Rose Rutledge, Deepening the Connection Between Music and People

August 31st, 2020

Rose Rutledge is the Audience Development Director at Sofar Sounds. Her role entails deepening the connection between guests, artists and the Sofar community through digital marketing - specifically, driving growth through audience activation, engagement and retention. With pursuing a Masters in Jazz, Rose has held roles in the intersection of music and business her whole career.

In this feature, Rose shares with us how pursuing a Masters in Jazz influenced her early career, how her passion for music has driven her career, and what excites her most about the future of Sofar Sounds. Read along to soak up her incredible career advice for ambitious women, such as yourself.

Early Career

You graduated Vanderbilt University with a Music degree. You then pursued a Masters in Jazz at NYU. How did your studies influence your early career?

Degrees in music and the arts can be stigmatized as whimsical, creative, fun. Indeed, that is part of the experience, but by no means a full picture of what it’s like to study music. What many don’t know is that music majors are running (sometimes literally) from the practice room, to a history course, then to the concert hall to perform a symphony, then home at 11pm (if you are lucky) to finish a sociology paper, and then kindly negotiating terms for an upcoming weekend gig. It’s a physical and intellectual trial of endurance. Music is also highly collaborative, so your success depends on how you work in groups to accomplish mutual goals. It would not have mattered if my early career was in music or not; as a result of my studies, I was geared towards collaboration and prepared to show up with some grit.

You worked as a Manager in a jazz media store while pursuing your Masters at NYU. How was balancing a full-time position and Masters simultaneously? What did you learn during this experience?

Working full time and pursuing a Masters (or any degree) is really tough. I frequently wished that I had more time to truly be present in my studies or in my work. What I learned though, is that our chosen life studies are never finite; it’s a lifelong pursuit that has to acknowledge the eventual simultaneous need to pay rent. Diving into both taught me my limits, but also that pursuing what you love can inspire you to both stay up late and get up early for the rest of your life. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon and you have to sort your pacing. I still need to remember this sometimes…

You’ve held roles in the intersection of music and business your whole career, including music tech, event ticketing, and audience development etc. What skills are essential to succeeding in these types of roles?

Passion, mostly. The rest comes with patient mentors/colleagues and learning to learn from your mistakes/successes. I was surprised when, in an interview for a ticketing role I was told that my knowledge of jazz music was an asset because I never thought my studies would qualify me beyond a performance career. It makes sense though- they wanted someone who could speak passionately about music and recommend shows to fans. I realized then that I loved connecting audiences with music. This became my mission, my throughline for my career. With passion driving my own personal mission statement, I began to build the tools needed to support it: managing concert ticketing, learning CRM systems, launching membership programs, curating special events, working my way around Google Analytics, visualizing data in Tableau, learning SQL in order to make sense of audience behavior etc. I’m not done here yet. I’m still working to upskill and looking to my many talented colleagues as daily inspiration to learn from.

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Sofar Sounds

You’re currently the Audience Development Director at Sofar Sounds. What does your role entail? What is your day-to-day?

As Sofar’s Audience Development Director I like to say I’m responsible for deepening the connection between guests, artists and the Sofar community through digital marketing. My team works to drive growth through audience activation, engagement and retention. My day usually starts very early, coffee in hand (a must for me, being from Seattle) and catching up to colleagues all over the world- I hate to miss out on the action! Meetings then start and include brainstorming sessions, standups with my team, chats with engineers or product managers, campaign planning sessions and reviewing audience data. I block out time to build reports, analyze KPIs and work on longer term strategies. It’s a mix of creative collaboration, analytical thinking and streamlining workflows.

Sofar Sounds has gained notoriety in the last few years for their intimate musical performances. How has Sofar Sounds pivoted recently with COVID-19 and what excites you most about the future of Sofar Sounds?

Bringing people together in person around music has been such a big part of what makes Sofar magical. Alongside so many other music presenters, we were heartbroken when we had to shut down our events as Covid-19 hit. We asked ourselves ‘How can we best support our artists during this time?’ We then launched our listening room 10 days after cancelling live shows and since have presented over 100 livestreams showcasing artists from around the world. The listening room enables artists to continue to engage with fans and make some income as well. Additionally, there is now the Sofar Sounds Global Artist Fund which helps to support independent artists during this time too. I’m hopeful for the future of live events-I have to be-though it’s hard to know how (or when) they truly take shape again. We’ve got a lot of creative people thinking about how to connect audiences and artists in innovative ways, so that gets me excited for the future.

On the side, you work as an Adjunct Professor teaching Entrepreneurship in the Arts. What’s your #1 tip you share with your students on succeeding in this field?

I’ve been thrilled to have served as Adjunct Professor at SUNY the last two fall semesters. Their Master’s Program, under the direction of Jordan Shue, Entrepreneurship in the Arts, is innovating arts and business education through a shark-tank meets arts-admin with a twist of creative-sprint approach. Overall I try to impart to my students that building support for your initiatives IS audience development. In order to fundraise or launch an entity it’s important that your idea connects with people and that you build a community around it.

Advice

What do you wish you knew when you were first starting your career?

That it’s ok to have more questions than answers. Ditch the 5-year plan as you never know what opportunities might come to you...also, it’s more fun that way.

What advice do you have for young women in their early career who are interested in pursuing a career in music and business?

You don’t need to have your dream job right now. If you can’t find that role in your interest area, volunteer or create a side hustle to get involved.

For musicians: take that stats course or learn to code to round your skills.

For non-musicians: explore (listen+read about) different genres and check out some music theory so you know the leaps and bounds artists go through.

Who is one woman you aspire to be like?

After many years performing and studying music, frequently being the only woman in the room, I eventually experienced a windfall of inspiring female leaders. At Jazz at Lincoln Center I was fortunate to have a succession of four bosses who were all super powers: Lauren Arana (Brooklyn Public Library), Sarah Haberman (The Moth), Jennifer Weil (LREI) and Sara Villagio (Carnegie Hall). Each had her own style but it was notable to me that not only were they incredible at their jobs, but also: motivating as team leaders, bold strategists, attentive in giving advice, transparent communicators and wonderful, positive people. I hope my short time with each of them will continue to influence me as I grow.