Entrepreneur Series – Interview with Mark Brown

June 27, 2018

This month we interview Mark Brown, founder and CEO of CR2 Records, who has had 15 hugely successful years in the music industry.

Questions

  1. What motivated you to start CR2 Records?

I was made redundant from a record company so I had a choice to either get a normal job or set up my own business. Music was all that I knew, it was my passion and where my experience was so thought I would take the leap and set up my own label. Initially that was from my bedroom in my house for the first few years!

 

  1. What has been the hardest barrier to overcome whilst setting up CR2 Records?

The constant ever changing landscape of the music industry there are always new formats being introduced. When I first set the company up, I only had physical formats, CD’s and vinyl and now we are in a digital and streaming era which has moved on two formats in the past two years so being able to adapt to the ever-changing market place has been a hard barrier to overcome. As an independent company, it’s a lot easier for us as we don’t have to go through hundreds of people to make decisions, I can just make them myself and take initiative immediately.

Has the increase in streaming and downloading content been an issue for the business?

Not at all, we’ve embraced all the formats that we started with to make sure they’re appropriate for the market place so it was a case of migrating people across – a lot of the music we produce is DJ led music for nightclubs and entertainment so there’s always going to be a demand for that type of music as people are always going to go out.

 

  1. Where do you see the business going in the next 3-5 years?

The company is naturally evolving to the demands of the market. We have an education division now where we manufacturer musical sounds and create electronic music, hip hop music, all kinds really, the only area we aren’t operating in is classical base which is something we are looking into at the moment. Streaming is becoming a major part of the music industry now and we have a catalog which allows us to have a solid income stream which keeps building subscribers with the likes of Apple Music, Spotify, Google and Amazon.

 

  1. What’s been your producing highlight of your career?

I worked with a well-known classical music artist to produce music for an advert on for Lloyds Bank which actually turned out to be their most successful television advertising campaign ever.

 

  1. Do you ever get nervous when you broadcasting to your weekly Cr2 Live & Direct Radio Show?

No – I don’t really get nervous anymore! We are broadcasting in 87 countries now internationally with an estimated audience of over 10 million so I am used to it nowadays.

 

  1. What time does your alarm go off and how do you prepare yourself for the day?

I am a very big morning person – believe it or not considering I work in the nightclub industry! I’ll get up around 7:30am, go to the gym before work and I’ll go into the around 11 o’clock after I’ve made some calls. I am not a regulated person when it comes to sitting at a desk as I’m a creative person so being restricted in that environment is not good for me! I’m like a butterfly really floating around everywhere ?.

 

  1. What skill or ability do you think has most helped you to scale?

My business and musical knowledge combined with social skills. I try to do things slightly alternatively and not in a regimented way. The team I have around me is strong and we self-motivate each other, the little things like having an open plan office with everyone sitting together from Interns to GM’s really helps to encourage communication within the group and is very important. This allows us to be a strong team and make decisions that everyone in the group acknowledged. Another thing that has helped me to scale is from travelling the world from a very young age, 17/18 years old and having my own company by the age of 26 allowed me to be very culturally aware. It enabled me to engage with international contacts which I wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t travelled and gained those experiences.

 

  1. If you could go back ten years and give yourself one piece of advice, what it be?

I would say Life Balance – it is only now being in my 40’s that I have learnt to switch off and realise that for me working 5 hours intensely is more productive than working 12 hours.

 

  1. What piece of technology couldn’t you personally live without, and why?

My apple air pods! I get so bored of answering my phone and they make it so much convenient!

 

Quick Fire:

  1. Name 1 person, past or present from the music industry you would like to have dinner with? Royal Wedding cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason
  2. What is one of the things you would put on your “bucket” list? I’d like to open a school for underprivileged children to teach them how to make music – I have done workshops before but would love to have a Mark Brown school.
quote marks icon

Testimonials