
Addressing the packed Berk Recital Hall on campus last month, music industry giant Robert Kraft seemed astonished to find himself looking back on his career with the rest of us. In conversation with Don Gorder, chair of the Music Business/Management Department, Kraft discussed his beginnings as a songwriter and bookseller living in New York City, and how a series of unexpected early career opportunities (record deals) and misfortunes (label failures) led him, eventually, to first writing music for television, then scoring films, then producing and supervising music, and eventually to his long career as president of Fox Music, where he worked until 2012. He went on to found the production, management, and media consulting company Kraftbox Entertainment in 2013.
Whats It Take to Succeed in the Music Business?
Berklees Music Business/Management Department prepares graduates for long-term careers in the industry.
Kraft explained how he would try to to get in the way of opportunity through personal tenacity and an openness to saying yes first and then figuring out how to get the job done once the pressure was on. He discussed what makes a great soundtrack (it's simple: a hit, like Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On from Titanic, which Kraft oversaw during his time at Fox Music). And he stressed the important but often overlooked role self-care plays in a creative profession. I eat right, I try to sleep, I exercise-I do all of those things for one simple reason: this is an athletic endeavor, being an artist and a musician; you've got to be together, because if you want a long career you've really got to lay in for it.
Kraft also answered student questions about how he dealt with competition in the music industry- comparison is the thief of joy, he said, quoting Theodore Roosevelt-and how to be an effective, assertive leader even if it means nobody's going to like you all the time.
Below is an edited selection of takeaways from Kraft's remarks.
On Deciding at a Young Age to Become a Songwriter: Just making a very specific choice of a destination, in retrospect, was very helpful, because not unlike I'm sure a lot of people here, I like a lot of things-I like movies, and I like writing songs, and I like canoeing but I decided to focus on one thing, and it really helped me to just say, That's who I am and what I do,' because it actually turned out to be the wedge into every other field.
On Career Endings and Beginnings: My career continues to keep ending...Careers, when you're an artist...are always just about to end Because we've all decided in this room to take a risk with our careers. I had roommates that went to business school and law school, and they have a kind of lane ahead of them. I don't have a lane ahead of me; I make the lane.
On Learning to Manage a Film Budget: It didn't occur to me that movies had budgets before I started at Fox. I thought you just do what you do, you express yourself-and they pay for it.
On the Commonality between All the Roles He's Held: In the center of this wheel with all these spokes-all of which are surprising to me as well-is music There's nothing I love more than a funky beat.
Related categories:
News
Related Reading
From Berklee to Nashville with Chad Michael Jervis Chad Michael Jervis 18 followed a Career Jam opportunity that led him to King Calaway, a new country band already making noise in Nashville.
Breaking a Sound Barrier with Captain Marvel Berklee Today
Spring
2019
Volume
30
Number
3
Composing Berklee's Story Berklee Today
Spring
2019
Volume
30
Number
3
More from Berklee Now
Most Popular
Berklee Alumni and Faculty Nominated for Grammy Awards 28 Berklee alumni and two faculty members were nominated for Grammys across 17 categories.
Latest
Ricky Duran Lights Up the Semifinals on The Voice The Massachusetts native and Berklee alumnus will sing in the show's finale next week.
Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra Performance Spans Countries, Cultures, and History Inspired by an iconic John F. Kennedy quote, the BCSO selected each piece to be written by a composer from a different country, embarking on a global musical journey.
Former Fox Music President Robert Kraft Makes His Own Lane The longtime film music executive offered advice to Berklee students on withstanding the constant changes of a life in the industry.
Read All
Subscribe The latest sounds, stories, and ideas, sent to your inbox weekly.
Berklee Blogs
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
Snapchat
Soundcloud
Spotify
North America Stories
14/07/2025
The Royal Moroccan Air Force hosted a C-130 award ceremony with L3Harris Technologies President of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Jason Lambert a...
14/07/2025
UK launch set for September, following on from recent US and Germany releases
London - UK, July 14, 2025 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, da...
14/07/2025
SHENZHEN, China Telycam has added control options for its portfolio of pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras with a new plug-in for Elgato's Stream Deck family of con...
14/07/2025
The awards are open to IBC2025 show exhibitors and offer a valuable platform for companies to raise awareness for the new products and solutions they will be la...
14/07/2025
Clear-Com is excited to announce a significant expansion of the award-winning Arcadia Central Station with new software updates. Together, these releases dram...
14/07/2025
Grass Valley and Daktronics today announced a strategic technology partnership that unites Grass Valley's live production expertise with Daktronics' lea...
14/07/2025
Cloud playout solutions provider, Veset, and swXtch.io, provider of cloud-based multicast and reliable networking solutions, are partnering to deliver multicast...
14/07/2025
Tintri , a DDN subsidiary and leader in AI-powered data management solutions, today announces a game-changing and award-winning refresh to its global Partner P...
14/07/2025
HighField AI, the broadcast industry's first agentic and multimodal AI platform for automating graphics production, is now commercially available. Developed...
14/07/2025
Encompass Digital Media has today announced that it has been delivering a complex global services project for DAZN, the world s leading sports entertainment pla...
14/07/2025
MASV (massive.io), the fastest, most reliable large file transfer platform trusted by over 10,000 global organizations, announced today it will showcase its nex...
14/07/2025
Calrec is introducing a series of usability, customisation and system enhancements across the entire range of Argo consoles at IBC 2025, on Stand 8.C47. Look ou...
14/07/2025
Fincons Group, IT business consultancy and systems integrator company with more than 40 years of experience in the market, is proud to announce a new engagement...
14/07/2025
Stand 5.F45, IBC2025, Amsterdam, 12 15 September 2025 Intinor returns to IBC to present the latest updates to its Direkt series. A key development on show is ...
14/07/2025
Sony's New Coach's Headset Was Designed in Collaboration With the NFL Featuring a custom dynamic boom mic, the headset will debut in the fall By Dan Da...
14/07/2025
Live From MLB All-Star 2025: MLB Network's Marc Caiafa and Tom Guidice on th...
14/07/2025
Back to All News
Netflix ISP Speed Index for June 2025
Product
14 July 2025
Global
Link copied to clipboard
One percent of Internet Service Providers (ISP...
14/07/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Begins Filming The Map of Longing With Al cia Falc , P...
14/07/2025
This July marks 100 days since I officially stepped into the role of CEO at Grass Valley, a milestone not of abrupt change, but of confident continuity.
Unlike...
13/07/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Expands B&B Universe' with Yu Jae Seok's B&B ...
13/07/2025
Live From MLB All-Star 2025: MLB Network Marks Five Straight Years of Onsite MLB...
12/07/2025
Ryan Coogler accepting the 2013 Vanguard Award. Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez.
Editor's Note: In honor of Fruitvale Station s 12th anniversary, we're d...
12/07/2025
Key Code Education, the professional training division of Key Code Media, proudly announces a major update to its Adobe Premiere Pro Engineering and Advanced Op...
12/07/2025
Key Code Education, a leader in instructor-led post production training for over...
12/07/2025
As the death toll continues to mount, with at least 120 killed and more than 170 people still missing on July 10 from devastating Texas floods, a number of broa...
12/07/2025
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., and MIAMI -DirecTV and TelevisaUnivision have signed a deal that will make the ad-supported premium subscription tier of ViX, ViX Premium wi...
11/07/2025
PARK CITY, UTAH, July 11, 2025 - The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the 11 producers chosen for its annual Producers Labs, returning to Ucross Fou...
11/07/2025
L3Harris Technologies President of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Jason Lambert and General Manager of L3Harris Waco facility Sean Ling held a ce...
11/07/2025
ARLINGTON, Va. WETA, the flagship public media station in the national capital area, has launched WETA+, a new streaming service tailored for the local Washingt...
11/07/2025
The Federal Communications Commission has emerged as one of the central players in the broadcast TV landscape in 2025, with its deregulatory policies sparking h...
11/07/2025
Calrec will introduce usability, customization and system enhancements across its entire range of Argo consoles during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Amsterda...
11/07/2025
LONDON Encompass Digital Media said it will support live and on-demand viewing of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup across multiple global regions for sports enterta...
11/07/2025
Two-thirds of broadcast engineers reaped the benefits of a pay raise within the last year....
11/07/2025
CARY, N.C. SmallHD has launched the Quantum 27, a new 26.5-inch Quantum-Dot OLED monitor designed to deliver postproduction image quality in a compact, set-frie...
11/07/2025
The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau and Tegna have entered into a consent decree that will settle an investigation into the accidenta...
11/07/2025
WASHINGTON Following news in early July that Paramount had settled President Donald Trump's lawsuit, Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Ben Ray Luj n (D-N...
11/07/2025
Model/Actriz Performs Lead Single Cinderella on The Late Show with Stephen Colbe...
11/07/2025
Behind the Mic: Amazon Prime Preps for First Season of NBA Action; MSG Networks ...
11/07/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Suite Studios' Craig Hering on Adapting to Client...
11/07/2025
2025 SVG Content Management Forum Breaks Down AI's Impact, Continued Transit...
11/07/2025
A Journey HOME: University of Nebraska's HuskerVision Goes IP Leaders from the HuskerVision and Lawo share their IP learnings By SVG Staff
Friday, July 1...
11/07/2025
CMSI, Remote Picture Labs, Ace ESPN's Cloud-Based Editing Efforts for Wimble...
11/07/2025
Netflix Enters the Live-Boxing-Production Ring for Round 2 With Historic Taylor-...
11/07/2025
Back to All News
Too Hot to Handle: Italy Is Coming on July 18 Only on Netflix
Entertainment
11 July 2025
GlobalItaly
Link copied to clipboard
July 11, 20...
11/07/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Will Release Death Inc. Seasons 1, 2 and 3
Entertainment
11 July 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Season 1
Season 2
Se...
11/07/2025
Ceramics - the humble mix of earth, fire and artistry - have been part of a global conversation for millennia.
From Tang Dynasty trade routes to Renaissance pa...
10/07/2025
NEW YORK - July 10, 2025 - Nielsen, the global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, today announced that it appointed Richard Pacheco as head of ...
10/07/2025
Local newscasts don't exist in a vacuum. News directors and station management constantly evaluate what's working, what isn't and perhaps most impor...
10/07/2025
Lawo has announced that Stuttgart Media University (Hochschule der Medien, HdM) has comprehensively modernized its central recording studio after selecting an I...
10/07/2025
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) has opened early-bird registration for the Media Technology Summit, which will take place in a ne...