Welcome back to our “Pass the Mic” Q&A series, where we give some of the best music-business journalists a place to tell their own stories. In this installment (Our first as a video), we focus on Ritch Esra, Co-Founder of MUBUTV, Editor of SCORE, and music business educator. 

Ritch Esra has a storied career in the music industry, starting in 1978 at Record World, eventually making his way to A&M Records in 1980, where he worked in radio promotion. During his time there, he made his way into A&R at Arista Records, where he worked with the legendary Clive Davis until 1987. 

In 1986, Ritch began teaching the music business in various programs including the Trebas Institute of Recording Arts, UCLA Extension, SAE (School for Audio Engineering) and Musicians Institute. 

In 1992, he started the Music Business Registry with Stephen Trumbill, where they publish the music industries leading contact directories for personnel in A&R, Music Publishing, Film/Television Music, Music Law and Artist Management.

In 2012, Ritch and Eric Knight founded MUBUTV, a music business video series that blends his passion for music as well as educating artists and others who have a strong curiosity about music, technology and the new emerging models within the business. 

So how did he get to where he is today? Who was his favorite interview? What are his thoughts on AI? Learn all that and more in our full interview below. 

(Editors note: we originally intended for this interview to be a written transcription of our conversation, but after having our call we determined it would not do Ritch Esra’s answers justice. Plus, enjoy multiple cameos of Zach’s cat, Pumpkin throughout the interview!)