It wasn't even like I rolled out of the wrong side of the bed this morning, I got up on the wrong, wrong WRONG side of the bed. I was not in the mood for anything, and I had to coax myself to actually get on with my day, telling myself I only had to make it to 7:00 and the weekend would be MINE. On my way to work, I got an email from Vin* telling me he was going to be late today (surprise, surprise) and to let the Big Boss know; I slowed down my pace and took my time getting to work. The morning was quiet; the phones didn't ring too much, and I didn't have any real work to do, so I pretty much relaxed until almost 2:00. Once Vin got in, the day went by a little faster, he asked me to rush compiling a discography (in Photoshop, the bane of my existence) for one of our producers. I did it as fast as I could, but I'm almost positive my computer is slowly crashing, and my irrational thoughts are confirmed every time it freezes and the fan starts whirling. I finished the discography and a few hours later, that same producer needed copies of every license that had been given out for one of his songs in the past 12 months.
This is all fine and well except that my understanding of publishing and licensing is limited; I have the attention span of a goldfish when people try to explain it. We have a big binder for each producer of all their licenses, then one with records of royalties paid, and things of that nature. The producer only needed the synchronization licenses (which are licenses given out for songs to be put, or synched with, movies, TV shows, or commercials). As Vin was trying to explain this to me, I could feel my eyes turn into glazed donuts and my mind went into panic mode: "Crap, what did he say? Do I or do I not copy this part? Which part of this stack is the license and which part is the request? Damnit, what did he just say??" Our conversation about it went something like this:
Vin: So I need you to make copies of all of the producer's synch licenses
Me: Umm...(thinking, maybe if I'm quiet enough he'll elaborate here)
Vin: So, can you make a copy of the request for the license, and then the check that it was paid.
Me: So I don't need to copy this (pointing to my Big Boss' signature for approval of the license)
Vin: No, just the request and the check
Me: Um.... (again, hoping if I keep quiet enough he'll explain again)
Vin: Okay, THIS is a license, THIS is the request for the license, THIS is the approval, I need you to copy the request and that it was approved
Me: Wait, I thought you said I didn't need to copy that????
Vin: Well, you need to copy the check if there is no signature that it was approved
Me: WHAT??????
Vin: (having lost his patience about 5 minutes ago) You know what? Just copy the whole thing, all of it
Me: Okay, so as an example, I would copy this and this and this (pointing to the next group of papers in the binder)
Vin: Umm...thats not a license, thats a list of budgets for studio time...its not supposed to be in this binder, but no, don't copy that. Just copy ALL the licenses from the past 12 months (he gets up and leaves)
I continue to sit there, trying to sort through that little gem of a conversation, and thinking in my head how AMAZING my boss is at explaining things that I've never before seen or heard of in my life, NOT. I start thumbing through the binder and notice there's only one license from the past year, the following ones are from 2003 (I was still in high school!). So when he gets back, I tell him this, because in my head, I'm thinking this means I only have to make one copy and I've just dodged what could have been an absolute mess. Instead, he tells me to copy everything from the last four years.......great. I slowly walk to the copy machine as if I'm approaching the edge of a cliff. I'm still confused about what exactly I'm supposed to be doing, he told me to copy three different things and then said copy EVERYTHING. I can't ask again because I'm pretty sure he'd fire me for being annoying and stupid. I start copying things and notice that the licenses are completely out of order, one page is from 2003, the next is from 2008, and the next from 2005. I made an educated guess about which parts to copy and which to skip, and it took me about an hour and a half to get through the entire binder. By 7:10 Vin came over and made a small joke about how it was taking so long--if only he knew it looked like someone dropped the binder out of a 20th story window and then collected the papers from the street and put them back in random order. I got it done though, and hopefully I got it done right.
One of the hardest things about working is being given a task that you don't understand at all, and being given unclear direction. One of the hardest things about working in the music industry is figuring out how to do it without asking anyone for help, because all your bosses are too busy to deal with your "dumb" questions. As much as I hate it, I actually learned something about licensing today.
