This essay, as said, was based on an interview with Lylette Pizarro, founder and co-managing partner Influence media partners, a New York-based music and entertainment company “whose mission is to transform the music space by partnering with artists, songwriters and creative directors to manage legacy work and build future brand value.” In 2022, Pizarro has secured himself $750 million fund backed by BlackRock, Inc. and Warner Music Group invest in the musical mental property of worldwide artists. Over the course of her profession, Pizarro has developed deep collaborations with artists and songwriters, working with Bruno Mars, Future, Blake Shelton and more. Last December, Influence announced that: big partnership deal with Enrique Iglesias this involves establishing an artist’s name, image and likeness (“NIL”) capabilities and expanding their extensive music catalog.
Photo: courtesy of Influence Media Partners. Lylette Pizarro.
Before founding Influence Media Partners, I spent a lot of time at a marketing agency, networking with top artists, record labels, music corporations and brands. I really like this job and finding the right partners – Apple, PepsiCo, LVMH. When I did this, I noticed a white space; the music rights market was starting to change, and while everyone was approaching it from a financial or publishing perspective, I had a different standpoint: Can we collaborate with top artists, songwriters and entrepreneurs? Can we help them proceed to ignite the culture today and secure their legacy for the future?
We wanted to collaborate with artists who stayed on stage most of the time, creating music, touring and connecting with their fans. We thought that if we could partner with them to protect their legacy, mental property and catalog, we could go back and find recent ways to ignite their fan base through partnerships, whether or not it’s promoting, film or television, or other ways of engaging and creating recent opportunities for them. Of course, when it comes to closing key deals, it’s one thing to write a strategy, it’s one other to execute it.
It was quite a big ambition. Would we have the opportunity to find partners who would consider in us and help us acquire rights and partnerships with artists? Would some of those top artists allow us to collaborate with them and be a part of their bench? Enrique Iglesias, who is obviously a very talented Latin American icon, allowed us to work with him and his team on the rights to his image and likeness. As I look back – we are now on our fifth image and likeness transaction and starting to pursue opportunities – it is incredibly essential and exciting to see this come to fruition. It’s a privilege and an honor to work with artists, period. We must, after all, provide value to each our artists and investors.
When it comes to approaching these deals and partnerships, it’s extremely essential to make sure that the artist or songwriter really understands our worth proposition and how we would like to work with them: that they value partnerships – this is extremely essential because this market is continually developing. and more competitive. It’s about leadership based on trust and a healthy sense of what is essential. A standard challenge in the music industry is solving problems under pressure.
You have to have the opportunity to do it and I’m pondering about comparison in terms of sports or other results. For example, if a team player is injured during the season, play will proceed; if the major character of a Broadway show becomes ailing, an understudy will take over his duties and the show will proceed. It’s a bit different with music. There is not all the time an equal substitute. Tours and releases change, and having the ability to bring either side of the partnership together inside this dynamic is not all the time easy. Things don’t all the time go according to plan.
There is a deal that is still very close to my heart. My client at the time was a consumer products company. The CEO of this company – who is one of the leading CEOs in the world – has a nonprofit organization that is very close to his heart, and we wanted to deliver some form of entertainment facility over the summer. But the challenge was that they didn’t have a budget at the time, and we had some media resources, but we had to find a way to do things for this nonprofit without a budget.
My internal team at RPM then said, “We cannot do this. There’s just no way.” And I all the time repeated the mantra, If there is a will, there is a way. It’s a incredible nonprofit; there are these media resources and possibly there are others as well [valuable] things we will offer. I ended up going to the market and asking movie studios and record labels if we could find a way to collaborate. I finally got here across something I hadn’t even imagined, but again I used to be willing and open to look. I ended up forming a partnership with one of the biggest pop artists of the time, who shot an essential film at this studio. We put on an amazing show for this non-profit organization in front of hundreds of individuals. We managed to solve it because all of us got here together.
When you see a challenge like this, I am unable to emphasize enough how essential it is to be willing to face what could appear really difficult. Just take a moment and try to think about it — Can I solve this in one other way? It could appear inconceivable, but Is there the rest I can provide?
Starting a business and raising capital in the fast-paced music industry will be really difficult, so it was essential to find ways to loosen up and prioritize good health. My family is the center of my world. My daughter is an avid dancer and performer and my son is obsessed with basketball, so being there for each of them, being a volunteer mom and supporting each organizations, whether it’s the dance team or the basketball team – I adore it. I’m “Mrs. Lylette” to all the children. I also enjoy yoga and working with executive coaches and therapists has been extremely beneficial.
For entrepreneurs who want to make it in the music industry – and I say this all the time – it is extremely essential to know about your superpower. If you are a sensible author, really understand your audience, or have a strong sense of creativity, know your superpower, get involved and do your best to add value. It’s a transformative, growing business, and if you are in the arts in any form, supporting the arts is a privilege. Whether or not you may add your superpower to the mix to add value, a winning proposition will emerge. There is no shortage of need to strengthen and improve your online business, so I encourage you to do so no matter how you may do it.