Courtney Holt: Innovation in Industry

As Executive Vice President of Digital Music & Media at MTV Networks and a former executive at Interscope Records, Courtney Holt has witnessed the changing landscapes in the music and entertainment industries. Behance met up with Holt to discuss his industry, staying innovative and organized, and sources of inspiration.

The core of the music business has and always will be creative energy, the inspiration and raw talent of an artist. However, to find, develop, and deliver creative content to audiences around the world, you need a solid business infrastructure. Lately, this infrastructure has started to change dramatically. As Holt describes it, “I have spent most of my career in the non-core side of businesses whose core has been challenged by the platforms and initiatives that were my domain. This has made for some challenging landscapes…it is up to new thinking and ideas to evolve the business and chart new courses.” On the topic of generating new ideas in the music business, Holt goes on to say, "You can easily spend all of your time fighting to maintain current audiences or build for the new.  Getting legacy thinking around this is a hard challenge, but good ideas are just that and while you can root a good idea in the past, it needs to be fluid in the current landscape."

On the topic of getting new ideas off the ground, Holt grounds his creative process by thinking broadly about the resources he will need. As he explains it, "Typically, I visualize the entire process from conception to completion and figure not just what the idea is, but how it is going to get done and what it will take from cost, resources, time, etc. Once the framework is there, I socialize it. Depending on the concept, it may be teams who will be involved or people whose opinions I trust. This really shapes the final concepts and plans, and then I go back to stage one and finalize the execution plan."

In such a communication-intensive business, Holt has developed a discipline to stay afloat. "Organization isn’t natural to me, but I have adapted practices that allow me to stay focused and on top of my priorities. How I manage email, phone calls, documents, and meetings has evolved over the past 5 years as communication has become more constant and demand for immediate response is common. Typically it helps me to stay as responsive as possible as I’m able to process requests and questions and then put them in a queue based on my ability to execute. I see email as a game of tetris and the higher my stack the worse off I am…"

Holt believes that developing a great team is central to generating new ideas and pushing them forward. As he explains, "I am lucky to have been able to interface with smart, driven people in my professional life and a good idea requires input, sometimes demands it. Most ideas are not simple in nature, and I have managed a number of lengthy projects, some of which required years of collaboration. Much as support for ideas can come from a great team, so can inspiration."

Aside from the inspiration that comes from a great team, Holt is motivated by what he sees (and hears) around him. "I’ve spent most of my career in youth culture and being able to watch, listen, and understand the landscape is a great source of inspiration.  Also, I typically can’t do much without music, I always have it on."

More on Courtney Holt

Boston Globe: Online Music Sharing

IMediaConnection Interview from 2003