The Music Specialist Speaks

THE MUSIC SPECIALIST

One thing has remained constant through out the entertainment industry TIME CHANGES EVERYTHING and everything must change.

When I first choose the record business as a career my job description carried several different levels of sophistication within it. As a record promoter my primary responsibility was to the company I worked for to expose the artist recorded material over the radio to as many potential fans as possible and develop sales. I also had the responsibility to present the music to retail stores, create the displays within the individual stores and ultimately have promotional events that led customers to the accounts. I carried a squeegee, a sponge, a bucket and old newspapers in the trunk of my car. These were used to wash and clean the front window of any store I approached that would allow me to make a display in their front window. It worked almost every time and made me many good friends along the way.

Someone had to go to the clubs and get the DJ's to play the music within the neighborhoods so that it could become popular enough for the artist to travel to that city and get additional work performing. Once again I had to make this happen and relationships at the clubs was critical not only to market and promote, but because the biggest clubs were worked by the radio announcers that had the responsibility of playing the music on-air.

Of course there were NO Black sales people at the labels so after getting the record played on-air, marketing and promoting at the clubs, introducing the new music to the independent store owner and creating a display at the store a White salesman got the commission.

This was the normal procedure for every promotion man & woman that worked Black music in the United States for years.

Things have changed much in the past 40 years, now there are specialists who only work radio consultants to get music on-air. Entire companies have been created to market and promote music both online and off and these companies have no interest in radio or retail accounts. In order to sell your music in quantity you must get into the major chain store system and again there are companies designed to ONLY place your music within the chain systems. There were record pools created in the 1980's whose job was to make sure that your music got into clubs, was played and feedback was reported to you on the success or failure of the music. These record pools have now become cesspools of deceit, cronyism and thuggish behavior. There are no current feedback systems in place to give a true barometer of music success or failure, instead of receiving new music from independent labels, today's pools are charging companies to send them product (even MP3). The nightclub situation has become so convoluted that many artist never get a chance to perform or even visit clubs outside of their immediate vicinity. When they do get a show date at a club they have to worry about their payment, physical safety and on occasion the safety of their vehicle in the parking lot. To add insult to injury many artist have to pay nightclub owners or promoters for the ability to perform in nightclubs.

There was a time when a promotion man or woman could meet a radio station owner and make significant promotional plans for their respective artist at the station and within the community. Now corporate entities own multiple stations in different cities establishing conglomerates and have blanket rules for promotion on their stations. Radio announcers have no authority to add music, play commercials or interview artist. There are now radio show producers, engineers and music consultants. The radio show producers decide which artist will be interviewed, when and for how long. The engineers play the music, commercial spots and control the timing of each show, while no music can be added to the station without the prior research and approval of the music consultant.

Radio station playlists have changed from playing new and local artist featuring over 180 songs a week to closed playlists of 30 songs rotated multiple times everyday. Local artist have been completely removed from most major radio stations or regulated to the "New Artist" show which is not during prime radio time. Advertising prices have skyrocketed to the point that independent record stores, independent labels and many major chain stores can no longer afford to buy advertising spots in selected markets.

The days of getting your music played on the radio, selling it within the independent store system and doing shows for a living have completely gone. Today's business is high tech, fast paced and multi tiered. These changes and many more have occurred in my lifetime yet thousands of musicians, entertainers, labels, club owners, promoters and more have NOT changed with the times.

Which direction will you take? Have you embraced change or has change rolled right pass you?