How has your company been impacted by concerns over the coronavirus--or the virus itself if a worker or client has been stricken--in terms of business, your staff, client relationships?
Luckily at The Music Playground client-facing, remote work has already been a strong element in our workflow. For original composition, we are used to a system of receiving a creative brief online/over the phone, posting a music demo link and receiving feedback remotely until we land on the right track. Moving our in-house staff from our offices to entirely remote has been the biggest impact to our company thus far. Our composers have been able to utilize their home studios and can remote-in to our servers should they need to. For Bands & Artists, we are still sending playlists as requests come in.
At The Station Media, the pandemic hit JUST after we finished a shoot and started editing. We realize how lucky this was. Concerns here were various. Can we finish the edit remotely? Color remotely? Handle audio-post remotely? We have always been capable of handling services unsupervised, however, was it possible to host real-time sessions from afar? The answer is YES. We have already hosted live VO record/mix and live color correction sessions from remote.
It has been truly amazing to witness the teamwork and creativity happening every day with our colleagues and clients from remote.
The well-being, health and safety of people is clearly top priority. What measures have you taken to protect your staff and collaborators during this challenging time?
As stated above, our entire office has gone entirely remote. We are handling everything from the comfort of our homes including editing, graphics, audio post, VO record, music composition, color, finishing and final conform. This ensures that no one is traveling outside of their homes, both staff and clients alike, unless it is for an essential need such as groceries, etc. as established by the WHO. Health and safety are of the utmost importance to us as at both companies and as a part of the industry community we are doing everything in our power to ensure that our employees and partners feel safe and well. On the side of well-being, we have sent out a positivity playlist to our partners for purposes of providing hopeful vibes and positive content messaging alike. Together We Are Strong.
How have you adapted your behavior, practices, policies, approaches, ways of thinking and doing business in response to the pandemic?
Behavior is the most important factor here. Mindset is everything. Meeting people for the first time on Zoom can be uncomfortable. I want to make sure our partners know that we are here for them and that we will go to great lengths to ensure their creative is safe in our hands. I want to ensure comfort at a time that is considered quite uncomfortable. The only policy that has changed here is STAY HOME! We want you all to be safe and healthy so that we can see you in person again soon.
We have been able to adapt to entirely remote practices at both companies and we are blessed for that. Our practices have changed to cater to remote sessions. We have already hosted live, client-attended sessions from remote for VO record/mix using Source Connect, color correction using the Jump app and editing/GFX using Source Live. There is an inevitable, yet subtle, lag with these sessions and they may be a bit more time consuming than we are used to, but every partner we have collaborated with thus far has been extremely positive and an absolute pleasure to work with as we continue to find creative remote solutions.
Were you in the midst of a particular project when the coronavirus outbreak hit and how did you manage to deal with that situation?
At The Music Playground, we were in the midst of several projects when this pandemic hit. Luckily, we were able to sneak in an in-house audio-post session 1 day before our entire office went entirely remote. Other than that, we have been lucky enough to be able to continue business as usual from our homes.
As mentioned before, on The Station side, we were in the midst of a big campaign. Luckily, we were in the editorial phase of the project. We realize how lucky this really was for us and for the campaign itself as we know a lot of productions have been canceled as of late. We hosted live, client-attended sessions and were able to finish and ship the project. Beyond the tools I have mentioned above (Source Connect, Jump, etc.) we were able to utilize Zoom, email, and phones to really push forward and make this happen and we are so inspired by the will and collaboration of our production partners.
What’s your biggest takeaway or lessons learned from your experience dealing with coronavirus concerns thus far?
My biggest takeaway here is this: where there is a will there is a way. It has been amazing to see our internal teams collaborate with each other from afar to ensure stability from a remote working world and to troubleshoot any and all creative remote solutions. We have had such tremendous production partners to work with here and it has been really great to have such trusted colleagues with us every step of the way. Our partners have been positive, collaborative, inspiring and have really made this whole experience very eye-opening. It is amazing to see people coming together stronger than ever, even from remote. I have been in contact with a lot of people in the industry in the past few weeks, whether it be me checking in with someone or someone checking in with me, and I have been inspired each day by someone new. The way the industry has trended and changed their content and messaging in a time of real need has been incredible. The biggest lesson I have learned is that I am a terrible chef.
What advice, if any, would you offer to your counterparts at other companies/agencies, your clients and collaborators?
My best advice is to keep your chin up and remember that we are creative people in a creative industry who have been building creative production solutions for a very long time. If you can’t shoot something the way it was intended, remember that there is often another way. This too shall pass and, in the meantime, (if/when you’re not working 12-hour days) explore an aspect of production that you’ve been meaning to learn for a while. It will help pass the time and is a great, positive distraction. Other than that, remote solutions are available! Source Connect, Source Now, Jump, Source Live, Zoom, phone calls, emails, Livestreams, etc.
Contingency plans have been prepared by many in light of the situation. Please share any aspects of those plans or tell us how your short and long-term business plans have been affected.
For The Music Playground, the biggest plan being affected right now is the production of our new creative complex in Nashville. As we wait for it to be safe to be outside, our plans for construction, etc. have been pushed.
For The Station Media, our plans are simple. We will continue to explore what the best remote solutions are and we can guarantee our partners that they are still getting the best quality team out there.
It’s said that strength emerges from adversity. Do you see any silver lining or positive dynamic emerging for our industry/marketplace from this global health crisis?
Yes! The biggest positive dynamic I am seeing is the ways in which this pandemic is bringing people together, even from remote. I am seeing people collaborate and communicate in ways that I have not seen before. The sense of community that is emerging from this time of need is inspiring. People are sharing tips and tricks about best practices for remote sessions, the energy in the “virtual” rooms for these remote sessions we have been hosting is very positive/forgiving/thankful, and people are getting creative and pumping out personal content & collaborations while stuck at home. On the Bands and Artists side, it has been unfortunate that we are not able to support them by going to their live shows and/or hosting live sets in our office with our clients. However, we have seen true leadership amongst our artists as they find ways to host Livestreams, Instagram concerts and even drive-by concerts from their cars.
Have you deployed your company’s creative and communication skills to address the pandemic (PSAs, educational videos, other initiatives)? Please tell us about these efforts.
Yes! We have collaborated with a couple of different agencies by providing music for campaigns they have worked on or are currently working on to cater messaging and content to the pandemic. We also sent a positivity playlist to our partners. For both companies, we sent a PSA early on to let our partners know that we are still here for business and ready to take on this remote world with them.