a bicycle motocross store building bikes? 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:17.640 Favored radio station from. 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:20.079 Your youth k me et Tweedledee. 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:22.200 When do you do your best thinking? 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:25.880 It's shutting the door in my office and getting into 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:26.560 my own groove. 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:29.960 What was the first record you ever bought stuck in 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.359 the middle with you? What was your first concert? 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.520 It would be Kiss at the Fabulous Forum in nineteen 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:37.800 seventy six. 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:40.640 Final one. If you could be anybody else, who would 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:40.800 you be? 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:42.320 Mick Dagger? 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:49.079 Okay, let's jump out big topic, country music. Why does 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.120 it not get the attention or respect it deserves? Biggest 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:55.880 radio music format, huge artists, sold out tours in the 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:59.080 middle of the culture of this country. But when I 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:02.120 look at what the media covers or what marketing references 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:05.120 is in they're advertising, it doesn't even come close to 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:07.240 reflecting that. Why is that? 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.079 You know, you really touched on it. It's what the 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:12.560 culture of the middle of the country is all about. 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:18.720 It's not really very often, if ever, the shiny, sparkly thing. 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:23.160 It's something that's consistent. It's telling the stories of blue 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:27.000 collar predominantly and based in southern culture. We're not on 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.200 the West coast, we're not on the East coast as 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:33.000 far as our headquarters. When you match that up to 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:39.160 the national buyers of advertising, etc. We're not there, unfortunately 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:42.440 in a meaningful way as often as we need to be. 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:44.160 And we're a little bit older. 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:48.920 Demographic for a business that's going to go after a 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:53.400 younger demographic. We're predominantly not going to be the first one. 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:57.200 But it's always great when my friends from both coasts 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.200 come to visit, hang out a little bit, do some 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:02.720 business with us. They're always blown away at how great 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:07.560 the Nashville system is. Everything here in Nashville is connected. 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:13.040 The Country Music Hall of Fame remains completely relevant, as 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.200 does the Grand Ole Opry because it's all centered here, 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:20.480 and the younger artists really have a great knowledge and 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:23.719 respect for that connective tissue. 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:26.120 You know, it's interesting the most populated part of the 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.240 United States is now the South, and I'm not sure 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:31.719 people have turned their focus to it. Do you think 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:36.000 that this feeling we have about country music is sort 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:38.159 of respect issue or do you think it's just lack 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:38.839 of knowledge. 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:42.800 All the major forms of current pop music came out 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:47.400 of the South, country, blues, rock, jazz. What happens here 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:53.600 travels well, but it always doesn't get the understanding of 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:55.520 the depth of how important it is and the true 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:58.400 artistic value of the artists involved. 0:04:58.560 --> 0:04:59.880 You know a lot of people. 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:03.800 Still say this, and I've been hearing this for forty years. 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:06.760 It's like, well, I don't really like country music, but 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:10.400 I like that. It's like, well, Morgan Wallin is country music. 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:14.400 So it's almost a guilty pleasure in some places. In 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:17.960 some circles, it's just not cool to like country music. 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:20.960 I don't know what that stigma is. If you look 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:26.880 at some of those southern inflections and the stereotypical aspect 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:29.599 of that, you could point it's like, well, people think 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:33.680 it's cheesy or that it's phony, and that was the 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.640 entertainment part of it. But you know, the people who 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:39.640 think that haven't gone past the cover of the book 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:45.479 to see what an amazing, fluid and important music this 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:49.120 is not to just North America but to many parts. 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:49.480 Of the world. 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:53.359 So what's the biggest barrier to elevating country music to 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:54.320 its rightful place? 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:55.960 Continued exposures. 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:59.600 There's always a star that starts to shine, So that 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:02.440 gets what my job is, like, Okay, what's on the periphery. 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:06.000 Who's that one artist or two artists that are it's 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:07.600 going to be so strong and it's going to pull 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:13.040 the mainstream to them. We've become arguably the best place 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:16.320 in the world for young musicians to come and be 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.960 able to work playing music. That's what Nashville has become. 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:22.400 So what does that mean, Well, that means the next 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:24.240 one's coming. It's right under our nose. 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:27.640 So let's jump a little bit. In the mid nineteen eighties, 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.599 you worked for Mary Tyler Moor's record label. Much of 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:34.200 the nineties, you were at MCA Records Nashville. You were 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:36.080 by the way at that point, on a mission to 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.960 make it number one, and you did. MCA was label 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:41.320 of the Year every year you were there, even Label 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:44.880 of the Decade, and so first question is how did 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:45.400 you do that. 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:48.600 I was playing in rock bands when I moved to Nashville, 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:52.400 and so rock's a big part of my DNA. So 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:56.520 when I came here and discovered Whyland and Willie, that's 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:59.440 what brought me into country. And then once I got 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:04.800 into the game and doing promotion at Mary Tyler Moore, 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:07.920 I was one of just two promotion people and we 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:11.080 were slaying the major label dragons, just the two of 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:14.880 us working with indies, and so I was able to 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.239 envision how to win this at a very young age. 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:23.480 And then I went independent in nineteen eighty nine and 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:27.080 I became the number one independent promotion guy in Nashville. 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:28.320 Pretty quickly. 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:33.800 I was part of breaking the Kentucky Headhunters and Dwight 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:38.640 Yoakum and Carlene Carter, and then I started looking at, Okay, 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:44.240 what is my next move? And at that time my 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:49.120 two favorite artist rosters were MCA and Warner Brothers, and 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:53.560 so I went to MCA in January of nineteen ninety one, 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.240 and it was one of those things walking in like, Okay. 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:59.080 I always joke that when you're an Indy you learn 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:02.800 how to turn water into wine. So I walk into MCA, 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:04.800 I'm like, I don't have to turn water into wine. 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:06.520 You guys have wine. 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:08.200 We could go. 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:12.280 So walking in coming from nothing as far as leverage 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:17.160 and tools to George Straight and Reba McIntyre and Vince 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:21.840 Gill and Whyonah Judd, It's like, can I this toolbox 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:24.320 over in the corner. I don't see you guys going 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:26.840 over that. Can I use those tools and like run 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:31.000 like hell? And so what I did is very specifically. 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:35.520 Aristo was our big competition at that point, and so 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:39.520 I was scheduling all the singles, and so I would go, Okay, 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:43.040 George Straight for Alan Jackson, Vince Gale for Brooks and Dunn, 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:47.520 We're gonna match them Superstar for Superstar. Where we're going 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:51.000 to win is breaking new artists. So I had a 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:55.520 huge focus on breaking Marty Stewart. I'm breaking David Lee Murphy, 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:58.280 I'm breaking why Nona Judd as a solo artist, I'm 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:01.920 breaking Trisha Yearwood. I made sure that our front line 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:05.560 was throwing smoke at all times, and then building up 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:09.480 that next bench and that next strength. You couldn't catch us. 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:14.920 You left MCA and then you started DreamWorks Nashville with 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:18.280 Randy Travis. As you're first signing, you were hot right 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.400 out of the box. Now, the ironic twist is in 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:24.000 two thousand and four, MCA bought DreamWorks and you were 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.080 back at MCA, and by then I think they'd gone cold. 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:29.680 You brought them back again as the head of promotion 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:33.040 and artist development. And what I think is more interesting 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.480 is you were on fire, but for some reason you 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:39.920 had this spark that that was the moment that you 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:43.160 wanted your own label. Why what ignited. 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.240 That, Well, it really started at DreamWorks. 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.000 At that point, there weren't a lot of new labels 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:51.760 in the business, and so at dream Works, you know 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:55.000 having the ability, you know, looking at the landscape looking 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:58.040 at the assets that we had. We're full entertainment company. 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:01.680 So I used every weapon that the movie company had 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:04.880 with premieres and all that stuff, and brought that show 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:09.200 business to radio like one of my heroes, Bob Pittman does. 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:12.120 And so we came out of the box smoking. We 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:14.440 took over one of the biggest hotels at the time, 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:17.840 the Hermitage Hotel, and re christened at the DreamWorks Hotel, 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:19.760 to the point where we had flags made up and 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:23.000 we're flying DreamWorks flags at the hotel, and we had 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:25.360 all the pds and mds stay with us. 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:28.080 We launched like a nuclear bomb. 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:32.160 And so James Stroud, who was the president of the label, 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:35.880 he was more of a producer than he really was 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:39.000 a label heead And what was great about that is 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:43.000 he did the things he wanted to do and really 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:46.320 didn't love the day to day of operations, and so 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.520 I would take a little bit more of that every day. 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:51.880 It's like, James, I got that, man, if you're good 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:54.640 with this, you keep doing your thing and I'm going 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:58.480 to learn the rest of this. So being at DreamWorks 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:02.040 and James Stroud giving me so much rope to learn, 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:05.880 not only promotion, which we had mastered, but learned the 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:10.360 next level of marketing, next level of sales, distribution, publicity, 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:13.400 all those things that it's like, Okay, I'm going to 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:17.040 acquire all these skills and knowledge because at some point 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:20.160 I'm going to grab this by the neck and lead it. 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:22.280 And so that leads to. 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:26.240 January of two thousand and four, they come in and 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:31.160 say we're being purchased by Universal and MCA and Universal 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:34.520 were ice cold. This is April now, two thousand and four. 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:37.880 Riba had not had a number one single since I 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:40.040 left in nineteen ninety seven. 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:41.760 It was painful for me to watch. 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:45.840 Not only was she one of my dear friends, but 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:50.400 we had achieved incredible success and something that a lot 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:52.960 of major labels still do is they take their superstars 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:53.520 for granted. 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:55.160 And I'm like, you know what. 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:58.600 It's time for us to return Riba to number one. 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:03.720 We put together the plan. To this day, it's historic 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:07.760 because we had the biggest ever spin increase in the 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:09.600 history of the Billboard chart, and that's when it was 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:13.559 done by spins, and we jumped from I think number 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:16.560 six to number one and we knocked out Tim Murgrau 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:18.800 lived like you were dying which was the biggest song 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:22.040 of the two thousands. We turned that place on its head. 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:24.560 We had the number one on every all three imprints 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:29.280 within the first sixty days, and you know, just breaking 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:32.880 sugar Land and Gary Allen for turning Terry Clark to. 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:33.680 A number one. 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:37.000 It's I mean, we had that place just on fire. 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:43.320 And I started thinking about, Okay, now's my next move. 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:45.199 Because I was looking what everybody was doing. 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:47.319 I'm like, you know what, I've got no place where 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:50.360 I feel I can compete with all of these guys. 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.080 I don't think any of them are any smarter or 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:55.880 any more wise. It's time for me to jump into 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:59.280 the driver's seat. And so I started putting together a prospectus, 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:05.000 and I started having meetings with investors, and while I 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.320 was doing it on the QT, I wasn't hiding it 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:10.600 because I was in the last year of my deal. 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:15.400 And so we get to January of five, and so 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:18.080 I was meeting with the two co presidents of Universal 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:21.160 Nashville and they said, hey, you know, we know you 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:24.360 want to run your own label, but we'd like you 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:25.560 to stay where you are and give you a bunch 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:29.079 more money. And I'm like, I appreciate that, but I'm 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:32.320 not going to do that, and so we pretty much 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:34.640 defined my exit at that point. 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:41.320 So let's jump to you officially start Big Machine and 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:43.719 just put it in perspective for again, for people that 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.240 don't know the music business. You've sold almost two hundred 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:49.480 million albums worldwide, I think, and you've had over one 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:53.320 hundred singles at the top of the charts. So let's 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:55.720 start with the name big Machine. Where did that come from? 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:57.760 So it comes from two places. 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:00.760 At that time, I was racing in the NASCAR Weekly 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:04.319 Series and I was a three time NASCAR Weekly Series champion, 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:06.839 and so when the car was really good, we say, 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:07.920 hey man, we got a hot ride. 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:08.920 We got a big machine. 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:11.160 And then the other thing that kind of took the 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:15.120 scales was that great song by Velvet Revolver Big Machine, 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:19.000 just this big, powerful rock anthem. And I'm like, you 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:23.320 know what, let's just declare ourselves a big machine, all 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:26.280 thirteen of us. I always joked that I never told 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:27.600 the staff at that point. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:29.600 That we weren't a big machine. It's like, we are 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:31.400 a big machine, go forth and conquer. 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.600 So how did you operate differently from other music companies. 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:39.040 One of the things I think about in that moment 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:43.000 in the early two thousands, is just the waste, you know, 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:49.280 and waste of physical product of all the junk, and 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:54.120 just looking at how the spending wasn't lined aligned properly. 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:56.680 And if you look at the leaders of the business 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:00.720 in that moment, they didn't see streaming coming. It was 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:03.920 a very polar moment for me because every week at 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:07.640 DreamWorks we would be on with the entire company and 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:11.640 the Napster conversation came up. So I said, hey, have 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:14.800 you guys been on this? This is amazing. They didn't 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:17.840 give it a chance to be a flower or a weed. 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:21.720 They just said kill it, Scott. If that's on your computer, 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:24.680 you get it off your computer right now and do 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:27.120 not put it back on. And I'm like, this Genie's 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:28.000 out of the bottle man. 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:30.080 And so that was. 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:33.360 A big, big cast flag to me. I was just like, Okay, 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:36.480 they do not see where it's going, and it has 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:40.560 officially passed our current leaders by I can't go down 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:45.560 with this ship because physical distribution was turning into not 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:49.240 a joke but a joke in certain ways. So it's like, 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:51.280 this is the future. We better figure this out. 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:55.200 I was at MTV. When someone brought in some CD 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:57.800 players from Japan, we had to actually have a power 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:01.440 transformer to play them on our electricity to show us 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:04.880 what it was. We all got one and it was interesting. 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:07.400 The lawyers at that moment said we have to kill 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:11.480 it because this master quality recording will be good enough 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:15.280 that the pirates can steal everything. And a couple of 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.520 people said, it is coming. We can't fight it. We 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:20.920 should embrace it. It'll be good for us. And as 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.320 you know, the nineties were the go go years of 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:27.240 the record business because everybody bought a CD and I 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:29.960 don't think they had ever had anything quite like that. 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:32.920 So the business people won, not the lawyers. And I 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:35.960 remember when Napster came, it was sort of the same thing, 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.640 that no, we can't do this because basically coming from 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:42.320 a legal point of view. And what was interesting was 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:45.440 at that moment the lawyers won, not the business people. 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:48.480 And as you know, the music business probably stunted for 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:51.360 five to ten years because they missed that moment and 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:54.560 had to catch up a little bit more Mathet magic 0:16:54.680 --> 0:17:02.160 right after this quick break, Welcome back to Math the Magic. 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:05.679 Let's hear more from my conversation with Scott Boshadow, I 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:07.040 want to go back in time a little bit to 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:09.520 your youth, just to get some context. You were born 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:13.200 in southern California in the California Heyday sixties and seventies, 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:16.560 and you actually got us start in racing at that time, 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:20.199 racing BMX bikes and then went on the quarter midget cars. 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.680 Describe that time and place for us. 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:28.040 Going back to those southern California years, we just lived outside, 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:31.320 you know, we were on our motocross bikes all the time. 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.040 And once we got into skateboarding, what happened is we 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:38.359 would hear about a pool in the valley somewhere and 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:40.920 there was this group of us like, okay, let's meet 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:44.320 there at three o'clock, and you know, whether it was 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:47.000 an abandoned home and we'd clean the pool out and 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:50.320 skate in it, or if there was a pool that 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:52.760 was empty or that it was dirty, had been swimming 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:54.840 and whatever. And so then we'd go back around to 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:57.240 the front door, knock on the door. Person comes to 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:00.880 the doors, and we would hustle them basically said hey, 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:03.880 if you'll let us skate in your pool for a week, 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:06.080 we will clean it. So it was always like Okay, 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:08.720 where's the next one. It's like finding the next great 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:12.960 concrete wave. Just being Southern California kids. You know, you 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:15.160 don't realize it when you're doing it, but we were 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:18.280 real culture leaders with all that, going from BMX to 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:23.240 skateboard culture to the music culture, which we were just 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:26.680 surrounded by it. You know, what was happening with punk rock, 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:30.440 and then what happened when Motley Crue took over LA 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:34.159 and going to Guns n' Roses, and so it was 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:36.840 always there. And once I got old enough, we were 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:39.439 in Hollywood all the time, three or four nights a week, 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:43.760 whether going to the Starwood or the Whiskey, or Gazaries 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:48.760 or the Rainbow Roxy, all those clubs down there. You know, 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:50.880 I can go right back there. I mean I could 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:52.520 feel the sunshine on my facetop. 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:57.280 So you quoted as saying you had good grades but 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:01.640 were an angry, rebellious kid who was kind of anti everything. 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:04.440 You dropped out of college, by the way, a trait 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:07.560 we see often on the Entrepreneurs here on Mathem Magic. 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:11.400 You started playing bass in a new way bands, country 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:14.560 punk bands. What was the peak of your career as 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:16.720 a musician and why did you stop doing that. 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:20.600 The reason I left LA in nineteen eighty one is 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:23.080 that I felt like I knew what was going on there, 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:24.760 and I just wanted to see what else was going on. 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:28.560 And my intent was to come to Nashville for the summer, 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:31.000 where my dad had moved in nineteen seventy nine. And 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.840 so I was here in Nashville for a few weeks 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:37.960 and one of the independent artists that my dad was 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:40.320 working needed a bass player. And I'm like, it's a 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.200 country I don't know because they're on tour. I'm like, 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:45.520 they're on tour, nineteen years old. 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:47.000 Game on. 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:50.120 So I went in auditioned, got the gig, and bob. 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:52.080 It was so great because I had really never been 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:54.479 out of southern California for very much, and it was 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:56.760 seeing the rest of the country and then all of 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:59.919 a sudden, I'm like, oh my god, it opened that 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:05.399 aperture of my existence exponentially. I really didn't know my 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:08.560 place yet, I knew, I was determined. I knew that 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:12.399 I was not going to be poor. I hated growing 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:16.199 up in southern California not having money, and so I 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:19.040 did that for eight months. I traveled through thirty eight 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:22.399 states in eight months, and when I came back to Nashville, like, 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:25.280 I feel like I'm home. And so I started building 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:28.480 working for my dad. During the day, I still was 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:30.199 playing in bands, rock bands. 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:30.439 You know. 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:33.840 We had a couple fun moments where we had some 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:37.040 great record company showcases. We opened up for Cheap Trick 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:40.480 and a couple other big artists. We made some of 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.439 our own independent records, but we never got signed. We 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:47.480 never got that next break. And it's like, Okay, I'm 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:51.239 not going to be a rock star. I see it, 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:55.239 I'm friends with it. That's not my strength. And I 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:59.120 started allowing myself to follow the energy because I tried 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:01.880 to stay out of the record business because my dad 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:06.120 wasn't it and I didn't want to follow in his footsteps. 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:07.399 And I wanted to be my own man. 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:10.840 And when I stopped fighting, that is when my record 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:13.040 career really just started to take off. 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:17.720 So let's jump to some of your philosophies. Company culture. 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.320 The first time I visited the Big Machine offices in Nashville, 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:25.159 I was probably most struck by what a cohesive and 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:29.240 passionate culture there was throughout the building and among everyone 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:32.959 I met. How do you build a company culture? 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:35.920 You know, it's a gut feel for me because it's 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.320 not something for me personally that I can put a list. 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:41.159 It's like, Okay, you check all these boxes, You're going 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:44.240 to fit perfectly. It's the same way with signing artists. 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:47.720 I know most of the time within the first five 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:50.240 ten minutes, is this somebody I want to work with? 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:53.080