Member Spotlight

Member Spotlight #37: Maria Gironas

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Senior Media Partnerships Manager, Creators and Artists at Reddit

Maria Gironas

For Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re spotlighting inspiring latinx and hispanic people making waves in the music industry. Maria Gironas is a Senior Media Partnerships Manager for Creators and Artists at Reddit, where she works with creators to onboard them onto the Reddit platform. Maria spoke with shesaid.so about her past life as a touring musician, her experience living with anxiety and depression, and her vision for latinx representation in the music industry.

shesaid.so: Can you tell us a little more about yourself, and your music career journey to date?

Maria: I started my career as an artist signed to a small label, and it changed my life. I got to play shows, tour, produce, and learn the nitty gritty on what it meant to be an artist. The crazy thing was, I was 11 when that all started. I was a kid being told what to wear, to write about honest feelings, to balance school and social life, and couple that with both the weight and honor it is to be a child of two Bolivian immigrants. It was a lot. I fell out of love with the idea of a musician, and fell in love with the idea that I could work with artists and creators to protect and honor their visions. My career since has been about two things: 1. Empowering creators and artists through embracing technology and data and 2. Elevating marginalized communities through all the work I do. Those north stars have brought me to companies like Reybee as a publicist, Fender in social media, YouTube in artist and creator development, Q&A/Human Resources on platform partnerships, Wide Eyed Entertainment in marketing, Downtown Records in DSP strategy, and now, Reddit heading up talent partnership efforts.

shesaid.so: What do you consider some of your greatest career achievements, and why?

Maria: Honestly, in my wildest dreams, I would have never thought to be in the place I am in my career. This might sound silly to someone reading this, but I am in a constant state of gratitude for my life, and I think I’d be lying if I wrote out what my greatest career achievement was, because just living right now, in the moment, feels like the biggest win of all. Young, little Maria would think this current Maria was pretty awesome.

shesaid.so: What are some of the challenges you’ve faced, and how have they shaped you and your career?

Maria: I’ve had a winding mental health journey my whole life. Through therapy, medication, and support from my friends and family, I’ve been able to manage my anxiety and depression. I’m grateful to say I’ve had some incredible bosses who were very open to letting me share my struggles and allowing the space to take a step back when I needed to. But, there were many, MANY, moments where I just didn’t take care of myself and it manifested into panic attacks, obsession, intrusive thoughts, and distancing myself from the people that cared about me. I think because I went through all of this, I can see when others might need space to feel heard and seen. Sometimes, gentle conversations on mental health could be allowing the space and time to properly ask, “how are you doing?” Within the Latino community, there is an unfortunate stigma surrounding mental health that is slowly being corrected, but still has a long way to go. All we can do sometimes is create space and give space, and I have known those simple actions to change the course of my life and career.

shesaid.so: Who in the music industry are you inspired by, and why?

Maria: My parents, Carla and Ramiro Gironas, are the people that inspire me the most in all aspects of my life, hands down. Within the music industry, I am the luckiest human on earth to admit that I have been truly blessed to have friends and mentors like Jenna LoMonaco, Rachel Stoewer Poston, Beka Tischker, Irene Richter, Jessica Rivera, Brooke Rascoff, Julie Nguyen, Sam Juneman, Rebeca Leon, Chelsea Dankner, Jordan Federman, Vatana Shaw, Erika Montes, Danielle Jimenez, Doris Munoz, Ana Maldonado, Ranya Khoury, Daniela Sala, Livia Piomelli, Tayla Ridley, Emily Garibaldi, Madilyn Bailey, Evange Livanos, Brynn Elliott, Kristin Gregory, Jensen McRae, Grace Adeyemo, Noreen Prunier, Kat MacLean-Daley, Ritz McCain, Blair Miller, Jordana Golub, Jamie Hart, Caroline Trujillo, Tenille Arts, Michele Stephens, Satasha Torres, Jillian Newman, Julie Gurovitsch, Brittany Crawford, Phylicia Fant, Erin Hanson, Lauren McKinney, Nicole Barsalona, Grace Segundo, Cecille Crisostomo, Sara Dempsey, Jackie Yaegar, Grace Roslovic, Shaun Alexander, Evangeline Elder, Whitney-Gayle, Benta, Niki Pittelli, Chelsi Zollner, Cecilia Winter, Julie Ciccarelli, Melanie McClain, and so so so many more. Remember these names!

shesaid.so: What do you hope to see more of in the music industry in regards to latinx/hispanic representation?

Maria: I want to see our community represented in all genres of music on all sides of the business. Latinx and love metal? Manage a metal band. Latinx and love pop music? Start a pop label. Latinx and love pop punk music? Start a pop punk band. Let’s spread our culture far and wide!

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Member Spotlight #28: Cherie Hu

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For this month’s shesaid.so Member Spotlight, we are featuring award-winning journalist, researcher and entrepreneur Cherie Hu. Hu has been covering the nexus of music, technology and business for over five years. She runs the music business newsletter Water and Music and has bylines in Billboard, Forbes, NPR Music, Columbia Journalism Review, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Music Business Worldwide, Variety, DJ Mag and more. We spoke with Cherie about the future of newsletters, the difficulties of freelancing, and where new media is heading.

shesaid.so: What do you consider some of your greatest career achievements?

Cherie Hu: I think my greatest accomplishment to date is simply that I’ve been able to maintain a full-time freelance/independent writing business for my entire professional career so far, including two years of sustainably running my own company. Given the precariousness of the digital media landscape, especially amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, I feel extremely fortunate to be in a position where I can build a more entrepreneurial career around cultivating my own voice, as well as elevating other people’s voices and perspectives that wouldn’t otherwise see the light of day.

Thinking to specific milestones around my newsletter, I monitor the business side of things on a daily basis, and am really proud of its recent growth (we’re at around 1,300 paying members as of reading this article, versus around 200 members a year ago). But in terms of what really feels like an “achievement” per se, I realize I’m more motivated by reaching the right people than by reaching the most people. If I can consistently get my analysis and reporting in front of even just a few C-suite executives at top music companies, and/or if I inspire one new emerging artist or manager every week to think about the music industry in a different way, I consider that a success.

shesaid.so: Newsletters are growing in popularity, and you are the founder of your own newsletter, Water and Music. What do you like about the newsletter format, and where do you see the newsletter trend going?

Cherie Hu: It’s funny that something like email that has been around since the 1960s is now considered a new hot trend in media and technology. I think what feels “new” about email in the current climate, and what I appreciate about the format from the perspective of growing my own newsletter brand, is its immediacy and intimacy. Email allows you not only to speak directly to your audience one-to-one, but also to have much more transparency about whom your message is reaching and how they are engaging with that message compared to what you would otherwise get on social media. Because the nature of email distribution is much more intimate and lean-in — subscribers opt in themselves to follow a given newsletter, and each issue lands in their own inbox, which they’re checking multiple times a week if not every day — the quality of engagement is also much higher from the jump.

It might not seem like it, but the personal nature of an email newsletter — which can sometimes feel like reading someone’s journal — is also a major advantage for B2B and industry-facing media.

I think articles and conversations about the future of the music business can have more impact and reach more people when they’re less buttoned-up and more personable and accessible.

As for general newsletter trends, we’ve seen tons of well-known writers move away from legacy newspapers or magazines to start their own paid newsletter publications, often in the process making a higher equivalent annual income than they would have at their previous full-time jobs. I think this ongoing exodus and the inspiration it sparks will lead to a boon for niche digital media. Music is definitely part of this wave, with newsletters like First Floor (electronic music), Penny Fractions (the business of music streaming), Cabbages (hip-hop) and Music Journalism Insider (news, job opportunities and interviews related to music journalism).

In response, though, I think several larger publications will see the value that these writers see in their editorial independence and direct audience relationships, and try to lure these same newsletter writers back with a better job offering and more infrastructural support. Running your own newsletter is certainly freeing from a creative perspective, but you also have to front the bill for health benefits, editing, legal and accounting support and more — i.e. you have to act as the de facto CEO of your own business, which isn’t the right fit for every kind of writer. Forbes recently launched its own paid newsletter platform where writers receive a guaranteed minimum full-time salary and split additional subscription revenue 50/50 with the publisher. We’ll likely see more publishers experiment with these kinds of models in the coming months as they seek to compete on trust, a more important currency than ever in the modern media landscape.

shesaid.so: Have you ever made a mistake in your career that turned out to be an invaluable learning experience? Could you tell us about it?

Cherie Hu: There are too many to list… I did a bit of reflection recently and realized that all of the mistakes I’ve made in my career can be mapped to one or more of these four factors: 1) not trusting my gut and intuition; 2) procrastinating and sitting too long with my decisions; 3) being afraid to say no; and 4) general miscommunication. The learning experience, which is still in progress, is all about the value of being confident in what is best for yourself and communicating that knowledge transparently with others. Otherwise, the mutual empathy required for great creative or commercial collaborations is impossible to achieve.

shesaid.so: How would you like to make an impact on the music industry?

Cherie Hu: Generally, I’d like to open up people’s eyes not just to the trends that are happening in the music industry in the present, but also to what is possible in the industry’s future.

I’m most motivated by writing articles that encourage people to experiment and innovate, instead of being stuck in what are considered “industry-standard” ways of thinking and doing.

Countless other fields outside of music look to us to take the pulse on where culture is moving next, and I think we as an industry have to take that positioning and responsibility as innovators seriously, on the playing fields of both creativity and business.

I also hope to inspire other fellow women, Asian Americans and minorities generally to carve out their own paths in the music industry, and to show them how leaning into their fullest selves and identities is more of an asset in the industry than ever, not a liability.

shesaid.so: What are your tips for others starting out in your area of the industry?

Cherie Hu: In my opinion, as the music industry grows, so will the market for its media. It might not immediately seem that way, especially with several music-centric alt weeklies and indie publications closing shop in the past few years. But I think part of this decline is due to an overreliance on business models that inherently treated media and criticism as a commodity — whether through click- and ad-driven success benchmarks, or through private equity firms buying out local newspapers and wringing them dry.

I might be biased, but I think now is an amazing time to build alternative kinds of media companies whose content and business models inherently fight against commodification. In other words, the media companies that thrive are highly specific and insightful about the audience they’re speaking to in a way that competitors can’t replicate, and then monetize those connections in a way that optimizes for depth and quality of engagement.

With that in mind, probably the most cliché-but-true tip I have for those who want to carve out their own path in music media is to own a niche that you’re passionate about.

Read all the major music and entertainment publications out there voraciously, study what they’re good at — and then pick up on their blind spots. What angle on the music business is nobody writing about, but is hiding in plain sight right beneath our feet?

For me, when I first started out around 2015, a major blind spot in music-business journalism at the time was consistent coverage of startups and technology. There are tons of other potential examples: for instance, I would love to see some more independent music writers focus on the evolving business of songwriting and producing, or on specific revenue channels like livestreaming and merch, or on creative trends in specific geographic regions that are “trending” in the industry right now but tend to be misunderstood or misrepresented (e.g. Africa, Asia, Latin America). Above all, chase the perspectives that cannot be commodified.

Member Spotlight #7: Sarah McBriar

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Sarah’s work is a no-brainer for her. After traveling the world and working/learning with others in the festival industry she identified a need, channeled her passion and created her own version. Sarah’s audio, visual and arts festival, AVA Festival, will be in it’s third year this June.

The multifaceted structure and creative energy that pours from the festival comes from the best origin story there is: a group of friends coming together to do what they love and know best. Talking to Sarah, you get a real sense of confidence and willingness to dive in no matter the challenge. Passion is the driver, the rest will fall in line…

By: Zoe M

What was your experience like starting off in your career? Were you anxious, passionate, confident?

Sarah McBriar: When I started I had a lot of fun! I have always cared a lot about my work — so being passionate about what I do is really important to me. Like anything, the unknown is fun, and slightly scary but that’s what gets you really into it!

You’re coming up on the third edition of your Northern Ireland audio, visual and arts festival — AVA Festival… can you compare your first year of the festival with this latest edition? How have you grown and what have you learned since you first started up?

The Festival has grown a lot. When we started back in 2015, it was really all mates, both the DJs and attendees. Now — going into year 3, we are really honoured to continue to grow and invite International artists such as Jeff Mills and Marcel Dettmann, and continue to book the best emerging talent and established talent in Ireland.

What inspired you to start your own festival? How does AVA set itself apart or what is the overall goal of the festival?

I had worked on festivals in mainland UK, at Glastonbury, Block 9, MIF (Manchester International Festival) and Warehouse Project. I had travelled to many in Europe too, Sonar etc. I wanted to create a truly creative electronic music festival, merging the music with the visual art. I didn’t think that one existed in Northern Ireland, and I wanted to create a platform for all of the incredible talent coming out of Ireland, as there was so much — for those within Northern Ireland and those who had left but were doing great things elsewhere… a reason to come back and showcase their work. So AVA was a response to wanting to create this.

Working in the festival circuit, there obviously comes that time of the year when a festival is nearing its start-date and things get particularly crazy — what are some things you to do keep your wits about you?

Exercise. Chocolate. Yoga & meditation (need to do more of that!) Laughing with my Girlfriends.

How have the positions you held in the past set you up for success in running AVA Festival and/or starting your own festival?

My previous experience has played a huge part in setting me up. I worked for the Block 9 team for 6 months on Glastonbury which in my opinion is the best festival in the world, it’s a mini city set up for 5 days — it’s incredible. I supported the core team and assisted the producer, working on the pre-production, understanding the level of detail required and the time it takes, along with on-site experience. I also worked for MIF [mentioned above] which is such an incredible event, across 3 weeks — across the city, a combination of interesting spaces, arts & music and International debuts of work! It really is one of the best. I worked across a series of events on the operation side in a voluntary capacity and again learnt from the scale and variation of the projects and sites.
Similarly, I was part of a team who developed a tourism project within City in Manchester, which grew across 4 years. I learnt a lot about teamwork, marketing, staff and operations and the business side of things which really taught me the other side of running a festival — and the major challenge of staying within budget.
I have also lived in a number of cities… Belfast, Manchester, London, Barcelona and Vancouver — learning lots about different cultures and art forms, and about tourism; all areas which really feed into developing a festival!

What are the most important takeaways you’ve been able to transfer from these past experiences to running the AVA Fest?

1. Have a core ethos, both in how you programme and how you manage — and keep to it! It is what you are and what you will be long-term!
2. Develop strong relationships that last long term — value you them, they stick with you.
3. You have to watch your budget every day.
4. Enjoy it. If it doesn’t make you happy — something isn’t right!

If you could pick one — what artist, that you’re featuring at the festival, are you particularly excited about?

Jeff Mills [also mentioned above] — he is debuting a lighting and live project with the incredible Parisian lighting designer Guillaume Marmin — I can’t wait to see this.
… Also Fatima Yamaha and New Jackson!

What are some lesser-known, but equally amazing festivals out there that we should know about?

Sacred Ground in Berlin, Field Maneueuvres and Love International!

Why do you think we’ve seen the popularity of festivals rise on the recently? Do you think it has to do with the live music aspect? Brand partnerships? What’s your insight/take on this?

I think the whole industry has grown. I think people love to experience music in a live capacity, as music is so easily and readily downloaded, people seek the live experience now. The growth of the sector, the opportunities there are for festivals, interesting spaces and live acts has all led to the growth of festivals.

What are you currently listening to on repeat?

Hammer’s latest track: MANAKA
New Jackson’s latest track: ANYAS PIANO

Who/what gives you strength?

Great vibes, great music, a class team, amazing friends!

What else should we know about you or what you’re currently working on?

The AVA emerging talent competitions are super special. Since starting in 2015, we have found some serious talent!
PLUME is a collaborative project I work on with Oisin O’Brien where we create art directed, high impact visuals, installation amongst other things- it’s super exciting work and was born out of working together on the festival.

The AVA Festival runs for June 2–3 in Belfast.

Tickets here | Lineup here | Watch the AVA highlights of 2016 here