Meet Shan Dan Horan of Outerloop Records

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shan Dan Horan.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Following my graduation from college in Phoenix AZ I moved to Chicago and started interning at a marketing company. It was exciting and I got to work with a ton of super important campaigns including with Barack Obama on his senate campaign, and even with Ben Affleck on his movie “Daredevil”. We landed a huge client (Mcdonalds) and started working on a huge campaign in 100+ languages. I kind of snapped hearing “I’m Lovin’ it” in so many languages and I decided to get back into the music.

Playing in a ton of bands, I kind of just figured out that I was really good at marketing/the business side of the band than actually playing music. Having a degree in Marketing I was just really outside of the box at marketing music and it caught the attention of a few labels. I ended up moving to LA and taking a position at a smaller label ‘Hollywood waste records’ which led to a new position at ‘Century Media Records’ which lead to a new position as President of ‘Artery Recordings’ and it just continued like that. Currently, I’ve worked at/for almost every label out there.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Definitely not, music has it’s highs and lows. At one point you could be absolutely devastated by something like a failure of an album to ecstatic as you collect a gold record for a release some people didn’t believe in.

Or even being the president of a record label as it closes in on a million record sales worldwide, just to have the label acquired by a higher entity resulting in you laying off your entire staff. It’s a wild industry and definitely comes with pits and peaks.

Outerloop Records – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Currently, I am president of Outerloop Records and relocated to my home state of Arizona setting u a division here in the heart of Phoenix. The label specializes in building up developmental artists to a level to break through in the music industry.

Most labels focus on artists that are already bringing in the big bucks so I’m proud that we have never gone that course as a label. Maintaining the support of the little guys we have really gained some great notoriety for our work in the developmental world.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
For me success has never been about money, most people judge someone’s success on the amount of income they bring down. I never really believed in that. Building something from nothing into something massive has always been my definition of success.

Taking an artist that is playing in front of 5 people at a backyard bbq and building them into someone that sells out stadiums, now that is a success story. I would much rather tell someone that story then a story about getting rich off my gravel company (just an example/nothing wrong with that if you have).

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