By Jake Poinier
When you buy tickets to see your favorite band in concert, you expect an epic show. And that doesn’t happen by accident. Like any professional pursuit at the highest levels, the band’s two-hour performance is dwarfed by the time they spend preparing for a tour.
Wynnsan Moore, president of L.A.-based Third Encore Studios, likens the process to baseball spring training.
“You can’t put a pitcher out there and say, OK, go throw nine innings,” he says. “He needs to go through the three- or four-week process of building muscle memory. It’s the same when you see the Rolling Stones up there doing 28 songs, and Mick Jagger bouncing around at 79 years old. It took a lot of work to get there.”
Building in stages
Moore’s pointed insight comes from years of experience—namely running Third Encore, a family-owned and operated rehearsal studio in north Hollywood, a stone’s throw from the Hollywood Burbank Airport.
The business launched in 1988 as a single rehearsal studio established by two road managers from the Eagles and went through several ownership changes in the ’90s. Moore—with a background as a CPA, serial entrepreneur, and real estate investor—purchased the company in 1999. The original facility included about 30,000 square feet, with three rehearsal stages and a handful of storage lockers.
Moore saw far greater potential for the concept of serving touring and recording artists in the bustling L.A. music scene. So he and his real estate partner began buying small industrial buildings and converting them to music studios known as lockouts, which developing artists and bands could rent like apartments, and access 24/7.
In subsequent years they also expanded the main studio business, which features larger stages ranging from 500 to 2,400 square feet. Third Encore now own eight buildings in the San Fernando Valley and one in Anaheim, with 265 lockout studios and seven fully equipped main studios with 70,000 square feet of total space.
Riffing on success
Moore’s son Alex joined Third Encore as vice president and part owner a year and half ago and like his father brings a background in accounting and real estate investing to the business. Focusing on the operations side of the business (while Wynnsan concentrates on financial management) also enabled Alex to develop fresh ideas to build further on the company’s reputation in the music industry.
One of the opportunities was to significantly increase their equipment rentals, known as backline, with new and vintage instruments, DJ setups, and in-ear systems.
“Before, artists would call competitors or we would sub-rent equipment to them from one of our partners,” Alex says. “Not only have rentals improved our revenue, but we’re also providing a better, more full-service business and saving the artists money.”
Alex also broadened the company’s mindset on the digital side of marketing and promotion, from improving the website to creating Google ads.
“Word of mouth was always my dad’s message, and we didn’t want to be a target for fans to show up,” he says. “But in today’s day and age, if people want to find you, they’re going to.”
Paving the way
If anything, Alex wishes he’d been involved in the business sooner.
“Honestly, I think my dad postponed way too long,” he says. “But I had a really good foundation. He guided me through my career, and we’ve been talking about Third Encore for a long time. There was a lot of growth available, but no one to really capture and take advantage of it.”
Enjoying the combination of mentoring and learning, along with a booming business, the elder Moore doesn’t see himself retiring anytime soon. And he is learning about the nuances of running a family business.
“Alex and I get along really well, and we spend a lot of time outside of business,” Moore says. “It can be hard to take off your ‘dad’ hat and put on your ‘business partner’ hat, and his risk tolerance is very high and mine is somewhat lower, so we have to negotiate. There’s mutual respect for each other’s skill sets, and because we both have a financial orientation, it’s easy for us to communicate ideas to each other.”
Artists’ retreat
Third Encore’s main studio business runs the gamut of the music world, from legendary rock bands such as the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, and the Doobie Brothers to pop star Billie Eilish and a variety of hip-hop artists.
“At any point in time, we could have all seven of our studios filled with the most prominent names in the industry,” Moore says. “And it’s exciting because we also see developing artists, so it’s both sides of the market.”
Artists and bands come into a Third Encore studio space for anywhere from five days to three months to rehearse for a tour or a show in a soundstage environment that replicates what they’ll encounter on the road. How long a band camps out depends on what their needs are, how long it’s been since they last toured, and changes in the lineup.
“It’s more complicated than people realize,” Moore says. “Most of the artists are perfectionists—they don’t want to rest on their laurels and play the same songs the same way.”
This content was originally pubished in our award-winning magazine In Your Corner. See Issue 13 here: In Your Corner Magazine | Spring 2023