(CelebrityAccess) – Join music industry veterans Ritch Esra and Eric Knight tonight (August 15) on the ‘Music Business Insider Podcast’ as they sit down with hit songwriter and founder of Music Publishing company Beat House Music – Tiffany Kumar.
Esra and Knight will discuss the importance of building and fostering relationships with songwriters and music industry professionals to create viable opportunities for your music as well as her commitment to changing the gender diversity imbalance within the songwriting, recording studio, and concert festival line-ups, and much much more.
Esra has been running the Music Business Registry, including The A&R Registry, The Publisher Registry, The Music Business Attorney Registry, The Artist Managers Registry, and The Film and TV Music Guide since 1992.
He started as a promotion coordinator for A&M Records in Los Angeles in 1980-81. From 1981-1987, Esra was director of West Coast A&R for Arista Records. He worked extensively with the publishing and songwriting communities for material for Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Tanya Tucker and more.
From 1988-1991, Esra produced the award-winning educational video for artists and musicians, “How to Get a Record Deal.” “At the time, it was the only video of its kind examining the frequently misunderstood process from five different perspectives: record company executives, A&R VPs, artist managers, record producers and 16 major artists, including Mark Knopfler, Phil Collins, Jody Watley,,, Karla Bonoff, Michael Bolton, Fleetwood Mac, Chick Corea and more,” says Esra.
In 2012, he co-founded MUBUTV, an online video channel dedicated to educating recording artists, bands, and musicians on the realities of developing a music career today. Since 2002 he has taught various classes on the Music Business at the Musicians Institute and SAE (School for Audio Engineering), and UCLA Extension.
Knight was the lead singer of the Miami hard rock band Vandal from 1990 – 1995. He’s had stints as a publicist, booking agent, fan club organizer and spokesperson.
In 1999 Knight began his dive into music education with Music Business 101, speaking to high schools in South Florida. He also conducted workshops and guest spoke at Berklee College of Music and the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.
2012 Knight co-founded the music industry media network MUBUTV (Music Business Television) with Esra. He oversees the creative direction and development of all MUBUTV’s productions, including its flagship program, The Insider Series, which features interviews with industry professionals.
He also works with Grammy Award-winning Guitarist Norman Brown on media-related projects. He is in the process of writing his first book entitled, How to Manage Your Career in the New Music Industry.
You can access the MUBUTV podcast HERE.