David Zedeck, partner and co-head of global music at the United Talent Agency (UTA), has spent his career focusing on the expansion of music internationally. From booking talent at pizza shops and small theaters at the start of his career, to now booking stadiums or even sold-out festivals for his clients, Zedeck has made a long-lasting impression on the music industry.
At just 21, Zedeck started his career as a secretary at Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and learned quickly that the people you meet in starting positions will be the executives you talk to 20 years down the road.
“People who answered phones, we are now running major record labels,” Zedeck said. “People who were assistants on the road — carrying clients’ luggage — are now managing some of the finest clients. There is no job too big, no job too small.”
After spending five years at Live Nation, an American multinational entertainment company, Zedeck was recruited by UTA and said he found ways to revamp the department. According to UTA, the agency had 20% fewer festival bookings, fewer stadium and arena shows and 40% fewer hires and promotions prior to Zedeck’s tenure.
Zedeck’s talk drew in students from across campus, many of whom came in wanting to learn more about his career path and the inner workings of artist representation.
Liana Stoll, an undergraduate music industry major at the Thornton School of Music, said Zedeck’s comments made her mindful of the importance of every job in the industry.
“Take any opportunity that’s handed to you,” she said. “Whether it’s what you were looking for or not.”
Zedeck also touched on the impact streaming has had on the music industry, with services like Spotify and Apple Music allowing music to be produced and released at a faster rate than ever, meaning charts are also moving up and down at a much faster pace than 10 or 15 years ago.
“There’s thousands of songs that get released every year,” he said. “If you looked at an annual basis, there’s probably no more than a couple hundred songs that make the Top 4, but now there’s a couple thousand songs that people listen to on any of your devices.”
Zedeck said this is the direct result of the globalization of music, which serves to decrease language and geographical barriers.
“That’s a beauty of technology — that it has increased accessibility,” said Karnessia Georgetown, a master’s student at the Marshall School of Business, who is a current UTA intern and is hopeful about the future of the music industry. “Being able to appreciate Afro beats or like Latin pop — knowing Karol G and Bad Bunny — I just think that that’s a net good to come out of technology.”
Technology has also allowed artists to create new opportunities and avenues for themselves. Through experimenting with new genres, Zedeck said artists can now manage their own narratives better, citing Beyonce’s newly announced country album as an example of the evolution of genres.
“Music is wider,” he said. “I think you can specialize in something or be genre agnostic. The only people that use the word genre are people in the music business,” he continued. “Put your thoughts on this world into a song, it doesn’t matter. It’s just music.”
The lunch ended with Zedeck highlighting the importance of collaboration in the industry, emphasizing that behind any given artist is a team of people.
“It’s very rare that it’s [one] person, right, it’s always a team,” he said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct an error about Zedeck’s clients.