Maryland Music Business Society hosts Sean Peoples, founder of Socket Records

The Maryland Music Business Society Tuesday hosted music management entrepreneur Sean Peoples.  

Peoples spoke on a range of topics, from picking bands to represent to the stress of managing a double life. He said the combination of his day job with spending every other moment developing his record label has caused some hair loss.

Peoples began his independent record label, Socket Records, in 2004, and now manages 17 bands. He said his two most successful bands have been The Cornell West Theory and The Fly Girlz.

The Cornell West Theory, according to the Sockets Records Web site, bases its music on the "prolific writings and philosophies" of Princeton professor Cornell West. The Fly Girlz are six 12- to 14-year-olds who came together during a New York City afterschool program.

University of Maryland senior Larisha Warner came to Peoples' talk because she eventually wants to have her own label, too. The amount of work Peoples said he put into his label struck Warner.

Playing it out in her head, Warner said: "I have to have this job but still want to live this dream," holding her hands out.

Sophomore graphic design major John Lee came to the talk from a different angle. He records his own music and learned from Peoples the smaller details about how to approach a label as a musician.

Peoples described his process in choosing bands as "serendipitous." Because of his lack of free time he doesn't actively seek out bands nor can he keep up with the two to three demos he receives a week.  Usually, the bands he finds are opening for other bigger bands.

From there, he evaluates the bands based on their ability to perform live and the following they may or may not have.

Being a perfectionist when it comes to his music, Lee didn't feel ready to pitch to Peoples.