If it has to do with music and the theater, Sean Flahaven has done it.

He played, he arranged, he wrote . . . and he used that mastery as a way into the business side of music, working for many different companies in many different areas, from music publishing to cast recordings, and licensing.

And now, he’s taking all that expertise and bringing it under one roof . . . the newly formed The Musical Company, which is the newest licensing company on the block (handling all of the Andrew Lloyd Webber catalog for starters), but will also rep authors in publishing, and will also produce cast albums.

It’s rare that one company does all these different things, but if there’s one guy that can do it, it’s SPF.

Sean sat down and chatted with me about how he found his way from trombone player to CEO, as well as . . .

•  How working in politics helped him start a conversation with Stephen Sondheim.
• Why he felt an MFA was important to his future career.
• What all musical theater writers, from the big stars, to the unknowns, have in common.
• The challenge behind producing cast albums and what can be done about it.
• Why getting your show licensed is essential and tips on how to make it happen.

Too often we focus on what happens on Broadway . . . because it’s the sexiest part of what we do.  But downstream revenue (licensing, cast albums, etc.) are such an important part of our business model.  We’re lucky to have guys like Sean looking out for Producers and Authors . . . so we can focus on our next Broadway show.

Enjoy the podcast!

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Sorry about the sound issues in this podcast. We found the bug and fixed it in later episodes. It gets better, I promise 🙂