Music News

• 💸 Beyoncé posts biggest one-month gross in boxscore HISTORY

  • The 11 July shows on her “Renaissance World Tour” grossed $127.6 million.

• 🎶 Taylor Swift joins The Weeknd as the only artists with 100 million Spotify listeners.

  • Bad Bunny, who has been Spotify’s most streamed artists three years in a row, currently sits at 79M monthly listeners. My money is on him to join this elite list next…

  • Missed THE ERA’S TOUR? You’re in luck. ‘Taylor Swift: The ERAS Tour’ will hit big screens on October 13 in the form of a concert film, at all AMC and Cinemark multiplex locations. Tickets are a FAR more manageable $19.89. Good luck getting them though!

• ⛔ The Weeknd’s ‘The Idol’ Canceled after 1 season on HBO

• 🛑 Eminem sends cease and desist to a Presidential candidate

  • Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has been rapping “Lose Yourself” on his campaign trail this summer. Probably for the best that’s not happening anymore.

• 🏆 Metallica now holds highest single-show attendance record at LA’s SoFi Stadium

  • Their show on August 25 drew 80,000 fans, more than both the Super Bowl and any of the Taylor Swift shows. Swift can’t win everything!

• 🤑 Live Nation CEO made 5,400x the median Live Nation salary in 2022…

  • According to reports, Michael Rapino earned 5,414 times more than the median salary at Live Nation Entertainment last year – the highest pay and the widest pay gap among any S&P 500 corporation in the study. Read more here.

Entertainment News

• 💳 French Billionaire closing in on $7 BILLION deal for CAA

  • Francois-Henri Pinault, whose family controls a luxury goods empire, is seeking the majority stake currently held by private equity firm TPG Inc.

• 🎧 Late Night hosts join forces on Spotify podcast to support their out-of-work staff

  • “Strike Force Five,” which launched yesterday, brings together Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver.

  • The show will run for at least 12 episodes, and all proceeds will be donated to the staff of their respective shows. WE LOVE to see it! Listen here

• 🏈 Spectrum TV could lose 26 Disney Channels including ESPN

  • Not ideally timing with College Football kicking off (officially) this weekend

• 🎞️ Warner Bros. pushes release of two movies

  • Dune: Part Two and the new animated Lord of The Rings film to 2024 due to the ongoing strikes

Interview with Maguire Amundsen: Founder & CEO of The Gracefull Project, Previously Celebrity EA and WME Music Assistant

I caught up with Maguire Amundsen, who currently runs her own consulting company The Gracefull Project. Helping others do what she does best, Amundsen provides assistance in project management, streamlining operations, company and brand building, branded projects, and marketing operations— all while embracing the journey of new motherhood. Prior to founding The Gracefull Project, she worked as an executive assistant for four years, working for one of the world’s biggest celebrities. Before that, she worked as an assistant for the Music Department at WME.

Our conversation is below:

AvA: How did you get started in the Entertainment Industry?

Amundsen: I went to school at Vanderbilt which is based in Nashville, Tennessee- the heart of country music. Being from Oklahoma, I've always loved country music. So while I was in Nashville, I really took advantage of my surroundings. As part of my Senior thesis, I had to go physically work at a company (we had to find the internship ourselves) for a semester, identify a problem, and come up with a solution to fix it (it was more intense than that but you get it). I was hired at Country Music Television (CMT) for that in the Production Development department. From there, I fell in love with the entertainment industry and being behind the scenes to make things happen. I was determined to move to LA and got hired by a top talent agency- I networked as much as I could. Finally, I landed an interview and was offered the job before I graduated. Everyone said to work at WME for a year and you'll get any job you want. I put in about a year and a half- a long, grueling one at that- but it taught me more than I could have imagined and propelled my career into new opportunities that took on a life of their own.

AvA: You moved from a more traditional agency role at WME to being the Executive Assistant to one of the world’s biggest celebrities. What was that transition like?

Amundsen: It was definitely a new world. Challenging in its own way but absolutely a breath of fresh air. I liked being out and making things happen, being a part of events and seeing my work come to life. I feel like I truly excelled and found myself when I left WME. One of my strengths is creating relationships with people I work with. It helps me do my job better when I am fostering positive work relationships and feeling a part of a team. I felt like WME was so corporate (which it is)- but that limited my opportunity to actually connect with people I was working with.

After I left, I felt this passion and drive that I hadn't before. WME and the jobs I had after allowed me to use what I had learned in new environments where I could truly excel.

AvA: What are your primary responsibilities as the CEO of your company, The Gracefull Project?

Amundsen: I know I've said it before but I genuinely like making things happen for people. It's what I'm good at- figuring things out, making things better, etc. To sum it up, it's project management for companies that don't want to hire someone in house to do a specific project. Whether that's onboarding a new assistant and training them (my bread and butter) or having new packaging made for their product. It really can range depending on what the person needs.

AvA: How do you balance being a mom (congrats!!!!) and a working professional?

Amundsen: Wow, it's a wild ride pretty much every day. My son is 5 months old and every time I think I've figured it out, everything changes. Being a mom truly is so rewarding. The balance between motherhood and working is one I am still figuring out. I try to plan strategically my meetings; however, motherhood is all about things changing in an instant, even when you try to plan everything out perfectly.

I actually spoke to a friend I went to college with that helped me feel more confident in my attempt to balance it. It was on a day when I felt like I had gotten nothing done, both professionally and as a mom, but she helped me realize that some days I'm going to be a better mom than I am a working professional. Some days I'm going to be a better worker than I am mom, etc. We aren't perfect and my days are definitely not but it's the effort I put in trying to budget my time the best I can. I am fortunate enough to work from home and have family close by who love to snuggle Woods when I need an extra set of hands.

All that to say- it's a constant balancing act, one that i've totally got a grasp on some days and not so balanced on others. But that's life- at the end of the day I want to be the best version of myself for my son and that involves finding time for me. To work and to play.

AvA: What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone just starting out in the business?

Amundsen: NETWORK! 🕸️

… That may feel like a simple answer but use your contacts, find things in common with people whether that’s being an alum to the same school, knowing a mutual friend, etc. You never know when you may need someone with a contact for a pink motorcycle for a photoshoot (haha) but really- be nice to people and always network. And be a good person. Good people recognize good people, and that will get you farther than anything.

👋 Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter and see you next week!

This newsletter is written by Warner Bailey (connect with me here). Edited by Malik Figaro.

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