The Channel: UA Joins Music Business Chops Tour

To all of you regular and new visitors to the Universal Audio webzine pages, I would like to introduce you to a format change in the area once strictly reserved for our monthly Featured Dealer interview. We have renamed this section "The Channel" and have redirected the focus of The Channel to include a broader view of the relationships between Universal Audio and those folks we have chosen to partner with.

We will still include interviews and articles about our favorite "Indy" dealers across the country, but we have decided to give ourselves the freedom to report on the broader spectrum of activities that we participate in with our trading partners to get the word out about UA and our family of professional audio tools. I hope you enjoy this month's article and come back each month to see what interesting and productive things we here at UA get ourselves into.

-Terry Hardin, Channel Marketing Manager
Attendees get ready for the next round of presentations
Universal Audio Joins Music Business Chops Tour
Universal Audio was proud to co-sponsor along with Guitar Center Professional and the Music Player Publications Group (publisher of EQ, Keyboard, Guitar Player, Bass Player, ProSound, and Surround magazines), the recent Music Business Chops tour. The tour comprised six West Coast cities; San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland, & Seattle were all on the itinerary. Creative and technical people - including musicians, songwriters, studio owners, engineers, and producers - have a growing need for business skills to complement their core disciplines and allow them to compete in an increasingly complex market.

Music Business Chops featured half-day workshops offering essential business tips and techniques for music and audio professionals. Music Business Chops is a custom-tailored program designed to empower careers in the music world through higher understanding of business principles and applications. It's also an educational marketplace where the latest tools, technologies, and services for music professionals are on display.

John Stiernberg
Improving Your Business Acumen with John Stiernberg
The afternoon seminars were facilitated by award-winning management coach John Stiernberg, author of Succeeding in Music. John consults with a variety of business clients on strategic planning and market development. Prior to establishing Stiernberg Consulting in 1993, he worked for audio equipment manufacturers for 12 years in sales, marketing, and GM positions. He has managed sales forces, launched products, developed staff organizations, and written business plans for those companies and over 50 private clients.
Joining John at each event were music industry leaders in record and game production, songwriting, music supervision, and project/commercial studio operation. Together they discussed the critical career information that bridges the gap between creativity and commerce. Discussions focus on both strategic and tactical levels, in areas where music professionals frequently need outside help such as planning, marketing, sales, finance, and management. For more information about Music Business Chops please log on to: http://www.musicbusinesschops.com

UA Makes the Case for UA on Recent Tour

Dave amazes the LA crowd with UAD-1 tips and tricks.
Channel Marketing Manager Terry Hardin, and product specialists extraordinaire Dave Crane and Randy Knaub represented Universal Audio on the Music Business Chops tour dates. The team demonstrated to the throngs how both UA's analog and digital hardware as well as the UAD-1 could make their music and audio production life easier and more productive. Afterall, this was at the core of the purpose of the Music Business Chops seminars.

"Dave and Randy did a fabulous job of fielding the barrage of questions and demonstrating how embracing the classic sound of UA gear will enhance your musical future."

There were a number of manufacturers and industry service providers represented at each of these events and I am proud to say that UA consistently drew large groups of attendees ranging from the "I know all about UA gear--I have a rack full of it in my studio and have been using it for years, I love it!" to the "Can you help me decide what kind of computer I should get to set up my first DAW?" extremes with a great cross section of everyone in between.

Dave and Randy did a fabulous job of fielding the barrage of questions and demonstrating how embracing the classic sound of UA gear will enhance your musical future.
Universal Audio dealer GC Pro

Tom Menrath, National Sales Manager, GC Pro
Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), a division of Guitar Center, was created to offer solutions to the audio professionals' daily challenges. They recognize that rapidly changing technology, frequent hardware and software upgrades, and budgetary constraints can make the busy audio professionals' life difficult. GC Pro is the outside sales division of Guitar Center. It was specifically created to help audio professionals make informed buying decisions in a timely manner. GC Pro has assembled a network of seasoned industry professionals who are all very familiar with Universal Audio's family of professional audio tools. For more information about GC Pro and how to avail yourself of their services please visit http://www.gcpro.com/

The tour (6 cities in 10 days) was a minor test of travel endurance for the UA team, but well worth the effort. The opportunity to have direct contact with the ultimate users of the powerful UA technology in such a diverse range of markets was very valuable as well. We are looking forward to helping Music Business Chops and GC Pro bring this event to your town soon.If you'd to arrange a demo of some UA gear at your studio, contact your local GC Pro rep. Their contact information is listed at the GC Pro website.

Music Business Chops Founders

David Schwartz
Giovanna Imbesi
The Music Business Chops seminar tour is the brainchild of David Schwartz and Giovanna Imbesi, both of whom possess impressive credentials in the music and audio production world. David is perhaps best known for his work as founder, former publisher, and editor-in-chief of Mix Magazine. Under his leadership, Mix Publications produced Mix, Electronic Musician, and Mix Revista (in Spanish). He also developed a book publishing division, and pro audio's leading awards show, The TEC Awards. He has created and produced many other events that focus on communication and education in music and technology.

Giovanna is a performer, composer, producer, & studio owner. Giovanna has performed with major symphony orchestras and circled the globe as a musical director/keyboardist with Toni Childs, Jeffrey Osborne, Dave Koz, Yanni, and ex-Police guitar great Andy Summers, following her years working under the guidance of Grammy Award-winning producer Narada Michael Walden.

-Terry Hardin

Terry and Dave relaxing in the Green..uh...Redroom, with a large...gargoyle.