Alex Matos Band Members at Lucky 7’s

Daddy Yankee at Megaton Citifield

Juan Luis Guerra at Radio City Music Hall

Marc Anthony at Barclays Center

Romeo Santos

Romeo Santos at Madison Square Garden

Before the Romeo Santos MSG Concert

Yovanny Polanco

Yovanny Polanco

As an entrepreneur seeking to become a music manager, I was honored to get the opportunity to interview Yvette Medina, a music manager. Yvette Medina has been a music manager for several years, but recently opened up her own music management company in 2012. The company is located in New York City and operates in New York and Miami. Through hard work and dedication, she has been able to acquire several artists and continues to pave her way into success.
Yvette Medina owns M Artist Management, a music management company. She is the sole owner of the business and works as CEO of the company. At the moment, the company is in its early stages of gaining recognition in the music industry against leaders, such as Sony. The company provides music management services. This entails managing music artists by handling their schedule and contracts and acting as a representative to the artist. In her services, she accompanies artists to their concerts, photo shoots, sound check, and meetings. This company is based in New York City, however, operates in New York and Miami, Florida. While she does not employ anyone at the moment, she has several notable artists in the music industry, such as Sensato del Patio and EliJas.
Yvette Medina has worked as a music manager for several years. She has worked for Sony and Mr. 305 Inc., two major labels in the music industry. In these years she was apart of these companies, she decided she wanted to venture out into her own company. At this time, she decided to move to New York City from Miami in order to be in the music capital of the world. Since she did not quit her position at Mr. 305 Inc, she was very fortunate in being able to have had financial stability. She was able to have an income while starting up her own business, but was also given a flexible schedule since she was away from the headquarters. In addition, she had incurred low costs to start her company since she did not find a need to have an office out of her home. Therefore, she did not find herself in a difficult position. Yvette was able to start her business quickly, as she already had many contacts in the industry. She quickly acquired EliJas, a female singer in New York City.
While the entrepreneur had a relatively comfortable experience opening her management company, she did still face some challenges. First, she found herself in a new city. While she had traveled to New York City on occasion for work, she never stayed for a long period of time. This was hard for her since she needed to learn to adjust quickly so she could continue on with her daily operations. She found it hard to learn directions without a car. She had become accustomed all her life to driving, and now, owning a car was impractical while living in Manhattan. Similarly, a new city meant new people. Her network in New York City existed, but wasn’t nearly as big as her network in Miami. She found herself needing to build new business relationships in a very competitive, cut-throat industry. This was hard since her relationships in Miami had been developed over years of trust. Now, she felt as if she was a rookie even though she had been in the industry for quite some time. She is still trying to overcome this, however, since moving has been able to create relationships which have survived her first years in New York City.
In addition, she did not have the luxury of having her own office. In Miami, she was able to utilize Mr. 305 Inc.’s office to conduct meetings and do paperwork, but now she found herself relying on friend’s offices or public places to have these encounters. This was a change for her since she felt it was less professional than what she had been used to. At first, she felt she would not be taken seriously even though she had the experience. However, she was able to overcome this change and realized in the end, it wasn’t much of a difference. Most of the meetings were successfully conducted in other client’s offices or in cafés or restaurants, where it was less informal but provided a more personal setting making meetings more enjoyable.
Lastly, the odd, long hours have posed as a challenge. During her twenties, she willingly attended late-night parties or events. However, now as a manager, she is required to attend. This is difficult for her since the circumstances have changed. While she enjoys going to late album release parties or awards shows and concerts, she is finding it more difficult to wake up in the morning. For instance, she often finds herself having to attend events until three in the morning and then is expected to wake at five in the morning for her artist’s photo shoots. This is a challenge she constantly has to overcome. In the interview, she mentioned that she has learned to cope with this challenege by taking short naps. She still attends every event and keeps her mind fresh by allowing herself a day off or a late start ever so often. She stated she accepts the hours and welcomes them since every hour brings something different to the table. In her entrepreneurial career, she has never found herself bored or in the same situation twice. She is always learning and witnessing creativity, which has kept her awake throughout the day.
Regardless of her challenges, Yvette has been able to maintain her motivation and create success for herself. She claims the number one thing which motivates her is her passion for music. While her job requires her to work odd, long hours, she reminds herself that she is happy at the end of the day. She believes this is the most important thing which has kept her determined. She also looks at her past and current successes and realizes that if she wasn’t meant to manage, she wouldn’t have been able to reach all of the goals she has. She always had a positive mindset while building her career and business. She interned at several music labels and then worked for two major labels. She was able to learn through these experiences the skills, such as organization and communication, needed to advance in her endeavors.
Her boss, Pitbull, who is an artist and music label owner, was very helpful in teaching her about music management and how to create a business. He was very supportive, even when she announced that she was planning to start her own venture. She feels he was one of her most valuable resources, along with several other networks including Johnny Marines, another manager to Romeo Santos and Aventura. These two networks introduced her to many important people in the industry and even helped her acquire artists, such as Sensato del Patio. They have helped her find producers for her artists and have included her in parades, festivals, and events, which have accelerated her company greatly in gaining recognition in the public and among the industry.
Even though Yvette has proven to be successful thus far, she believes she would have done one thing differently in the past had she had her current knowledge. Yvette would have opted to open her own venture much sooner. While she is grateful for the experience and opportunities of working for such labels, she realized that some of the experience and lessons could have been acquired while she had her own venture. She wishes that she would have been more confident in herself to stray away from the major labels so she could have worked on building her own business, rather than another person’s business. She would have also started saving money sooner. She feels that because she didn’t intend on opening her own business since she didn’t know she would be able to handle it, she didn’t spend as wisely as she should have. Had she known this then, she would have saved for an office or moved to New York City sooner.
Yvette Medina is continuing her successful career in management. As she is acquiring more artists, she hopes to expand her business into more cities.

On the Set with DJ Eli (LMP) May 11, 2013

We Are Futuro Perfomance April 2013

El Prodigio May 3,2013
El Prodigio May 3,2013

As El Prodigio is currently touring in the United States, I knew I had to catch a show. The band frequents lounges and clubs throughout the tri-state area on Latin nights. This time around, I luckily was able to find a show close to my apartment in Jamaica, Queens. The band appeared at their usual late hour, around 2AM. The lights went dim for the moment and then a splash of light hit the band on full effect. The famous accordian player appeared with his band right behind. The sounds of the tipico music with its saxophone, accordian, guitar, guira, drums, and bass are taking over the club. The rhythm creates an energy which envelops everyone nearby. The bandmembers move in sync to the beat of each of the songs, giving a full on show. The band continuously engaged the audience throughout the show. They were very fan-friendly, taking requests towards the end of the show and inviting people up on stage with them to dance. They premiered some of their songs which are currently trending in their home country of the Dominican Republic. Afterwards, they distributed free sample CD’s with their latest songs.
Overall, we believe El Prodigio’s performances are lively and truly signify the culture of the country and origins of the music. This performance brought the sounds and rhythm of the Dominican Republic in it’s 1.5 hour duration, which you normally would have to travel 4 hours for. While the band is on tour in the tri-state area, we recommend you catch a show and don’t hesitate to go to a few. Each experience is better than the last and had an overall unique effect. Anything goes with this band and nothing else other than their music is typico.