Welcome to The Manager’s Playbook, my personal newsletter where I share insights from Music Executives and Artists for aspiring and emerging music managers, executives and artists on how to navigate the music industry. This newsletter is brought to you by Mauricio Ruiz.

Ruiz’s Note:

Azad Naficy is my dog.

There is no other way to put it. This guy is a dog in every sense of the word. When it comes to the business of music, he gets after it. He’s been getting after it for as long as I’ve known him.

I have known Azad for almost ten years. I literally slept in the spare bedroom of his apartment for months early on in my management career. I watched him work his way through Mind of a Genius, build Emotional Oranges (very low key as this fucking guy didn’t tell me he was in the group for the first year! LOL), create Avant Garden Records, take that into the major system and then take it independent, and then build Peace of Mind Studios into the juggernaut that it is today.

I have had the front-row seat. None of it was gifted. None of it came easy. He just kept locking in and building.

I have seen him and Brittany Crawford accomplish things most artists only dream about. I have watched him partner with Vali to turn Emotional Oranges into a very successful act with real catalogue, real community, and Coachella on the resume. All of this comes from the vision he carries. It’s wild to see what he has been able to create from nothing.

Azad has rare taste. He understands branding, aesthetics, tone, and world building at a level most people in this business never get to. He can think like an artist and act like an executive. He knows how to build for himself and he knows how to build for others. That combination is not common.

So having him on the latest episode of The Manager’s Playbook Podcast felt like a full circle moment for us. He knows what I’ve been through. He’s seen the inception of this platform. So, in all honesty, it is a full circle moment with someone in the business who I also actually consider a friend.

We talked shop, cracked jokes, and really broke down what goes into building a business like his. It was honest, it was comfortable, it was fun, and it was a blueprint for anyone who wants to learn what it takes to turn a vision into something real.

-Ruiz

THE MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK PODCAST

(FEAT. Azad Naficy)

Azad Naficy didn’t become one of the sharpest minds in the modern music industry because things came easy to him.

He became who he is because NOTHING did.

A respected music executive, co-founder of Avant Garden Records and Peace of Mind Studios, producer, and one half of the duo Emotional Oranges with the incredibly talented Vali Porter, Azad is the blueprint for artists and entrepreneurs who understand that building something real requires time, taste, team, and 20,000 hours of unglamorous grind.

Not hacks.

Not shortcuts.

Not skipping steps.

And that’s what so many artists and managers get wrong today.

You want the success without the sacrifice.

You want the touring momentum without the touring losses, merch demand without building community. You want impact without iteration.

You want financial independence without financial discipline.
You want streams without systems.

Azad is the opposite of that.

He’s the slow build. The long game.

The brick-by-brick operator who proves that choosing the harder path early creates the stronger foundation later.

Let’s break down why his path matters, and what every artist, manager, and aspiring exec can take away from it.

Azad started as an underdeveloped artist who didn’t understand the business.

He’ll tell you that himself.

He was talented. He could rap. He could write. He had taste.

But he didn’t have development. Not the fake, “we’ll figure it out later” development, but the real stuff:

• Tone

• Creative identity

• Technical skill

• Brand

• Visual direction

• Systems

Most artists try to bypass these steps and jump into the “fun stuff”: shows, playlists, moments, press runs.

Azad did the opposite.

Instead of pushing to get onstage, he sharpened his ear by studying producers. He studied why records worked. Instead of rushing to release, he refined.

He learned how to produce, how to build tone, how to craft direction, and because of that, when Emotional Oranges finally broke through, they had a sound you couldn’t fake and an identity you couldn’t replicate.

Skipping steps gives you speed.
Building steps gives you longevity.

Here’s what very few want to admit in the music industry:

Touring is NOT profitable for most artists, not for a long time.

And merch doesn’t sell unless the fandom is real.

But the only artists who get crushed by touring are the ones who try to scale it before their business is ready.

Azad spent years investing, reinvesting, losing money, and iterating through the Emotional Oranges touring ecosystem.

He’s open about it.

There were tours that went into the red (financially at a loss).There were moments where merch didn’t hit immediately. There were years where the infrastructure cost more than it made.

But that’s what scaling responsibly looks like.

Touring and merch aren’t revenue generators. They’re verticals built on trust, consistency, and patience.

If you don’t build the base, the top will collapse.

Artists (AND managers) want $100k nights before they can even sell 200 tickets consistently. This isn’t a joke btw. This is the delusion of a team that isn’t grounded. They want high-margin merch like they’re running Nike and sell-out drops but haven’t built demand.

Azad, through trial and error, built every vertical in order, not in fantasy:

• Music →

• Brand →

• Community →

• Merch →

• Touring →

• Studio →

• Catalogs →

• Sub-labels →

• Ambient divisions →

• Full ecosystem

No skipped steps.

No illusions.

Just structure.

Burnout Is What Happens When You Scale Faster Than You Grow

You can go six years nonstop like Emotional Oranges did, two bodies of work in a year, nonstop touring, creative pressure, expectations, reinvestment, content cycles, but eventually the cost catches up.

Azad is one of the few execs honest about this.

Burnout isn’t:

• You being weak

• You being “unmotivated”

• You being “over it”

Burnout is the tax you pay when the business scales faster than the humans operating it.

And that’s why EO is taking a breath.

Not quitting.
Not disappearing.
Just recalibrating, because sustainable success is built on longevity, not velocity.

Every artist reading this needs to sit with that.

Many artists think the biggest flex is getting a major label meeting.

Azad thinks the biggest flex is not needing the meeting at all.

He built Peace of Mind Studios the same way he built everything else, slowly, intentionally, and with a clear thesis:

Build the infrastructure before you need the infrastructure.

Most artists complain about being mishandled by majors.
Azad built a system where majors can’t mishandle him because they don’t hold leverage.

Artists want a team before they learn how to be a good partner.
They want a label before they learn how to run their own operation.
They want investment before they learn how to be profitable.

Azad built verticals that became self-sustaining:

• Ambient and lo-fi catalogs

• Publishing pipelines

• Sub-labels

• Studio operations

• Creative services

• Multi-genre development

• Real A&R pathways

And because he built all of this independently, in the right order, guess what?

He can say “no” to deals most people would kill for.

Not out of pride.
Out of clarity.

Azad Naficy is a case study in what happens when you stop chasing shortcuts and start building steps.

His story isn't about anti-major, anti-industry, or anti-deal.
It’s about alignment, taste, and direction.

It’s a reminder that:

• Speed is not the metric.

• Scaling is not the goal.

• Systems beat hype every time.

• Longevity is built in the shadows, not the spotlight.

• Financial freedom comes from structure, not virality.

• Great teams are built, not found.

• Successful artists don’t skip steps, because the steps are the success.

Azad didn’t blow up.
He built up.

And for every artist, manager, and aspiring exec reading this…
that’s the whole game.

Take the stairs bro. It might take some work but it’ll be worth it.

Watch Episode 48 with Azad Naficy LIVE NOW

1:1 CONSULTATIONS WITH RUIZ

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With 16 years in the music business and experience working with some of the biggest artists and executives in the world, I can share insights, strategy and ways to execute the pain points in your career as it currently stands.

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Bio

I’m Mauricio Ruiz, the host and creator of The Manager’s Playbook podcast, dedicated to demystifying the world of music management, and Founder/CEO of 8 Til Faint, an Artist Management company with over 5 billion audio streams worldwide. Our past and current clients include Grammy nominated, Juno Award winning multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Jessie Reyez, Skratch Bastid and more.

I am also the Co-Founder of Mad Ruk Entertainment, a content agency with over 3 billion long form video streams worldwide. Our client list includes The Weeknd, Eminem, and Celine Dion, along with renowned brands like Nike, Pernod Ricard and the NBA.

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