John Snyder is President and founder of Artists House Music, as well as Conrad N. Hilton Eminent Scholar in Music Industry Studies at Loyola University New Orleans. A distinguished producer, Snyder has worked on over 300 albums including over 30 Grammy nominees and five Grammy winners, and has held executive posts at several major labels.
In this installment of the Music Business Entrepreneurship Program at Loyola University New Orleans, Assistant Professor of Management Michelle Kirtley Johnston outlines three critical questions to ask before beginning any entrepreneurial venture. Academic experts Brenda Joyner and Jerry Goolsby talk about why it is essential to create a mission statement, explaining what they are and how they affect every aspect of an organization. Goolsby also talks about value systems, and why such systems should supersede policies and regulations. This module concludes with a series of questions for the viewer based on the concepts discussed in this module.
John Snyder of Artists House Music and Loyola University, New Orleans moderates a seminar for musicians in wellness and injury prevention titled “Physical Activity and Music (Be Fit or B Flat),” presented in conjunction with the Joint Commission on Sports Medicine on March 6-9, 2008. The panelists are three members of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (clarinetist Ralph Johnson, pianist Ricky Monie, and drummer Joseph Lastie, Jr.), who discuss the physical aspects of their craft, such as embouchure and endurance, ergonomics, repetitive stress injury, and other aspects of the chain of physical activities required to play music.
Producer and music educator John Snyder shares advice for producers on determining which take is the right take, and – just as importantly – justifying why another take is necessary.
Artists House Music's John Snyder moves out from behind the camera to give a candid and informative interview about the art of producing, what the producer’s role in an album project should be, how to work effectively with big egos and inexperienced musicians, how to prepare yourself for a life in music, and much more.
ArtistsHouse's John Snyder interviews Inspector General of the City of New Orleans Robert A. Cerasoli about ethics – what ethics are, how communities enforce ethics, how ethics figure into good governance of institutions, and how he carries out his role as Inspector General. Their conversation ranges from the nuts and bolts of advocating for ethical behavior from within an institution or government, to placing ethics into context as a branch of philosophical inquiry, to Cerasoli's career as a pioneer in the field of legislating ethical standards of conduct for governmental bodies.
John Snyder of ArtistsHouse discusses the ethical and moral dimensions of international affairs and foreign policy in a frank discussion of the ethics of recent American actions on the world stage.
Producer and music educator John Snyder discusses his own education in music and his early career in the recording industry, including why he chose law school over a music education, how he got involved in the music business, and more.
Producer and music educator John Snyder shares advice on launching a career in music production. He digs into the skill set you will need, how to measure progress and set goals, how to seek out your first production gigs, and more.
Producer and music educator John Snyder discusses working with the great blues vocalist Etta James on “Mystery Lady,” a Grammy-winning jazz repertoire album she made in the 1990s, and how he went about dealing with studio and musical issues he encountered on the date. He also shares his opinions on what makes a recording “great,” and on stacking the deck in favor of greatness during a recording session.
Producer and music educator John Snyder expresses his strongly worded opinions on what traits make a good producer good, and what happens if you don’t work on developing these traits.
Producer and music educator John Snyder discusses “art for art’s sake” – that is, making music for the sake of making music – and explains why, in his opinion, commercial interests (e.g., making money from your music so you can afford to make more music) are inextricable from the creative process.
Producer and music educator John Snyder discusses how he went about making his way in the music business when he first got his start, and compares it to what he would do today. In the process, he offers advice to young people seeking to make their own way in today’s music business – in particular, the critical importance of holding on to your integrity.
Producer and music educator John Snyder discusses his own education in music and his early career in the recording industry, including why he chose law school over a music education, how he got involved in the music business, and more.
Veteran record producer and music educator John Snyder shares his thoughts on the role a producer plays in a recording project, and what the producer’s role is in relation to the artist and the music. He also explains what a producer should do to prepare to tackle a new project, and explains the relationship between thinking and feeling when making hard decisions about which take is the best.
Veteran record producer and music educator John Snyder discusses some of the great artists he has recorded (Paul Simon, Dave Brubeck) and how he approaches managing the artists during a recording session; how to manage upset musicians, how to build trust, when to lead, when to follow, and when to get out of the way.
Veteran record producer and music educator John Snyder discusses the particular challenges that go along with working with novice musicians recording one of their first projects, and what a producer needs to do in order to keep the sessions on track and successful.
Veteran record producer and music educator John Snyder explains why it’s almost always better to have a producer involved in a recording project to act as middleman between the artist and financiers (whether a label or other entity), rather than leaving an artist to self-produce their own work.
Producer and music educator John Snyder discusses some of the problems that relatively inexperienced musicians encounter when stepping into the recording studio, and offers some hints on overcoming them.
In this section, you can watch a video from the making of Jason Crosby's album, Four Chords and Seven Notes Ago. In this clip, Jason is interviewed about his musical career and the recoding of the album. Jason began studying violin at the age of 2 and piano at the age of 4. He has studied trumpet, viola, violin, French horn, baritone horn and percussion, entered and placed in many musical competitions at an early age and toured most of the world between 1987 - 1990 with The Long Island Youth Orchestra. Jason has been performing for a living since the age of 16 and joined Solar Circus at age 19 - recorded on 2 CDs and toured the country. A wanted studio musician and a live hired gun, Jason has performed and recorded with numerous musical acts in a wide variety of genres.
In this section, you can watch a video from the making of Jason Crosby's album, Four Chords and Seven Notes Ago. In this particular clip, John Snyder is interviewed about the making of the album and gives his thoughts on working with Jason Crosby.
