Someone's Daughter

30. something to wrap your noose around

Taylor stalled, biting her lip, then nodded.

"Why did you have to get permission for the documentary? I thought you were like the CEO?"

She covered her mouth to halt a laugh. "There's a lot of people involved in those decisions."

"But aren't they working for you?"

"Yes and no. I own the company, I'm the CEO, but we have contractors and legal entities to deal with. "Taylor glanced between Caroline and her computer screen, tempted to deflect her back to the class, but the longer she talked, the longer Kennedy might stay on the phone.

"How much detail do you want?"

Caroline raised an eyebrow at her, wondering if that was rhetorical.

"They can't make me do something I don't want to, at least not anymore. So in that way, I'm fully in charge of the product."
She stole a spiral notebook off the desk and ripped out a clean page, drawing a circle and writing something underneath it.

Caroline held her breath, watching the loopy handwriting scribe Taylor more legibly than she'd ever seen.

"But I like a flat power structure. We're like a board, four groups working together."

She split the circle into quarters with three lines off of each quarter, pointing to the one right of her name. "Any time we do anything, make anything, it's going to cost money to make it and promote it, so we need someone in charge of finances and assets: Jay Shaudies. Then we need someone in charge of how it gets promoted and managing the reception and, like, public discourse: Tree. We need someone who ensures it's up to snuff for the fans, who can brainstorm how we interact with them: Allison."

She moved up to the top right quarter, lips quirking to the side at Caroline's glimmering expression.

"Everything we make is in partnership with a label, so there's one representative from UMG and one from Republic Records. And after that, we need to make sure what we're doing doesn't violate contracts, so there's in-house legal counsel that coordinates with them."

She moved to the third quarter.

"Then, of course, our copyright lawyers, Bri and Jessica, and a product manager. Those three are in charge of categorizing lyrics, merch, catchphrases, literally anything that anyone could be like 'that was mine first,' they catch it before that happens."

Caroline nodded along. Kennedy was still talking to Andrea. This was working spectacularly in her favor.

"And lastly, we have industry research and management, which is Frank Bell and Robert Allen. Oh! And if it's a tour or a video shoot, an event, a merch line, anything like that, we have managers specifically for that project who have their sub-teams that refer back to the 13 for whatever they need."

"So tell me what you think. Why did I need permission?"

Taylor passed the paper to Caroline like it was a study guide and watched her eyes dart back and forth, making a list in her head. This felt reminiscent of the dinner table games her parents used to run her and Austin through.

"You filmed it yourself, but in a foreign country, that's lawyer one. It's an album you're licensing back to UMG and Republic, so the reps and lawyer two. It would help if you had finance and PR and copyright because it's going on TV, and fan relations because always. So that's the right side. On the left, you need basically everyone, plus a team to put the film together and someone to manage that team?"

Taylor nudged her side, "Clever girl."

Caroline beamed under the praise, and Taylor side-eyed her sister. "There's only one thing that I do by myself."