Wrike For Creatives: How a Music Producer Gets Things Done

We talk a lot on the Wrike blog about businesses needing tools to get their act together. But it's not just construction companies, software development teams, and marketing agencies that have to organize their work to be efficient. There is also a large community of creatives using online project management software to coordinate their projects. Check this out:

We didn't have to look far to find examples. One of our customers, entrepreneur and celebrity Redfoo, uses Wrike to run both his clothing line and his record label. And he says: “I couldn’t imagine running a business without Wrike.”

I couldn’t imagine running a business without Wrike. —Redfoo, CEO of Party Rock Records and LaFreak Clothing Label

Then we have our very own Charles L. Coleman II, Enterprise Sales Executive, who helps bring Wrike to larger organizations by day. By night, he runs The ABiatorz Music Group (AMG), a boutique music production company that creates and releases music for placement with artists, record labels, and advertising opportunities.

AMG utilized Wrike in its collaboration with two-time Grammy-award-winning producer Focus and Creative Consultant Amilcar "PRO" Welton of CREATE.Digital Music, which is reflected in the video above. Take a look at another video by The ABiatorz Music Group. It was a placement with the Golden State Warriors during their 2015 NBA Championship run, and it involved Coleman collaborating with Hip-Hop artist, Rich Cole and Amilcar "PRO" Welton once again. The song and video for "Dub Nation (Locked n' Loaded)" was used promotionally across all of the Warriors online platforms.

With a demanding day job, a thriving music business, and a growing family, Coleman's time is extremely precious. But he makes it work — and his secret to making the most of his limited time is Wrike.

"Time is everything," says Coleman. "You don't have a lot of time as a father, a worker, a musician. So I use Wrike to help me plan out my time efficiently. I use it to manage my family vacations, my sales work at Wrike, and as a tool to make my music business more effective. Anything that needs to be executed, I do it in Wrike."

Wrike as a Planning & Collaboration Tool for Recording

One way Coleman uses Wrike for creative work is for planning out studio time. When you're paying by the hour to use a recording studio, you want every minute to count.

"I use Wrike to plan out all my studio time so that it's most efficient," says Coleman. "I think about the entire recording session before I go in, lay it out in Wrike, then execute when I'm there."

"I use Wrike to plan out all my studio time so that it's most efficient." —Charles L. Coleman II, Music Producer

This means using Wrike tasks as checklists for every song. He inputs to-do items for specific musical parts, or attaches ideas (i.e. other songs) as pegs for how the final track should sound.

This also means Coleman creates tasks for session musicians who will be playing on the track. Bringing them in as collaborators within Wrike allows him to share working versions of the music with them as well as get their feedback without having to email music files back and forth.

Wrike as a Music Catalog Tool

Another way Coleman uses Wrike is as a music cataloging tool or "library", that helps him document and quickly find all the music he's created and released, as well as what stage each is in.

"In my Wrike instance, I have custom fields for every track I make," says Coleman. "This way I can document collaborators (any additional musicians who played on a track), samples I may have used, placement (whether the track has been placed and where), target artist (e.g. "Beyonce" or "Drake"), instruments played (if any live instruments were used).

"This also allows me to easily pull reports on what music I have available for placement and quickly find songs via the information in my custom fields. It becomes easier to submit tracks to ASCAP or to get copyrights on the music when you have all your paperwork readily available.

"I can also judge efficiency. I can quickly answer questions such as: How many songs did I create last year? How many did I place? Do I need to be creating more? Did we spend too much on musicians last year?"

I can quickly answer questions such as... Did we spend too much on musicians last year? —Charles L. Coleman II, Music Producer

From Paper Notebooks to Online Project Management Software

"Before using Wrike to manage my business, to be honest, I used a production notebook," Coleman shares. "I used to take notes using pen and paper. In fact, I have about four or five old notebooks at home. And it was a PAIN to find things in them. Or even to prepare the paperwork you need to submit music for placement."

Now, there's no looking back for Coleman and The ABiatorz Music Group.

"These days, my wife and I are able to manage the music production business easily using Wrike. Because of Wrike's tool, I was able to move my music production forward and get more placements. I also was able to move my job forward and get promoted, and even used Wrike to manage work and close out end-of-year business while traveling during the holidays with my family.

"Wrike is both a business and personal tool. It allows me to keep things in their respective buckets, and yet have only to deal with one portal for all that work. It has helped me make improvements in my workflow that save me my most precious resource: time."