Students find space in music industry with Cosmic Entertainment
Courtesy of DMITRY KOSHUTIN
A still from Cosmic Music’s new music video, “˜10,000 Years’ by Tangent Transmission. UCLA students Karen Oliveros and Robyn Ong are co-founders of Cosmic Entertainment, a music management company, the name for which was inspired by Tangent Transmission, the group’s first and ““ so far ““ only client.
By marjorie yan
Jan. 10, 2012 12:48 a.m.
When Robyn Ong and Karen Oliveros met, they both shared an interest in working in entertainment and business marketing. Ong, a fourth-year sociology student, and Oliveros, a fourth-year English literature student and Daily Bruin advertising account executive, put their passion for working in the industry together and formed their own music management company, Cosmic Entertainment.
The name of their company stems from their first ““ and so far only ““ client, local Los Angeles band Tangent Transmission.
“We describe (the band’s) music as being spacey and being from space,” Ong said. “When thinking of a name, we wanted to incorporate the idea of out of the ordinary and something new you haven’t explored yet.”
While the duo knew Tangent Transmission members before their company was established, the music management company’s objective is to help bands book shows, get albums made and serve as publicity .
“As we worked with (the band) before we started Cosmic, we decided it was something we really liked doing, and we just decided to start a business,” Ong said. “Karen is interning, … and I mostly learned from experience. I’ve been going to concerts since I was really young and basically networked my way into the industry.”
Cosmic Entertainment recently wrapped up shooting its first music video, “10,000 Years” by Tangent Transmission. The production crew consisted of managers Oliveros and Ong, cinematographer and UCLA film alumnus Dmitry Koshutin and extras that included UCLA students and local fans.
“Over the summer, we planned on doing it, but it got pushed back to close to New Years,” Koshutin said. “I absolutely loved working with (the band). They were easy going and had all these ideas, so they were contributing a lot to the design and the look of it.”
Koshutin met the band, Ong and Oliveros through mutual friends at UCLA.
“We never talked about working together professionally before then,” Koshutin said. “This was the first time. … They’re starting to play more shows, and they wanted to get some content out so we built our relationship as friends.”
Dugan Cruz, singer, guitarist and pianist of Tangent Transmission, said he was impressed to see Ong and Oliveros work so hard as their management team while they were both full-time students at UCLA.
“Their tenacity as a duo is really cool, and their creativity is amazing,” Cruz said. “A lot of what we’ve been able to do has come from throwing out random ideas and having the follow through to see if they work well or not. … They’re super passionate about the projects as much as we are. They care, and it shows.”
“10,000 Years” was filmed at Cruz’s home in Van Nuys, Calif., where the band emptied out an entire room and filled it with Ikea mirrors and people dressed in cocktail attire.
According to Ong, while Cosmic Entertainment is still in its initial stages, there has been talk of working with friend and fourth-year communications studies student Leah Titus to create a film component of the company.
“At some point, we want to incorporate another friend of ours who … wants to do a film entertainment scheme, like Cosmic Films Management, but we’re focusing on Cosmic Music right now,” Ong said. “The next step is to solidify our name for the industry.”
