Lorie B
I'm an AI artist basically just trying to get on the scene. I've already produced two albums and I'm getting ready to drop my second album. Early on in life, I was initially offered an offer through Arista Records, but I turned it down because of some of the conflict with the industry and not wanting to get into the politics of it all. So I pulled away from it a little bit. When AI emerged on the scene, it was the perfect re-entrance into doing songs because then I can be more independent, I can own more of my publishing, more of my songwriting, and not have to deal with some of the industry negatives that we've seen lately in the news. I didn't want to get into that, I got a good feeling about that early on and just kind of pulled away from it. I also work in Talent Acquisitions HR, which I fell into because I had pulled away from music and I had to find another avenue to make money.
• High School Graduate
• AB Honor Roll Student
What do you attribute your success to?
I would say being able to do things in a way to keep my integrity into whatever I'm doing and authenticity. So that's kind of my theme or the thread as far as me as a person.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Whatever the gap is, or whatever you feel that you're missing, sometimes you have to find a way to give that back yourself. So, for example, you may say, well, I don't have a mentor. Well, then, you need to become the mentor yourself. So I guess that's one of the advices that I've picked up along the way. There's no excuses.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Definitely learn the business. Because the art of it, creating a song, singing, all of that is great, and with an AI artist, a lot of people are not necessarily a singer, but they are great songwriters or great writers. But the main thing is you gotta learn the business. Because the business is what generally, that's the portion that you have to learn to shift. Because of you being a creative person, like myself, I love creating, you can end up doing a lot of creating, and then but not learning the business, and then in the end you don't make money, or you get taken advantage of. So, that's what I'd say. The business, focus in on the business, 90% business, 10% music and all the other stuff. But you want to be good, of course, but a lot of it's business.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The challenges are visibility, being able to get everything together because the way the music industry is changing. They don't actually discover artists like they used to, so you have to basically put everything together for yourself, package it, the branding, put everything together, then you will be ready for somebody to take a look at it. So basically, at that point, it's getting the marketing and promotions. That's pretty much it, being able to get yourself into the radio, being able to get your streams up, being able to become visible to the masses.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
My values are basically keeping everything authentic, definitely original, and keeping it interesting and engaging. I'm an engaging type of artist. I also like to stay on trend as well. For example, I like a lot of hip-hop, but I don't like all the cussing and all that kind of thing. So I will write hip-hop, but I won't curse in my songs. I'll give you the same beat, I'll give you the same feeling, I'll give you the same what we expect from hip-hop, or what we expect from R&B, what we expect from pop, but I give it to you in a way that you can digest it and in a way you can not only sing along with it, but also your children, if you've got children in the car, they can sing along with it as well.
