10 Questions with ... Chris Schuler

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

Currently serving as Dir./Promotion & Radio Marketing, Chris Schuler started his journey at UMG Nashville more than six years ago. Working his way up from Coord./Promotion duties for Mercury Nashville, Schuler has found a home at UMG where he can utilize his immense creativity and flex his calculus muscles, as well. Originally setting out on a career path that included studying Aeronautical Engineering & Sciences, Schuler is one of the brightest minds in the industry, and the tips and tricks he implements in his day-to-day job functions has given UMG Nashville a competitive edge. In the midst of dropping a new Eric Church album and working multiple singles currently inside the Top 40 in Mediabase, Schuler made time to talk shop with All Access Nashville.

1. Hi, Chris! Thank you for taking time to chat with All Access today! We know that UMG Nashville has a different structure to its promotion department than some other labels, so can we kick these questions off by having you explain what exactly you do on a day-to-day basis as Dir./Promotion & Radio Marketing?

Being a member of our National team alongside [UMG Nashville VP/Promotion] David Friedman and [Nat’l Dir./Radio Syndication] Donna Hughes is awesome, because – on a daily basis – we are always doing new things. My primary day-to-day function is to assess where our singles are at the current moment. So, I need to have a good feel of what is going on at any given point in the week, whether we are up in syndication or down in syndication, and whether we are fluctuating so that I can project where we will be at the end of the week. I do this so that I can know if all of my records are currently healthy, and if they’re not, where do I need to focus our attention as a national team. The second major thing I handle is working with all four of our imprint VPs to handle all of our album launches across each radio chain. It can be anything from a show to national contesting to creating some kind of new thing to partner on with our radio partners. The third thing, and one of my favorite things, is to try to look at trends to get ahead of what is coming in our world and be aware of new things that are popping up. We don’t want to be surprised by those trends when they hit us.

2. You studied Production and Technology for Recording Industry Management at Middle Tennessee State University. What was it about that school -- and that program -- that spoke to you, as opposed to a Music Business major and/or the curriculum at Belmont University?

Actually, this is a bit of a secret unless you work specifically with the two of us, but most people don’t know that [EMI Dir./Midwest Promotion] Chris Fabiani and I actually went to the same grade school and high school. I ran around with Chris’s little brother – Chris is a couple of years old than me – but, Chris and I were both home for the holidays one year, and we went to our alma mater’s basketball game. Chris spotted me, came over, and sat down next to me; he said, “There’s a school where we can study things in the music business.” I said, “That’s awesome. I didn’t know that existed.” At the time, I was at the University Of Kentucky pursuing an Aeronautical Engineering & Computer Sciences degree – night and day difference! So, we started talking about it. When I was in high school, I had played in a couple of bands, and we had recorded a couple of albums. I loved the recording process, going in to the studio, laying down tracks and doing overdubs, and trying to find new sounds to incorporate in to music. When I went down the next semester, I transferred – with Chris – and, that’s where I got my degree. I spent a lot of time doing the production stuff, and primarily a bunch of studio classes. But, my minor was in the business side, so I still took marketing and concert touring and things like that so that I could get an overview of the industry outside of my digital and production world.

3. There is an urban legend that regularly circulates throughout Music Row that says you were discovered one day, out of the blue, at a Cracker Barrel. Can you speak to this and tell us how it is you came to work at UMG Nashville?

After graduation, I got a job at BMI. I worked there for about a year and a half or two years before I realized that it just wasn’t for me. I quit, but then I couldn’t find another job. All the while, I had been working at Cracker Barrel – I was in my seventh or eighth year working there by this time – so, I actually went moved back to Lexington, Kentucky to finish my original degree. After about three months, I missed Nashville too much – I missed this area and my life here – so, I left school. I called my dear friend, Chris Fabiani, and it just happened to be at the exact time that Universal bought EMI. The merger was taking place, and they had shuffled some positions around. A spot became available for the Mercury Coord./Promotion, and Chris said they hadn’t found a fit yet, so I talked to [Mercury Nashville VP/Promotion] Damon [Moberly] the next day on the phone, and he asked me to come down for an interview. I did, and the rest is history. But, yes, I was technically working at a Cracker Barrel when I got my break. I still can’t believe I spent ten years there!

4. You also took a turn as Coord./Promotion for Mercury Nashville. What did your time as Coordinator teach you about the music industry, and what lessons did you take from that position in to your later roles?

I actually loved being a Coordinator. I honestly didn’t know a lot about promotion, because my classes didn’t focus on that area or teach me a lot about promotion. When I jumped in to it, I realized immediately that it was the absolute perfect fit. It takes a certain kind of personality to want to be in promotion. You have to be very outgoing. But, one of the things I loved about being a Coordinator is that you need to be super-organized at any given point, which I’ve always liked because you’re the boots on the ground in a lot of different facets. You have five regionals and a VP who are constantly needing to have stuff done, and we have three people on the National team that still need things done for them, as well. There’s a lot to keep track of. One of the things that I specifically remember was a bus trip to Michigan. We had three artists on the same show – in the middle of touring season – so getting a bus was kind of a nightmare in the first place. We finally got the paperwork about eight hours before the bus was supposed to leave on a Friday; then, I got a phone call about an hour before bus call saying that the bus blew a tire and I no longer had a bus. I took an Uber to the office, changed all the travel authorizations, found a new bus, worked on a backup contingency – and that’s when I realized that in this world, it’s all about finding a way to get the results you need, at whatever cost. If that means coming in to the office at 10p and jumping on the bus with not one thing packed just to make sure everything goes okay, then that’s what you do. Actually, [MCA Nashville VP/Promotion] Katie Dean and I joke that’s the moment she realized I’d do well in this department. It was me wanting to make sure everything went according to plan (event it was Plan F), and wanting to fix anything that went wrong, since I was the one who worked through the entire project. Between Damon and Katie and the rest of our VPs here, I learned so much just by seeing the operations of how everything works – from budgets to travel to the promotional efforts. My parents still don’t even really know or understand what I do. And, there’s a lot of things people don’t see behind the scenes.

5. You have your hands in a lot of projects for a group that includes four imprints and a huge roster of high-profile artists. How do you balance your schedule and manage your time?

I always joke that I can’t live in the present, because I’m living in three different times simultaneously. I’m living in this week to make sure all of our records are healthy; I’m living in eight to twelve weeks from now to figure out when I’m going to land our planes at #1; and then, I’m living in three to four months from now to figure out what I’m going to do with our album launches. I do this with almost every artist at some point throughout the year, so I’m working on around 20 singles at any given point, and then working on looking at what songs are going to be peaking when and looking ahead at what albums are on our plate. The first one can take up a good amount of time, and then it becomes a balancing act of the other two portions while still trying to work on what is the evolution of what’s happening in our format and predicting trends. It’s a lot of fun, if I’m being honest. I’m definitely a to-do list guy – I love to-do lists. Especially on Monday, because my day is pretty much already set because of add dates and charts. I have to communicate well with all of the VPs here to keep the ball moving forward in each of the different areas. Not to mention, I do still have to travel and try to develop new relationships with programmers. Having a laptop and an iPad are lifesavers; if I didn’t have an Excel spreadsheet, I’d be going out of my mind! There are some days that, if I don’t have my dry-erase board, I’m going a little nuts. Even our desks are dry-erase. It’s almost like someone was thinking of me when they designed these.

6. Among your many, many skills, one we've only briefly touched upon is your musical prowess. You mentioned you played in bands in high school, and I've watched countless videos of you playing piano and singing. I also know you're an avid film score and movie soundtrack buff. Were there dreams or aspirations to pursue that path on a professional level at any time?

Actually, to be honest, it was when I first started. When I got to school, I think my aspirations changed a little bit. I have always, always, always loved film music! It’s one of those categories and topics where, if we start talking about it, I will bore you with information about how there’s a twenty-minute scene in a “Star Wars” movie where the composer used all six movie themes in one pass. Film scores are something that I have always wanted to be a part of, but as things started to change, I noticed that getting a job in that world would be difficult, especially living in Nashville, and I didn’t necessarily want to move to Los Angeles. However, where the open doors have led me, I am extremely happy with everything. It has always been a dream of mine to write an Oscar-winning film score, but as of now, I go home and play my piano and see what comes out. If something ever gets to the point where I feel like, “Oh, this could be competitive!” I will sit at home and record it. I will say that when I first started at UMG, I have a friend back home who produces corporate videos. If they want custom music, he will ask me to do it, and some of the most fun I’ve ever had in the music realm has been doing those. A lot of those are heavier – we did one for a cancer institute that was a testimonial back to the nurses, and writing the music for that was extremely difficult. But, when it was all said and done, it was extremely fun, and very rewarding.

7. As the industry continues to evolve and streaming and digital elements come in to play more frequently, how has your education and background in production and technology come in to play? Has it helped you in developing new marketing strategies for your artists?

Honestly – and, I never thought it would come in handy in the music business – but, the thing that has actually helped pave what I’ve been doing here has been the classes I took for my engineering degree. I could really nerd-out here, but I’m not going to do that. I spend so much time in Excel, and with the classes I took in Computer Science, I’ve actually been writing code to put things together for my regionals so that they can see things that hopefully no one else can see. Probably my favorite thing about what I get to do, that I like to thank my engineering pursuant in me for, is when we are in a head-to-head battle for a #1. I have a 32-square-foot dry-erase board, and sometimes I can just go absolutely insane on that thing. If it weren’t for some of the things I learned in Calculus, I could not do it nearly as easily as I do now. A lot of things we had to do in those worlds is to find a simple solution for a complex problem; there’s not always a simple solution, but there very well could be. I enjoy the hunt to try to find that. In the marketing world, that’s more of a creative side. That’s why I’ve always enjoyed this job; it has the analytical side, where the chart is governed by a science. It’s ones and zeros, and if you know how it works, you can jump in between the ones and zeros. But, the marketing side is the creative side of thinking about what we can do to make an impact that radio would like, that our contest winners would like, and that the artist would like. That is a real win-win-win, and if you can check all three of those boxes, that’s great.

8. As someone who falls squarely in to the "Millennial" demographic, you are an admitted fan of many genres of music. How do you view the current Country landscape compared to the musical landscape overall? Do you think that your peers still listen by genre, or is music consumed differently and grouped in a different way than the genre-based silos of previous generations?

I’ve always been an overall fan of music, so growing up in the ‘90s, I spent a lot of time listening to pop radio because it was so diverse – ranging from Bush to Boyz II Men, but we’d flip through all of the stations to find any song that we liked. My music collection is what I want to listen to, so I wouldn’t expect mine to look anything like a specific genre and I feel I meet a lot of people who are the same way, especially with it being so easy to build a playlist these days. I feel like that’s where music has been going since I was a kid and we made mixtapes. However, I do feel like genres – especially ones on the radio – are essential for our music discovery. If I’m out on the lake and want to hear what’s new in Country music, I’ll tune to a curated country playlist/radio station. I don’t know about you, but if I’m listening to my own curated playlist, I miss the “surprise” of “oh yeah! I forgot about that song!” I do feel like attention spans are getting smaller and smaller and if someone gets bored with a song, I feel like they start going somewhere else immediately. I don’t know if that’s scientifically accurate, but I know that I’ve personally been there before. And, with so many millions of songs accessible at our finger tips, if you aren’t happy with the song you are currently listening to, or you’re not in the mindset to listen to something new instead of resting on something familiar, it’s just so easy to move on to the next thing or find something you want to hear. And, one of the reasons I feel like radio is not going anywhere is because of the potential for overload. If you put twenty songs out in to the marketplace, with the understanding that people can barely have the attention span listen to an entire record front-to-back right now, it will be nearly impossible to focus on one specific song. So, with word of mouth being a huge way of spreading new music, whoever you listen to – who tells you what you should be listening to – is going to have to be listening to even more new music than ever before in order for them to be able to recommend something to you. I feel the same way with Netflix. Half the time I’m watching something on Netflix, it’s a “gold” – it’s something I’ve seen a thousand times and just want on in the background; a “recurrent,” or a show I just finished recently and want to watch some here and there; or, a “current” that was put in front of me by a Netflix curator or word of mouth. If you broke it down, I would probably say that my personal Netflix is pretty close to a “gold,” “recurrent,” and “current” ratio on a traditional radio station. The things that I watch that are new on Netflix are because on a word of mouth recommendation, or because a curator has selected it for me, or because I read about it somewhere. That sure sounds a lot like radio to me, you know? The crazy thing is, if you don’t have a focus – if you took out the things that aren’t original programming, and take out the “gold” titles that I’ve already watched – and it’s only the six million new things that I’ve not watched…where do you start? How do you know what to pick, unless someone has already recommended something? That’s why I’ve always loved radio – you trust a specific curator to appease your musical sense and there’s always been a relatively finite amount of curators/stations in each market, making the discovery process easier. As things head more into the digital space, so much music is available at our fingertips that, if you don’t have a particular focus on it, it could get lost in the millions of scrolls. I do feel like there will be some kind of ridiculous overload if anyone and everyone can curate and make recommendations. I could write a song, put it in to the streaming realm, and it could be the next “Live Like You Were Dying.” But, unless there is some kind of promotional value placed on that or one of the bigger curators hears it, it could be buried completely.

9. Playing off of that, what do you think it says about our genre when a traditional-leaning Luke Combs can have success alongside a more boundary-pushing Jordan Davis? Do you see any new trends developing in our format as your artists are working on newer music?

I’ve always heard about the metaphorical pendulum swinging back and forth between Pop and Traditional sounding Country. I do think that, right now with so much Pop-leaning Country production out there, the more Tradition-leaning sound is really working right now. You can see that with Luke Combs, and we’ve had a lot of success with Jon Pardi in the last two years, too. Midland had a #1 song, and they are a traditional sounding Country. I do think there is still that niche and that place for a traditional sounding Country, especially in our marketplace. But, I will say that – because of people like myself, who don’t tend to lean in that direction – the more Pop-sounding Country is what is also bringing in the other listeners. That is why, five years ago, Country took such a leap. I feel like when I started working here, I saw many of my friends – who did not prefer Country – start listening to the Country music that was more accessible. A lot of Kenny Chesney – I specifically remember Kenny’s “When The Sun Goes Down” record being one that my friends and I listened to front-to-back – and, I do think that the more Pop-produced sounding Country is opening doors and bringing more people in to our format. It’s easily digestible, and then because they are already here and developing new tastes for what they like, they’ll hear something – maybe a Dan + Shay like “Tequila” – and think, “Wow, that’s just a great song.” They keep listening, and they can then go deeper and find more and more sounds within the Country format that they enjoy. Maybe it’s a Dustin Lynch or a Luke Bryan song that helps them expand and find the next sound they enjoy. But, I do know that we are seeing some down-trends from our audience peaks, and the analytical part of me does want to dive in to that and wonder why it is happening, but if you look at any consumption chart right now, Luke Combs is just killing it. There’s obviously a desire for that music, especially with streaming. And, Country is one of the slower adapters to streaming, but those numbers are showing us that we do have younger listeners, and they are out there, and they are consuming this music.

10. In addition to your mad skills in production, marketing, and promotion, you also happen to be among the most well-known, and well-loved, faces in Nashville. What tips or advice do you have for others who may be getting to town and starting on a journey to network? What advice would you give to seasoned pros who may want to add new networking methods in to their bag of tricks?

Chris [Fabiani] and I actually went to a small, Catholic high school, and there were maybe only 500 kids in our entire school. Every couple of years, they ask us to come back and speak at career day, because they like to let kids see that you don’t have to live in a mindset of staying there and doing the same thing your parents did. They want kids to see that you can do something completely different from what everybody else does, and I think that’s great. I was blessed with loving parents who urged me to pursue what I wanted to do. I hope everyone has that situation. But, for kids who want to do something in music, I would advise that you get in to an environment with a school or a program where you can learn how it works and you can network yourself with other people who also want to do it and with people who are already doing it. I really wish I had interned in college; I think that would have made my job search much easier. Just since I’ve been here, I can’t tell you how many interns we have then hired, because we aren’t just seeing what they say on paper they can do – we are seeing their work ethic in real time. They come in and work hard and keep their head down – and we see what they are doing, and we reward them for that by hiring them on. I was told when I first started here to just keep your head down, work as hard as you can, and good things will happen. I certainly can say that worked for me. Also, I don’t think it’s ever possible to know enough people; I don’t think you can top out. That’s one of the reasons I love this town – Nashville has always been great about welcoming people who are eager to learn. If there is an organization you can be a part of or something you can do to meet new people, then absolutely try it. And, this business is always changing. If you see something and think that maybe there’s a better way to do it, there’s a good chance that you could actually be the person to change it. I don’t think anyone saw streaming coming when the CD was out. In promotion, you never know a stranger, so that’s a great mentality to have when you want to get in to this field – you can never do enough networking. And, for those already in the business, keep learning. We started to do something here inside of our building about five years ago that I absolutely love. Because we have 80-something people here, it’s not uncommon for our promotion interns to get so busy doing promotion things that they don’t know what marketing does, or what publicity does. We realized that it’s really not fair for our interns to be in the building and not understand it, so we came up with a program that teaches all of the different departments to all of the interns. By the time it’s over, they can sit down and go through how everything works together. Sure – you can see a set of tires, but until you see the entire thing, you don’t know if it’s a car or a bus or a motorcycle. You have to see how everything works together to get the complete picture. I think that should go for everyone at every level. One of the things I try to do every semester with my interns is to explain how the charts work. They do all of these things for us, but they don’t know why they are doing it. I’ve always been an advocate of trying to educate people who are interested so they can get some semblance of if it’s what they really want to do. In 20 years, are you and I going to be doing the same things we are doing right now? Sure, there’s a chance, but there’s a bigger chance that our industry will look so different that our jobs and duties will change, too. No one really knows what the next 20 years has for us, so it can’t hurt to learn as much as you can about everything.

Basketball is very important to you, and you are a rabid fan of the Kentucky Wildcats. If you were putting together a group of Kentucky basketball players, past or present, that would become your "roster" to promote and market, what five players would you select, and why? Conversely, if you had to take five Country artists and sub them in to one of your Wildcat basketball team, which five artists would you ask to lace up their sneaks, and why?

I’m actually wearing a Kentucky shirt today! My dad won Fan Of The Year – I believe it was 1971 – so, needless to say, grew up Blue. So, this will be hard, but I want to pick players that I love to watch, but who I could work with, too. I’m going to go with Travis Ford, Anthony Davis, Tony Delk, Jamal Mashburn, and Dan Issel. Wow, that was really hard! I had to leave out a ton of players that I really love! For artists as players, this actually might be easier! I’d pick Sam Hunt, because if you play college football, I’d imagine you’ll do pretty well with college basketball. I’ll go with Kip Moore, because he’s in shape and probably has the stamina to go a full 40 minutes. I’ll take Charles Kelley, because he’s really tall, and I think he can probably do some post up work. I’m also going to pick Brett Young for similar reasons, because I think he would be a strong power forward and is familiar with the athletic world. And, I’m going to take Thomas Rhett, because something tells me he would be a scrappy ball player, and I like that.