The AvA Connection

🐝 The Weekly Buzz

In a massive Hollywood shakeup, Jeremy Zimmer is out as the CEO of UTA after 13 years in the role. His is David Kramer, and Zimmer had this to say about the new appointee, “David has been my chosen successor for many years and I’m certain that he will continue to uphold our great culture.” He’s not going anywhere though as he will take over the title of Executive Chairman. “Let’s be honest, the chances that I’m going to start an aluminum company in Alaska or a cement company in Cleveland are pretty slim. So this is not goodbye,” he wrote in a company-wide email. Full details here.

Lollapalooza announced their lineup this week, and it is been tagged as the “greatest fest lineup of all time” by some. Headliners include Sabrina Carpenter, Tyler, The Creator, Olivia Rodrigo, Rüfüs Du Sol, A$AP Rocky, Gracie Abrams, and uhh KORN.

Snow White was Disney’s third most expensive live action remake of all time, costing a staggering $240 million, topped only by The Little Mermaid ($250M in 2023) and Lion King ($260M in 2019). Final box office result of those two were $569 million and $1.6 billion respectively. If you’re looking for the full breakdown, find that here.

In focus: The jury is still out for Snow White’s opening week, with projections hovering around $50 million domestically, and $100 million globally.

Global recorded music revenues hit $29.6 billion in 2024, up 4.8% year over year. Paid music subscriptions reached 752 million.

Deezer’s revenues reached $586m in 2024, an increase of 12.7% year over year. The France-based streaming service climbed to 9.7 million users by the end of the year, but saw a 3% decrease in growth compared to the year prior. They still have a long way to go to eclipse other DSP’s..

🧠 DSP means Digital Service Provider and refers to an online platform that distributes and streams digital music content. Think Spotify, Apple Music etc.

The trailer for Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore 2 dropped, and the follow up to the 1996 film is set to be released this year. Cameos for the movie range from pro golfers, to Travis Kelce, Bad Bunny, and Ben Stiller. PLEASE DON’T LET ME DOWN AND HAVE THIS BE ANOTHER BAD REMAKE. More on that here.

One to Watch: UK-based Ninja Tune partnered with Reactional Music in a bid to tap into the $125 billion gaming market. Gaming fans click here.

Living the dream:

📞 The Call Log: Martha Earls, Founder of Neon Coast Management

Martha Earls launched her management company, Neon Coast (formerly EFG Mgmt) in 2016. Amongst her client roster is multi-platinum genre-crossing artist Kane Brown. In 2019, together with Brown, she started a Sony joint venture record label, named 1021, and production company Demasiado. The first signing to 1021 is country band Restless Road, also a Neon Coast client. Demasiado has produced award-winning music videos, awards show performances and television commercials. More recent signings to the management company include Nightly and Dylan Schneider. Earls started her management company following a successful run in music publishing. She has been honored multiple times by Billboard and the Nashville Business Journal. Later this year, Earls and team’s long term plan is to continue to build their future-leaning companies and grow the Neon Coast brand as the future of creative representation.

Our conversation is below:

AvA: What was your first job in music and how did that help shape your career path? 

Earls: My first job in the music industry was the receptionist at Warner/Chappell Music Publishing. Starting my career in music publishing gave me such an incredible creative foundation for my whole career. Nashville is a songwriter driven town where the whole business really starts with the creatives. When the “business” part of the Music Business starts to over-index, I can tap into my publishing roots and bring things back to the power of incredible music.  

AvA: Looking back on your career so far, what’s one moment that you consider to be a milestone or turning point for you? 

Earls: There were so many critical moments along the way. When leadership changed at Warner/Chappell and my job was eliminated I learned that some things that can feel like the end are really just the beginning of an incredible experience.

Starting my own company with Mike Molinar, taught me resilience and how to be creative and adept in business.

Moving from publishing into artist management really was a moment that allowed me to understand that I hadn’t even started to realize my full professional potential.

When I started managing Kane Brown — from the moment I met him I knew that we would accomplish incredible things.

AvA: The music industry has long been dominated by men, particularly in executive roles. Many of our readers are young women aspiring to break into the business or navigate the early stages of their careers. What key lessons or strategies have helped you succeed, and what advice would you share with the next generation of female leaders?

Earls: The advice I would give is believe in yourself, don’t shrink or downplay your strengths because it defies the patriarchal limitations. I did this when I first got into management, because I had a couple early experiences where I introduced myself as a client’s manager and certain men would say “You don’t look like a manager.” “You’re too pretty to be a manager.” This embarrassed me especially in front of my clients (who were male) until I realized that I had NOTHING to be embarrassed about – it was the person saying it that should be embarrassed. So I stopped shrinking and when I did I became even better at my position.

AvA: In your eyes, what are the 3 most important qualities of a great music manager? 

Earls:

Empathy for their client and also for everyone else on the team who is trying their best.

Resilience when things get difficult—rejection and misdirected emotion are a big part of the management game, you can’t let it stop you.

Optimistic dreamer—anything is possible, truly.

AvA: You've built a roster of super talented Artists who don't necessarily fit the "mold" of traditional country stars. Can you talk about how important that has been to your vision for the Neon Coast? 

Earls: I’m driven by a larger desire to shift and progress culture. I want to widen the tent for perceptions of what a specific artist or genre can achieve and who they can reach.

AvA: Dream festival headliners, dead or alive? 

Earls: Kane Brown headlining both Coachella and Stagecoach the same year would be a dream!

AvA: If money was no object, what would your job/career be (outside of the Entertainment Industry)?

Earls: I would build a business with my daughters — whatever they come up with.  (Hopefully it’s within the music business and we all work together!)

AvA: Book or podcast recommendation? 

Earls: I just got into Great Company with Jaime Laing — it is an amazing podcast.  The Rory Sutherland episode is awesome. (Click on the image below to stream it).

Books — My daughters (13 & 11) and I have a book club, I read whatever they’re reading so right now it’s the Lockwood & Co. series. They had me read a book called The War That Saved My Life and I cried and cried. They got me with that one.

👋 See you back here on Tuesday for a brand new selection of Entertainment jobs

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