With offices and employees spread across the globe, sometimes it takes time to get to know everyone. In our series ‘What The #&@$ Do You Do?!’ (WTFDYD), The Orchard highlights Orchardites from all over the world to learn more about their role at The Orchard and experience working in the music industry.
Priya, tell us about what the #&@$ you do!
I am the VP of South Korea and Southeast Asia, which includes Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. I am based in Singapore but also manage our teams in Seoul, Manila, and Ho Chi Minh City. My job involves signing new catalogs from across the region, managing relationships with our priority clients from across my markets, finding new business opportunities such as new deals with local DSPs, helping to promote our global catalogue in our markets and working closely with our SME colleagues in each market to build further opportunities.
How does your role / department fit into The Orchard?
I work very closely with the other Asia-Pacific markets, like our teams in Australia / New Zealand, Greater China, India, MENA, and Japan to see how we can support each other’s releases. I also work closely with our teams based in New York who support our priority artists from Asia like BTS, ITZY, GOT7, Kiana Valenciano, Inigo Pascal, DPR Live, and others. Thanks to BTS and other Asian priorities I get to work with a lot of our global colleagues, which is awesome!
What’s your favorite part of your job?
A big part of what I was hoping to do by moving back to Singapore was to help Asian artists reach a global audience. Through The Orchard I am actually able to do that, which is definitely my favorite part of the job.
What’s a campaign/project you are proud to have worked on?
This latest BTS global campaign for ‘Dynamite‘! We worked so well as a company globally and with Columbia and BigHit – we actually achieved our target of #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks in a row! Not to mention all the incredible support we received globally allowing them to exceed or debut on charts all over the world.
How did you first get started in the music industry?
I started as a radio DJ at WTBU at Boston University where I started interviewing local and touring artists and throwing mini festivals. The start of my professional career came when I did a semester abroad in London and landed an internship at Warp Records that changed my life. After graduating from college I worked at Warp as an Office Administrator under the great guidance of Simon Halliday. A few years later he left to run 4AD and had me promoted to Label Manager of Warp, which provided some of the most exciting learning moments of my life.
What advice do you have for independent artists / those who want to break into the industry?
Take some time to learn more about the industry. It is super important that anybody wanting to work in the music industry, including artists, have basic knowledge about how the industry works. Learn about the basic roles, fees, the functions of a label, manager, publishers, distributors, etc. From there, build a great team of those people if you’re an artist or find the best of those people to work for if you want to break into the industry.
What artist have you been listening to on repeat lately?
My go-to playlist on Spotify currently is ‘K-Hip-Hop +82.’ They feature artists like BLOO, Jessi, ZICO and nafla.
What’s your favorite thing about working at The Orchard?
The people!! I really think we have the best people working here across the board. It is great to work in such a collaborative and open environment. It is also so great to work with people from all over the world and seeing colleagues while on holiday!
Favorite tradition at The Orchard?
I love the “In her/his own words” introductions to new members of the team. It is such a great way to “meet” colleagues in other markets and a real embodiment of the family vibe here.
How do you discover new music?
A lot through the work we do at The Orchard! Artists we are working with, artists I am trying to work with, global priorities, playlists – there is so much good stuff out there!
What’s something you’ve learned outside of work that helps you to be your best self at work?
I love reading about high performance and growth. I do a lot of personal development work that has helped me learn how to prioritize and schedule myself, so I can get more done, as well as build patience, clarity and communication skills to help me be a better team player. Happy to share some of my favorites with anybody!
