746 more than what should be the allotted share of space to the subject of psychographics, we take a look back at 1972 and what has been called the age of "confusion" for radio. The money, time, and personal pain that was exuded into the atmosphere because of blind faith experimentation of radio formats should not and certainly for all our own positive progression cannot be repeated in 1973. The old days of copying everything we knew that Gordon Mclendon or Todd Storz or KFWB or KHJ or whoever might have been the accepted leated at the time cannot and must not apply to Radio 1973 if it is to survive an onslaught of more and better ways to spend our time. It is up to each of the 7,500 radio stations with its one billion, eight hundred million listeners each week (9 out of ten, according to RAB) ... then we must indeed know more about the people within range of our very own signal. While they may be 18, male, black and in the $I O,OOü socioeconomic class we have learned that these figures are not enough ... and secondly that more figures indeed are necessary, if we are to remain in touch with an audience that can go somewhere else ... to another station ...or to another medium entirely. As Dr. Denby so aptly put it. .. "self confidence is a psychological credit card."
Transcript
746
more than what should be the allotted shareof space to the subject of psychographics,we take a look back at 1972 and what hasbeen called the age of "confusion" forradio. The money, time, and personal painthat was exuded into the atmospherebecause of blind faith experimentation ofradio formats should not and certainly forall our own positive progression cannot berepeated in 1973.
The old days of copying everything weknew that Gordon Mclendon or Todd Storzor KFWB or KHJ or whoever might havebeen the accepted leated at the time cannotand must not apply to Radio 1973 if it is tosurvive an onslaught of more and better
ways to spend our time. It is up to each ofthe 7,500 radio stations with its one billion,eight hundred million listeners each week (9out of ten, according to RAB) ... then wemust indeed know more about the peoplewithin range of our very own signal.
While they may be 18, male, black andin the $I O,OOü socioeconomic class we havelearned that these figures are notenough ... and secondly that more figuresindeed are necessary, if we are to remain intouch with an audience that can gosomewhere else ... to another station ... or toanother medium entirely. As Dr. Denby soaptly put it. .. "self confidence is apsychological credit card."
MOST O+=US H~R~can't talk motor bikes ... chess ... Haiku
poetry ... or women's Iib stuff -
but most of us here ... at Drake-Chenault. ..can talk radio.
We know radio.
We have been called the best informedradio people in the business.
By people who know radio.
We know how to put together radio formatsthat work.
That work magic.
We have 5 of them.
Five 24-hour-a-day distinctive musicformats for automated AM and FM stations.
Also, we have highly acclaimed programfeatures.
The 50 hour - The History of Rock & Roll,jingles, etc.
Telephone us ... col lect is fine.
Write us ... or, best of all, drop in.
We'll be very happy to see you ... and totalk with you.
About some things we wish we knew moreabout
and one thing we do know a lot about. .. radio.
O-rake-Chenault ~nie-rp-ris-es-, Inc.8399 Topanga Canyon BoulevardCanoga Park, California 91304
Tel. No.: (213) 883-7400
748
WHAT IT TAKES TO GET A RECORD TO THE PUBLIC
INTRODUCTIONAnd so•.. as we planned the Operating
Manual, we decided to find out just what ittakes to get a song and an artist from thepiano or the guitar where it was written tothe studio and ultimately to the stereosystem of the "consumer." Some 50 or sohours of tape ... piles ofinformation ...coun tless phone calls, and theanswer is... there is no answer. There is noset formula ... there is no l through 97...atleast not as far as this research hasdetermined ...So the magic steps we hadhoped to build for you have not been built.There are a thousand ways that ithappens.; You yourself, whatever may beyour function in the "Music Business" as welike to call it...must build your own
steps must devise your ownformula Certainly this very fact withinitself is the element that makes music theexciting life that it is.
On the following pages we have written ageneral idea about some of the steps orblocks that you may encounter as youproceed along your way, from whateverdirection it may be...Perhaps if you aremerely an interested on-looker, rather thaninvolved in the day to day proceedings ofthe record industry there will be some factsthat you didn't know about.
But, certainly for all of our goods, takethe information and add your owntouches ...
How does a record get to the public?Why is the sky blue?
749
CHRONOLOGY OF THJ:.:PHONOGRAPH RECORD
I 83 O's & I 840's: Joseph Henry, aprofessor of physics at Albany Institutecomes up with the theory of electromagnetswhich will make speakers, record playersand modern electrical recording andreproducing possible.
1863: Busy inventing something else,1:.B. Fen by coins the word "phonograph."
1877: Tom Edison applies for a patenton his tinfoil phonograph. The first wordshis lit t le machine utter are Tom himselfreciting "Mary had a little lamb ... "
1887: In September of this year EmileBerliner invents the flat disc. At this pointhe's into heavy plate glass discs coated withlampblack. But we'll be hearing more fromhim soon.
1888: At the age of twelve. concertpianist Josef Hofmann stops by Edison'splace in New Jersey to see what he's up toand becomes the first artist to turnrecording artist as he puts down some tunesfor Tom.
1890: Commercial recording is gettingunderway. Wax cylinders are being used,each holding about two minutes of sound.As yet no method had been developed toduplicate these cylinders so to turn outcopies in quantity you had to put your bandin the room with ten or twelve recordingmachines, play the tune, and you had ten ortwelve copies. By the end of the day youcould turn out upwards of three hundredcopies of a particular tune. And you weretired to say the least.
1894: Berliner is still at work and hasfound a way to make a negative stamper.which means he can start to turn outmultiple copies of recordings. At this pointhe's stamping the discs on hard rubber.
1897: Discovering that the hard rubberdiscs have a tendency to flatten out in thegrooves after some play, Berliner startsstamping on shellac discs.
I 9 O I : The Victor Talking MachineCompany is started by Berliner and Eldridge
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Johnson. Johnson is the guy who came upwith many of the refinements on Berliner'sbasic inventions. Together they are the firsthigh powered duo in the yet to getunderway biz.
1902: While Eldridge Johnson is in theback room inventing the tone arm forrecord players, Victor as a company doesabout a million dollars in business.
1902: The first loca ti on recording is asmash and the record man in Milan is toldhe can come in off the road. Hisachievement was recording Caruso. Caruso,by the way, had a vocal range especiallysuited to the singing into the horn and makean impression on the wax, non-electricrecording of the day. Since you could heareverything he was singing you couldn't helpbut like him.
1903: Victor and Columbia are bothheavy into a classical trip selling opera songson record disc and cylinder. Edison is intothe pop business on cylinders with whatwere, at the time, race songs. Edison isgetting about 35 cents a cylinder while theclassical opera stuff is going for about ado Uar a copy.
1904: Looking on the other side of thedisc and finding nothing, Columbiaintroduces the first double sided record.Nobody is particularly interested.
1906: Tom Edison is sweating out beingbackordered two and a half millioncylinders. A record that probably has yet tobe equaled in the music business.
1906: Victor turns out the Victrolamodel phonograph which is about a ton ofsolid mahogany and just right for your livingroom, if you happen to be named Babbitt.
1908: Double sided records are nowbeing sold by all major companies.
1912: Cylinder type records have prettymuch had it.
1913: Edison, the head honcho of thecylinder business, introduces his own disctype record.
I 9 I 9: Meanwhile everybody is stillshouting into the horn to make recordingsand electrical recording is still in the stage ofcautious experimentation.
1921: Over one hundred million recordsare produced this glorious year.
1924: Bell Laboratories gets it togetherfirst with a system of electrical recording.
1925: 78 rp111 becomes standard for78
rpm records. Up to this point 78's had beenanywhere between 74 and 82 revolutionsper minute. The reason for thestandardization is the introduction of theelectric turntable.
1931: RCA Victor comes up with thelong play record, see 1948 to find out whathappened.
1934: You remember good old A.D.Blumlein. Well this is the very year that hecame up with stereo discs. Nobody wasinterested.
1·934: The phrase "hi fi" or "highfidelity" starts to make the rounds.
1940: The Germans are busy developingmagnetic tape recorders. Also RCA Victorhas started pressing records in vinyl.
194 7: Magnetic tape recording gets offto a slow start in the United States.
1948: The Lp or long play record oralbum is introduced by Columbia. Theypress on black vinyl, up to this point mostvinyl was red. The RCA Victor attempt atthe 33-1/3 Lp in 1931 was a bust becausethe grooves weren't close enough together,they could only get about eight minutes ona side. But Columbia has a fine groove andso their twelve inch Lp is giving out abouttwenty minutes on each side at 33-1 /3 rpms.
1949: Not to be outdone by Columbia,RCA introduces the 45 rpm record. Andbefore 194 8-4 9 nobody had any recordplayers that played anything but 78. So youcan just imagine what it was like.
I 94 9': Two track, commercial tapemachines begin to appear.
1950: RCA gets into albums at 33-1/3.1951: Columbia gets into 45's.1955: Stereo tape recorders are available
for your home.1958: Four track, two going each way
that is, tape recorders are ready for the poorold consumer.
1958: Stereo albums are available.1968: Budclah/Kama Sutra introduces
first commercial stereo single.1969: Quadrophonic. four channel
sound, introduced.Ooops1 Forgot to mention vlr. Faber in
Vienna who, in 1860. built a talking manwith tlex ible lips and a rubber tongue. Andwhen they wanted the talking man to speakFrench they put a clip on his nose. Far outand right on Mr. Faber'
Wegot everyone togetherjust to say 1973 isgoing to be
a Great Year.
752
THE l:.IFE OF ASINGLE RECORDBy Mr. X
We'll call the record company BarRecords, and the chief exec u tive officer Mr.X. This is the story of how some records getfrom the record company to the store.
Sometimes it's just plain luck to comeup with a million selling single. A rockgroup and their own producer (usually afriend) makes a record at a small studio inWisconsin or Ohio - or wherever - at aninvestment of $500 to $1,000 and then sendit to their local radio station. A sharp localpromotion man hears it, and sends it to Mr.X who either loves it or measures the localsuccess of the record and buys it.Sometimes it's that easy ... usually not.Sometimes Mr. X or someone from his A &R Department will be at a club or rockshow (usually because a group has beentouted to them or because they have an acton the show) and see an act and say "I'vegot to have them."- Sometimes Mr. X will have the ability totake an artist he likes, find the rightproducer and help choose the right material- there are a hundred and one ways andreasons of "why" the record is made.
Most record executives will readily admitthat's the easiest part of their job. The nextstep is getting the record played. A singlerecord costs anywhere from $ I ,500 to$6,000 to make. The record company thensends 3 ,000 to 5,000 DJ copies to radiostations and its distributors, and the battlebegins and believe this recordexecutive the battle does begin. Most radiostations don't give a damn about whetherthey like the record or not (there areexceptions). If they did, there would be alot more records tested. Their first concernis usually - Is it on the charts? - DoesGavin, Hamilton or Rudman say it's asmash? - Where is it happening and do Ihave to play it? The record company thenplans its battle campaign - the campaign toget the record tested. In most cases themajor stations are "out" (they're playingonly proven hits). So you plan ... The actcomes from Cleveland so let's surroundWIXY with secondary play and hope they
· pick up the reports. The act is Canadian -let's go after CKLW. It's called "NewOrleans" ... obvious! Let's give this project to
our key promo man in Washington orMinneapolis and make it his only workrecord. Maybe we'll book the act in Bostonand introduce him to allthe stations in thesurrounding areas. Whatever is being done isaimed at getting some station who cannotsell records, be it a station in Oshkosh, orWorcester, or Sioux Falls to report to thetip sheets and trade papers that thisunknown record has "broken," so that youcan get close to getting that major stationthat can sell records.
Now, in reality, you don't sell records inWorcester, Mass. At least, not usuallyenough to tell you anything significant. I'dventure to say that ir 50 people called asecondary station 5 times a week the recordwould show up Top IO and you'd read inone of the tip sheets: "Worcester, Mass.confirms Sioux Falls that the record isindeed Top I O request item and selling." Ifthe record company is honest, and wants tocommit professional suicide. they mightadmit that they've sold 50 records in eachmarket.
It takes 3 to 6 months to establish mosthit records. Again. there are exceptions toeach rule. It could take two months .. .itcould take a year. ..or two ... (Example:Roberta Flack).
For whatever reason: the promotionstaff was great - the music directors' earswere great - the record gets on CXXX, theNo. I station in the fourth biggest market(whatever & whoever, etc., etc., etc.).
And now the battle really begins. This isfor the money. The record is "on." BUT(and it's a big But) it'll only stay on for 3 or4 weeks (with exceptions again) unless itshows up on the store reports or requestlines (or unless the really good PD or MDrealizes it's a good programming sound).Unfortunately, that MD or PD is in theminority.
This record execu rive has always beenbefuddled with the system of measuringwhat an audience wants to hear. Let's saythere are nine million people in the NakedCity. New York is considered (let's take anaverage) a ten percent market. On a millionse I ling single, you'd then sell 100,000records in New York City. In two or threeweeks play, you'd hope to sell 20-3040,000records on a hit. Black-oriented records aredifferent. You might have sold 30,000 fromR 'n B play before the record was added atWABC. The station, in an effort to measurethe success of the record, calls only a select
753
group or stores ... a representative group ofthe stores that might have sold 20,000 ofthe 40,000 records. The radio station thentakes its potential audience (whatever partor the nine million population it wants) andmeasure' the sound they're going to play bythose 20.000 people. This is. perhaps theonly gaug.e it has. but a poor one.
What. then. must the record companydo? It might have 5>50,000 to SI00,000investee! by now in this act - a single, analbum, ads, spots. postage. 3 months to ayear 01· work and it's got 3 weeks to hopethis record shows up. To cover New York.the company had bet ter send in I0,000singles immediately. But the stores don'treally want the record, it just went on. Theywant to wait to sec ir there are sales reports.So the record company or distributorusually will have to guarantee to take theserecords back ir they do not sell. And nowcomes the horrible. God-awful thought orthe yc:1r - the "store hype" - what the hellis the store hype? The manufacturer in anyb u s i n c ss , to have his product shownprominently ... pushed to the public ... hyped,ir you will. makes deals to help get hisproduct starter!. So the store gets ;; fewextra copies. Yes. then maybe. he pushes it.
He's making more money on it. He feels ifit's on the air, and he and the company arebehind it - it's going to sell. ls it anydifferent than what breakfast cerealcompanies do? l don't think so. If a stationwill decide its "sound" on what a handful ofrecord buyers like, then it behooves therecord company to get the store behind it toget to this handful and hope it catches on.After all, 6 months or a year before therecord was released, the company believedenough in the product to release it. Is itexpected that with limited play for only 3weeks they should lie clown and play deadand possibly lose their investment?
Then, for whatever the reasons, therecord is dim bing the charts. It's the smashof the week ... a record that will be a hit. ..aGo-Rilla. The battle is almost over. Get therecords to the racks. Make sure the salesmencontinue to ask for store listings and nottake the record for granted.
Congratulations! You 've reached No. Iand it took one year and you release thesecond single and you bring it back to SiouxFalls (or wherever) and the MD says "Well,it's not as good as the first." ... the battle hasjusi begun ...
754
THE SONGWRITER
EDDIE REEVES
If we are to begin a step by stepprocedure with a record we must first goback to the song .. .lsola ting the song intoday's music business is certainly a bitmore difficult to do than yesterday becausein a majority of the cases the song waswritten by the artist.
Eddie Reeves, in his early 30's has been apart of the song writing business for a longtime ... coming from Amarillo, Texas to NewYork, as a writer and finally going to workfor United Artists Music Publishing in NewYork, Eddie has seen a bunch of songwriters come and go. About five years agoEddie was transferred to the West Coastoffice of UA Publishing ..After more than adecade and hundreds of songs over his pianoand guitar, Eddie came up with his firsthit. .. Don't Change On Me by RayCha rles ... This was quickly followed byRings by Cyrnarron and then All I EverNeed Is You, 'a hit for Sonny & Cher. Eddieshared the song writing credits on one or theother with Jimmie Holliday and AlexHarvey. In this period of time, Eddie hasalso been interested in producing and inbeing an artist himself...so far, althoughthere's been a lot of studio time, his artistryand producing talents have gone unnoticedby the public. He resigned from UA lastyear and now is spending his time as awriter, producer, artist for ABC-Dunhill.With his publishing and song-writingbackground we ask him to talk about theingredients that go into making a songwriter happen ...
"The song ... we'll start off thisway ...We'll start off analyzing it...after weanalyze it we're going to reject our totalanalyza ti on but it's a good starting po in t.You need to analyze it and you need toknow what the analiza tion is.... because youanalyze a Sp assky-Fischer chess gamedoesn't mean you now know how to playchess. If you spent 20 years doing that Ithink you'd learn something about chess.But what you really learn becomes part ofyour nature. Because there's not a formula.The formula if there is one is tosubconsciously have an awareness ... and thatawareness becomes a tool that youautomatically use. Just like if you're goingto say something you automaticallyspeak ... you don't have to say ... "Now whatam I going to do? ... Shall I speak now ... whatshall I say ... how do I say it" ... You justautomatically do it. Well, I think you endup with an innate understanding of the popsong idiom ... and you know how far you canbend it...You know that you can rearrangeit...you change it...you can give it newform ... you can do things to it. .. bu t you useit as some relative point of view ... relative tostart with ... "Pop songs" ... and at least if youwrote something that's totally outside therealm of that you know you have ... itdoesn't mean you can't...but you know whatyou 're doing. If you 're going to be areporter. .. you have to know what you'redoing ... whatever you do you have to knowwhat you 're doing.
So if you start off analyzing asong ... somebody says ... if you 're going towrite hit songs ... how do you do it?
First, it's a game of odds. I have a friendthat drills oil wells ... I said "How do you doit man ... what do you do?" He says, "Well,I'm in a odds game ... I get the best, mosttalented geoligist...1 get the cheapest lease,where's the greatest possibility there is oil. ..Iget a good drilling crew that knows whatthey're doing and I put a hole in theground ... and I start rolling the dice then.But before I start rolling the dice, I'm goingto do everything I can to see that all theodds are in my favor, that I can get in myfavor. So, he has a better chance ofsucceeding because he's dealing in an a reawhere there's tremendous unknowns ... sowhere you're dealing in songs you 're dealingin an area where there's tremendousunknowns.
So, if you want to look at the same waythat an oil business man does ... you say, "I'll
755
put all of the odds in my favor. ..Write 4/4time songs kid. Don't write 3/4 time ... turnspeople otT ... can't dance to it either. Writeup tempo songs ... ballads are off ... programdirectors say they want more up tempo -get it on songs ... write positive lyric asopposed to negative lyric ... don't let yourlyric get people down and depressthem ... You open your front door and youget depressed about what's going on. Bring alit tie happiness. Write "up" ... positive ... 4 /4 ... " Now all the odds are in yourfavor. .. now you write a song within thoseconfines, and you do I think have a betterchance in a lot of ways. But if it's a badsong it doesn't matter. So there must besomething else involved besides just 4/4time ... positive ... and up tempo ... lf you wantto talk in terms of analyzing a song.Somebody came in and played me songs andI say "I don't think I'll be able toa eco mp Ii sh anything with your songsbecause I have to go get it recorded and Idon't think I can get it recorded." "Youdon't like my songs, man?" I say, "No, itdoesn't have anything to do with my likesand dislikes ... I just don't feel I can get yoursongs recorded ... " I say, "You enjoy writingsongs don't you" ...He says, "Yeah" ... !say ·'That's the whole pay-off rightthere if someway somehow you end uphaving a hit well, great then you have a littlesecondary pay-off ... of making some moneyand having a little recognition." But thewhole deal is having something to say andwhen you said it good and you know it'sgood and you dig it right, that's your totalreward really ... lf it happens to become a hit,great.e.you made some money out of it andyou can go buy a new car or whatever youwan I !O do with the money."
Tl.cy say, "Well, what kind of songs doyou like?" Because the writer wants to writea song that I'll like, maybe thinking I'mgoing to say .•. "Oh R&B ... that's where it'sat." Or maybe ... "Country and Western getinto that. .. that's what's happening" andpeople in this business say that to writersand really misdirect them. I sometimes tellwriters that "songs are maybe likewomen ... you can't really understand a song,until you live with it for a little while ... andyou sec how it wears on you."
So, you know, one woman might appeallo me and not appeal lo you ... songs arc thesame way. "I can't tell you what kind ofsongs I like ... it's an emotional judgementreally ... and here we've been silting here
through this analytical thing which is to meconverse to emotional judgement.Emotional judgement is shooting from thehip with what you feel. .. based on no reason,maybe ... except you dig it. I don't knowwhy but I like it. It does something to you,but you don't know what it does andthat's what we're trying to define and Idon't think we can define it but I can saysorne other analytical things suchas ... "Uniqueness" ... I think uniqueness is animportant quality in a song ... "Subtlety" Ilike ... just personally I like subtlety in songs.I don't like for terms of anything tobe ... "Th ís is what it is man" ... lt's comingin the back door of people's minds Wherethey don't feel like they're being talkeddown to ... they don't reel like they're beingpreached to ... The hard sell is out...peopledon't like it anymore.
Also there's another thing I've observedthat I've defined that's musical on onehand ... and on the other hand rhythmically.There arc "r if'" writers and there are"melody" writers. There are rhythmmusicians and there are musicalmusicians .•.a nd I think how you definewhich one a musician or writer is, is wherethe focal point of his energies go to first. A"r if" writer is somebody whose music isn'tsophistica ted ... i1 's simple basic music ... andto make the simple basic music moreinteresting they depend on rhythmsophistication. Listen lo some of OtisRedding's records and get a J ulliardgraduate and play it for him ... lt's notmusically sophisticatcd ... you know it's not amusical trip, it's a rhythm trip. So thosewriters and those musicians to me I say theyare "rit" writers or "ríi" musicians. EltonJohn's arrangements arc a musical trip ... hisrecords are also a rhythm trip too •.. and Ithink that's good because he's gotten bothof those two worlds together. I think BurtBacharach's the best example ofthat... Inherently in the melodies he writes isan interesting, unique, surprising,sophist icate d rhy Ihm pat tern. Also the samething can be said about his melodies ... He'sgot both of those clements going for himfull force. You can talk about the"uniqueness'' ... " S ubtlcty " ... "rhythmicalinterest" "musical sophistication" ... andfinally you can talk about relating. Whenyou tell a guy you can'¡ use his song, you 'resaying the same thing that a programdirector is when he decides whether he'sgoing to play a record or no l. Because a
756
program director wan ts to get as manypeople in his potential audience as he can tolisten to him. So, I'm trying to do the samething with the song that he is with the record.If I car. find a song that a lot of peoplecan relate to ... then if I can do that out of allthe music business somebody will recordit...and ultimately if it is a song that a lot ofpeople can relate to and it's a good recordthat program director will say, "A lot ofpeople can relate to it...1'11 play it."
So you come to a point at the end of ananalyzation where you've got to eventuallysay, "stop analyzing life .. .live it...becausethat's what's it's all about. But I think thatit's good to go through a period of analyzingthings and understand exactly where youare and what you are and what's being doneand what the deal is. Once you understandthat, then that's enough analyzing ... onceyou've got those tools and you've weldedthem in your unconscious ... not just so youknow them but so they're a tool that youfunction through. Then you can be asong-writer. I think people ... not that theygo through this ... but they've donesomething similar to that subconsciously, inorder to be able to write a song. They'velistened to other people's music ... they'vebecome educated to music so that theyknow music on some level, whether it'ssophisticated or basic musical knowledge.And they have something to say ... and theystart saying it.
We then asked Eddie how songwritersLived... financially ...
1 don't think there are very manysongwriters per se... (Neil Diamond's a songwriter. .. He's also a very good artist) ... Thatjust make a very good living at just writingsongs. A song writer makes a cent a side persingle or if they're a co-writer they makehalf á penny a side ... On a million sellerthat's $10,000 from record sales includingeverything ... On the average million seller thewriter could make anywhere from ·$10,000to $40,000. A writer makes more moneyfrom performance royalties ... radio stationand television air-play, than on record sales.If the song is really the kind that a hundredother people record ... like Little GreenApples ... He's going to get a penny fromeach one of those albums that have thatsong in it. .. He's going to get a penny fromeach one of those singles ... from each one ofthose cassettes ... eight track ... fourtrack ... although I think the royalties ontapes are a tittle bit less ... then there's
foreign royalties ... so if he has a million sellerhe can make lots of dollars. But whathappens is that million sellers are few andfar between ... So when he has one he mighthave to let that last for quite awhile ... untilhis next hit. If he has two or three hits rightin a row, he can do very good. The moneycomes in over a period of a couple of years.All I Ever Need Is You was my mostsuccessful song and it was recorded maybeten times. Publishers don't make thatinformation available ... anybody that recordsthe song has to notify thepublisher. .. publishers are very lax, I think,in notifying the writer about everybody thatrecorded their song ... A lot of recordings areinsignificant. ..like somebody in Germanyrecorded it in German ... but I thinksongwriters would dig knowing that.
How does a young songwriter break intothe business?
The best thing that a young songwritercan do, when he's got some songswritten ... He's just about got to go,physically to New York, Nashville or LosAngeles. That's the best thing for him to do,if he can afford to do it. He can mail tapesin but they just get lost in the shuffle ... theypast-over over. .. Nobody pays any attention.A company or anybody working in thecompany tends to give a person a little morerecognition than an object. ..a tape layingon his desk. Most writers, too, need a lot ofdevelopment when they getstarted ... somebody to work with them, toopen their mind up ... to inspire them.Desire ... that's important...He's got to gowhere music publishers are ...There are othermusic publishers around the country ... BiULowry in At Ian ta ... some of the exceptions.But so many of the publishers are bad to goto. Sometimes they're not aware enough tosit there and tell the writer if he's doinggood or not...and they won't be able to helpthe writer. To go to the good publishers, Iknow there are some good ones in Nashvilleand Los Angeles. I don't know about NewYork, because I haven't lived there forawhile. But the guys got to go to the goodpublisher. .. then he can be helped he can beencouraged ... he can be inspired or he canstart learning. He can start the learningprocess at the publisher level."
We asked Eddie about 'how' he writes asong ...
"I think when I try to do something tomotivete myself to write a song ... it's like,when man wants lo observe something, it's
~sritgzO(")
I
....•oowO'I
758
very hard for him to find out what the realtruth or the reality of that something is,because his mere action of deciding that hewants to observe it changes the natura! formit is of what he's observing. We can't reallyknow what an electron is... because the onlyway we can really observe it is to change itout of its natural environment; in its naturalenvironment we haven't figured out a wayto observe it. When I decide I want to try tomotivate myself to do something, I'mtampering with the machinery and I don'tthink you can tamper with it. .. I thinkyou've got to leave it alone. The mostimportant thing I can do to write songs is tolive life. When I live life sonzs are aoinz tocome out of it, because I'm- a son~ w;iterand I've programmed myself to: whensomething happens to say something aboutit in the musical idiom.
I noticed something on the top I 00songs of I 972 in the Report. .. there was onlyone instrumental. ..Outaspace by BillyPreston ... ! don't think there has been aninstrumental artist that has sustained anysuccess since Herb Alpert. The poets oftoday are involved in music. I think thatmusic has become an important part of theliterature of our times. I think verymusically when I first hear a song and I onlydigest the lyrics later. ..and I sometimeswished I did that in reverse, because I thinkthe lyrics are the most importantthing ... although I'm interested is in musicalstaternent...in musically feeling ... becausethat's words in my mind and just catching aglimpse of what's being said's enoughsometime to know where it's at with thatsong and to get down to the very specificthing what does he really mean by that,was he talking about Buddy Holly ... that'snot too important to begin with ... but theyarc fun little games to play a little later on.
I write songs different ways ... never thesame way. I think writers experiment. ..withwhat works for them. Somebody asked meone time ... "How long did it take you· towrite that song?" And I always wished Icould answer this way ... "as fast as I couldwrite the words down, and in anotherrcspect.i.ull my life." The lightening flashedon a dark nigh t. He sees the landscapeoutside light up and he sees the total pictureinstantaneously in his mind. All that's leftfor him to do is mechanically reproducewhat he's seen ... on his canvas ... on hisnotepad .. .in the idiom of his song .. .in hisnovel. .. whatever. . .insiantuneously he sees
and he spells it out ... but to instantaneouslysee it, it took him his whole life ... living itthe way he did and having the experiencesthat he had to live up to that point for thatto happen ... but how long did it take for himto write it...as fast as it flowed out ofhim ... as fast as he could write the wordsdown.
Writers don't write their songs ... there's asong written that was taken from theProphet which said ... "Y our children are notyour children ... though they come throughyou ... they do not belong to you ... " Mysongs belong lo everybody because theycame from everybody ... they only camethrough me ... and that's all a songwriterreally is... he's 2 tool. .. he's an entity throughwhich experiences pass and come out in theform of a song.
COPYRIGHT & PERFORMANCE
As simply and completely as we can, wewill explain the word "copyrigh t" ...Goingback to the very first principles, what is theterm "copyrigh t'P.; It is simply the right topersonal property, universally recognized inour society, as applied to the product ofartistic or literary endeavors. The UnitedStates Constitution, article One, SectionEight says that Congress ... "shall have thepower to promote the progress of scienceand useful arts be securing for limited timesto authors and inventors the exclusive rightto their respective writings and discoveries."
There is an underlying meaning in thislaw, because while it appears to be totally inthe favor of authors and inventors inensuing Supreme Court interpretationstated ... "The copyright law, like the patent,statutes, makes reward to the owner asecondary consideration. However, it isintended definitely to grant valuable,enforceable rights to authors, publishersetc ... to afford greater encouragement to theproduction of literary or artistic works oflasting benefit to the world." Then it wasthe public that was the real beneficiary ofthis law.
The first US Copyright Act was passed in1790, to cover authors· against the reprintingof their writings .. .later laws applied to othercreators such as photographers, artists andother creators ... and lastly, but for thepurposes of this article ... songwri te rs.
Under today's laws authors and
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composers of music are recognized as beingl he sole and exclusive owners of theintellectual property they have created, fora term of twenty-eight years, renewableonce for another twenty-eight years. It isimportant to note that the government docsnot grant a copyright. The copyright existsfrom the instant the work is published withappropriate notice. Upon properapplication, the Government willREGISTER the copyright, but it ispublication not registration which investsone with a Federal copyright. Sorneinteresting terminologies ...
Publication Right - The right to publishor copy the work.
Mechanical Right - The right to recordthe work for mechanical instruments.
Pe r f ormance Right - The right toperform the work publicly for profit.
Synchronization Right - The right tosynchronize records of the work withmotion picture film or videotape.
Securing "Rights" will fall under one ofthese headings ...or all. ..
For further explanation and forms youmay write the Copyright Office ... Library ofCongress ... Washington 25, D.C.
BMI, ASCAP and SESAC
In a speech before the Seminar ofBroadcast Management in October of 1971,vice president of BM! Julian Bradshawexplained the function of the threeperformance societies as simple andcomplete as we have heard ...
Now, if I am a radio station owner, usingupwards of two hundred pieces of music perday, how do I go about securing thepermission of each of the thousands ofcopyright holders whose works I want tobroadcast?
If, on the other hand, I am a writer whoowns a copyrighted song, or many of them,how can I possibly contract with, or license,the six thousand or more radio andtelevision broadcasting stations which 111aywish - any or all of them - to perform mymusic? Or the concert halls, theatres, bars,dining rooms, etc., in which singers andinstrumentalists may wish to use my songs?
TI1e answer to both questions is found inthe organizations which exist for thepurpose of negotiating permission for theperformance of music by those who wish touse it, and securing payment for suchpermission as agent for the copyrightowner. The vast majority of musicalcom positions used in broadcasting arehandled by two organizations: BroadcastMusic, Inc., known as BMI; and theAmerican Society of Composers, Authorsand Publishers, known as ASCAP. There ia athird organization, SESAC, which togetherwith public domain music, accounts for theremaining small percentage of the music inuse by broadcasters. The organizations areunlike in many respects, but they collect thefees charged for these rights. In addition,performance rights to foreign compositionsalso are handled by these organiza ti ons.Thus, nearly every copy righ led compositionwhich a broadcaster might wish to use isavailable to him through BMI, ASCAP orSESAC. Now, the mechanics ... How does itwork?
With very, very lew exceptions, radioand television stations enter into contracts,or "licenses" as they are often referred to,with all three organizations. Under the mostcommonly used form of agreement, thestations receive a "blanket" permission touse any or all of the compositions in thecatalogue of the respective organization,without restriction as to the number ofperformances during the term or thecontract. BM! and ASCAP fees for. theseperformance rights a re equal to a smallpercentage of the station's gross receipts,less certain adjustments. The BM I feescurrently are somewhat less than those ofASCAP. SESAC performance fees have norelation to station income, but are ílat fees,and they vary according to such factors aslocations, hours of opera lion and power ofstation.
So now the stations have receivedpermission to perform any of over a millioncompositions, and have paid the licensingorganizations for these performing rights.
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THE PUBLISHERHow does the money find its way buck tothe creators whose music actually has beenperformed? Obviously, not all of the writersshould share equally in these proceeds, butthose whose music has been used should becompensated according to the frequency ofits use. How can this be determined? Againthe methods differ among the organizations.The one with which I obviously am mostfamiliar is the method used by BM!.
It arrives at local performances by amethod somewhat like the one physiciansuse for blood counts. The tabulations ofperformances on local stations arc done on asampling basis. In radio, the year is dividedinto two-week periods, and for each perioda representative group of stations is chosenby a scientific sampling method to supply awritten record of all the musical worksbroadcast on the respective stat ions duringthat period. Television stations do the same,except that the period is four weeks insteadof two. These small samples then areproperty weighed and multiplied byformulas established by leading statisticians,10 arrive at a computed count of the totalperformances of each composition. Paymentis then made to the author, composer andpublisher or each composition for thenumber of performances ihus calculated.
There a re other types of licenses forgranting performance rights to broadcasters,under which only those revenues receivedfor programs containing music are used forthe base, but the percentages used todetermine fees are much higher, and everycomposition must be individually logged.Because the percentages are higher andbecause of the amount of paper workinvolved, only these stations which use verylittle music find this type of licensedesirable, and there are very few of these"per program" licenses in effect.
The system of acquiring performancerights I have described as "blanketlicensing" is in use at almost all radio andtelevision stations in the United States, anda 11 of those involved - the creators,including authors, composers andpublishers, and the broadcasting industry -regard it as the most practical means yetdevised for carrying out the intent of theConstitution: " ... to promote the progress ofscience and useful arts by securing forlimited limes to authors and inventors theexclusive right to their respective writingsand discoveries."
The song ... the copyrigh t...nex t step ... thepublisher .•.we visited several publishers bothbig and small over the past months in tryingto learn the function of such companies asWarners Music, etc. As in the case of arecord company, where a record is theproduct, in the area of music publishingtheir-product is a song ... The goal of a musicpublisher simply is to make as much moneyon the songs that he "publishes" that he
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can. The term "publishing company" ofcourse is a lit tic less than a description ofthe actual service of 1973. It originated in aday before the recording industry was massappeal lo signify a company that publishedsheet music. Today, a good many publishersstill publish sheet music, but it is such asmall portion of their overall that it's hardlymentioned. Today the task or a publisher issimply to get his copyrights recorded asmany limes and under the best conditionspossible ... and to act as a representative ofthe songwriter in the collection of royalties.
A contract is signed between thepublisher and the songwriter which on thepublisher's side gives him the rights to"mechanical royalties" and "performanceroyalties." Mechanical royalties are royaltiespaid to him by a record company for theuse of the song, on the record, The recordcompany pays the publisher two cents perside or 4 cents a single ... LP's are 2 cents asong .. .with 20 cents for IO sides forexample, and the publisher splits that withthe writer. "Performance royalties) aremonies paid by rudio-tv stations for the useof the songs on their stations. BMI, ASCAPand SESAC arc three performing societiesthat collect this money based on a formulathat has to do with the occasional logging ofeach record played that disc jockeys acrossAmerica are familiar with. The publisheragain gets income from "performances."
Getting the song recorded involves agood many different methodologies andsteps. Larger publishing companies have astaff of people whose job it is to get thesongs recorded. Warners Music for examplehas five men (three in L.A., two in NewYork) whose total concentration is in thisarea. Along with the professional staff, bothWarner's Music president Ed Silvers andexec vice president Mel Bly work on gettingtheir copyrights recorded. The professionalstaff works in much the same way that apromotion staff of a record company workswith the program director of a radio station.First of all, it is up to the company to knowwhat is going on in the studio, not only inLA, but in San Francisco, Nashville, NewYork and wherever else a session might be apossible target for a song. The staff keeps upwith this by constant traveling and constant"hanging out." The entertainment clubs,secretariesof A&R departments, and studiostaffs ... the grapevine the artists and theproducers themselves these are all possibleinformation sources for the staff. Like the
promotion man, the publishing professionalwill take a demo to a producer or artist andget him to listen to it. .. with suggestions forhow ti might fit into a future session.
"The job," said Bly at an afternoonlunch downstairs from Warner's HollywoodBoulevard office loca lion, "is not only toget it accepted ... but to see that it'srecorded ... released ... sold ... and then tocollect the royal ties."
It's accepted practice in the recordbusiness (and certainly nothing illegal aboutit), to hold 50 to 75% of royalties for a yearor more. The only way to gel money sooneris to call for an audit of the recordcompany's books ... an expensive procedurethat could negate any profit at all.
There's another threat to profit of apublishing company and this is in the arcaof the "demos." A demo usually costs lessthan $100 to cut...preferablc much less thanthat. The "demo" is simply a presentationof what the song sounds like on record. Itmay be simply guitar and voice ... or at mostpiano, bass, drums and a voice over dubbeda couple of times. "The way a demo is cut isthe most important thing," said Bly ... "If weare going after a co un try artist, then itshould show the song in that vein.Sometimes, as in the case or a Van Morrisonsong for example, we'll just use the albumcut."
How does a publisher get writers andcopyrights? "In a number of ways," Melcontinued. "We, of course, are alwayslooking for new writers. Between all of theprofessional guys they're available to listento new songs, new material, new writers;even master quality tapes of groups, whereif we place that tape for them, we will beinvolved with the publishing companyelement. If does happen a group comes ineither with a finished al bum or the nucleusof a finished album. We take it and get itplaced. What we get out of it is thepublishing. There is the situation, also,.where writers are submitted to us by a blindrape coming in ... or by recommendation ofsomeone we know ... or a radio station ... or arecord company ... or maybe a manager ofone of the groups that maybe we're alreadyinvolved in ... or the writer may come in andwe might listen to him live. There is anon-exclusive contract and an exclusive ... wemight just take it on a song by song basis.Contracts are standard ... usually anywherefrom 3 to 5 years. If we sign somebody as astaff writer and we feel that strong about
THE ELEC1RIC S1REET PFOPLE
The Epic/Columbia Custom family of labels displayedincredible growth in 1972, due largely to the strength of our
many Epic artists, the extraordinary talents of ourCustom people - Gamble and Huff (Philadelphia International).
Stax-Volt, Monument/Sound Stage 7, Mums, Douglas,Rak, Spindizzy and Fillmore - and the combined industrious
and creative efforts of our Street People -the men and women in the field.
We're Street People, really and we're Music People.We're Street People becausewe have to be. That's wheretomorrow's music is happening. We've gotta be there.
And it never stops.
We're Music People too. Becauseall the electricity in musicisn't in the transmitters and amplifiers. It's in the peopletoo, our kind of people. They turn on when they hear.
So do you. And for that ...from all of us...sincere thanks.
RAK
I~~~~PhiladelphiaInternationalRecords
~"º~rI Epic 1 IKCID)
~~.~tGAMBLE
ARDENT
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him we might give hi111a weekly advance ifhe needs it, but we try to squeeze that downto a minimum."
A deal in publishing can vary fromowning all the publishing 50-50 with thewriter, artist...or maybe an administrationsituation where the publishing company willdo all the work on a catalog, but do notown it. They then take a percentage of theprofits for administering it.
Warncrs has I08 employees in both LAand New York. A good part of theemployees work for the print division whichpublishes song folios and sheet music amongother IllUsie type publications. Besides Silverand Bly, exec u tives include a house counsel,treasurer, head of copyright, professionalmanager and manager of print division. Thecompany is in the process of re-doing itsfiles and soon they hope to have their200.000 plus copyrights in the area ofkeeping track of royalties and contracts butalso in categorization of songs for use by theprofessional staff.
Ir you print anything, l wish you'd printthis," Bly stated. "We care about the music.Business is business is business and we try totake care of that. But we are all emotionallyinvolved in the music and what is happeningtoday. Between all of us I think we spanabout every musical taste category thatthere is. We're at the concerts ... we're in theclubs ...we're talking to the guys ...writers,artists, groups, we spend time with them.We're friends with· them ... Rod Stewartcomes into town .. .I'm with him ... because lenjoy it. We're involved in it...instead of justshifting sorne gears behind closed doors."
On e or the reasons for success ofWarners over the past two years has beenthe initiating of ''casting meetings"according to Bly.
Every Tuesday and Thursday from Samto about 12 the professional staff and othermembers of the organization along withSilvers and Bly meet to discuss apresentation initiated by professionalmanager Artie Wayne. Artie's function althese meetings is to reveal some 5 to IOstudio sessions coming up in the next fewweeks. The staff· then discusses possiblesongs that will fit the situation of thesession. Nol only whether or not they cangel the song placed, but "is it righ l for theartist. ..will it possible be a hit?" The staffmay come up with a whole concept for analbum for an artist. .. it's up to Wayne andthe rest of the staff to describe the artist.
the producer and the studio situation asfinely as possible so the right songs could besubmitted. At the same time in thesemeetings new songs are presented that havebeen obtained by the company ... other ideaspassed about. "A song can be exploited inmany difTeren¡ ways, from all kinds offramework s," stated Bly. "Many peopledon't give the professional publisher thecredit that it should be due in terms of thecrea tivi ty that is possible."
Asked about the future or the musicpublishing business, Mel replied, "We'retrying to in traduce our writers to more andm orc television ... more and more motionpicture scoring. We want to get involved intelevision projects ... movie projects ... at theground level. .. and use our Randy Newmansand our Van Morrisons and Jimmie Webbsinto the tv and movie medium. Then we'relooking over and above and ahead to audiovisual. .. we're going to be involved in that onthe ground tloor level with our artists andwriters. Warner Communications Corp., nowas a parent company, has now sunk overS 150 million into Cable Television."
The small publisher? Generally overallfeeling on the street is that he will bereplaced in many, but not all, cases by thelarger, better staffed publisher.
New legislation for possible increases incopyright royalties are being introduced andpushed heavily by the publishing business asa whole.
The last raise in royalty rates was in1909.
A & R
So now, there's the song ... it'scopyrigh tcd ... and a publisher has signed adeal with the songwriter. .. and a "demo" hasbeen Ct' t. .. Nex t step would be theproducer. .. or would it be the recordcompany ... or the artist...or all three? MauriLathower is known as "head of A&R" atCapitol Records. What A&R means is aboutas different today as what "publishing"means as compared with those originalterms ... "Artists and Repertoire" ... Lathowerwho grew up in Chicago had earlyconnections with music with his desire tobecome a "classical clarinetist" ... Heattended the Chicago Conservatory ofMusic, but "always leaned towardjazz" ... Most of his early years was as amusician of some kind ... from classical to
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jazz to rock ...from working daily as staffmusician on a local television station to asalesman for a local independent distributorto promotion ...to finally the tower inHollywood. A few months ago Lathowerwas given the responsibility of helpingrebuild the talent side of a "newCapitol" ...\Ve talked one morning in hisoffice.
"A&R of course is not what it was 25years ago...at that time the A&R man wasassigned an artist or probably he would havesigned an artist and he would sit with theartist and go over a repertoire of songs...Atthat time most of your artists were notwriters, so you depended very heavily on
Maurey ...with Gregory on his wall
your publishers ...So they would sit withprofessional managers ...I'm not sure whatthey called them at that time, but now theycall them professional managers and goingover just an endless amount of material.From that point most artists recorded withorchestras ...so the next thing you would dois to find a conductor and arranger possibly,such as a Nelson Riddle ...and if he wasn'tsigned to the label. ..you'd go outside. Andyou sat with the contractor. ..contractorswere most important at that time, theywould form and shape your orchestras torecord with your artist.
Well, times have changed. Most artists orgroups are self-contained ... they have theirown band ...and they write their ownmaterial. The change 1 think startedhappening ...about 1O years ago.Before that you had your Dions...and theVintons and the Bobby Darins ... they werestill working with outside groups andmaterial...The Beatles had a great effect onthat change ...probably 100 percent so.
You dou't have the staff today that youhad years ago. Some companies are stilltrying to build in-house staffs ...WarnerBrothers is. We do have about six people onstaff ...we call them in-house contacts ... forthe groups !hat come in...a lot of the groupsare production deals ...where they deliveryou a finished product, so therefore there'sa lot of paper work and contracts that haveto be taken care of. So we have in-houseproducers ...in-house contacts that can workwith these people ... lf they don't want torecord in our studios, we don't demand thatthey do ...they can record anywhere theymost feel comfortable ...we try to providethem all the help we can.
How does Lathower find a group or anartist?
Everyone now has a manager. ..whetherit's a brother. a cousin or a friend. Of courseit's difficult. Unsolicited material..it's reallydifficult to answer all of it because it comesin by the barrel. They not only send it to us,I'm sure they send it to everybody, becauseit's usually with the typical standard letter,you know. They have a hot group ...or a hotartist, etc. We always try and review andlisten to things from people that have somecreditability in the industry. We have fieldmen ...26 promotion men ...whose ears arereliable and they're· in contact withsomebody so in that case I will always tryto respond to them personally. We haveyoung people up here not just young inage, but in thought their life is thecommunity.
What about artists that don't write ...doyou still sign them?
Yes...but somebody just walking in, offthe street...it's difficult. We accept all thetapes ...we will try to get an answer to them.
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Going up'
At one time. you know it was almostimpossible to get through the door or anylarge company and I must say that Capitolwas guilty ... ! think Capitol was one of thecompanies that suffered in that period whena lot of groups were making their entry intothe industry. In fact at one time l know thepolicy or the company was that "rock androll wasn't here to stay." It was a fad. Theyweren't interested. I was in Chicago at thattime and they sent me a record and theysaid, "you've been crying for a rock and rollrecord ... here it is." The record was "OldMcDonald 1-Iacl A Farm" by Frank Sinatra.Capitol had a very rough time un ti! theBeach Boys came along and then theBeatles. And too, it wasn't until CarlIngerman came in and felt and believed thatthe area where we really had to expand andgo after was the independent producer.Capitol again at that time <timos! 100%released records that they were producing.The independent production thing onlyhappened about 3V2 years ago here. I wasafirm believer then in independentproducers ... and independent labels wenever had any independent labels andthat's why I was brought up. Of course wewent way o v c r b o a r d ... we were notsuccessful... we learned ... very dearly.
\Ve then talked about costs ofproducing ...
I'll go back a couple of years and let yousee what costs have come to ...We figuredout then that the average master was aboutS 1,5 00 per tune ... or side. It went to$2,000 ... this last year we figured out toabout 512,500. An album now costs betweenS25,000 and $30,000 ... some arelower ... some are higher. It all depends onstudio time. The deal we make with the
independent producer ...we can make a dealwith him that upon delivery of the albumregardless of studio costs, we will give him$25,000 upon delivery of the LP ... or$27,000 ...or $32,000. There are times whenyou've seen the group perform and theyneed equipment. Record companyobligations are not any longer just that ofrecording an artist. It's that of finding one,grooming one, paying for their equipment,supporting them while they're recording analbum ... or sustaining them when they'reperforming on the road ... or traveling. It'sbecoming very costly. I am given a recordingbudget set up at the first of the year. It goesaccording to your artists. If you have ten
- -A & R...Mauri Lathower ...A survivor ...
artists on the label and they're going to dotwo albums a year and you average it out tosay around $27,000 you arrive at a budget.If you have 20 artists, etc. You go accordingto per cost...whether its album actuallycosts that or not. I think last year I had arecording budget of 2 million dollars ... thisyear it's less, because the roster has beentrimmed quite a bit. And the trimming ofthe roster is not because they wercn 't goodartists .. .it'sjust impossible for the marketingpeople to work that amount of product orto develop new people which Capitol isdefinitely into at this time. We have 72artists on the label, not countingcountry ... country goes up and downbecause we've been trying to develop thatarca. Country roster develops more quicklywith the single artist than the LP artist...lnfact, it's almost murder to put out a countryal bum on a new artist.
As far as what I would call a pop rostermy feeling now is that hopefully we canallow an artist to record a minimum of two
766
to three albums, because I think it takesthat long for them to develop. It'simpossible for the marketing people. I'mspeaking of the whole marketing concept,whether it's merchandising, promotion andsales. It takes time. There are situationswhere you receive an album from a groupand it won't have developed as you hadhoped it would the first time out or in thestudio, so you question it. You say, "Gee,should we put this album out?" Becauseyou know that it will actually do very little.But you usually put the album out tosupport the group if they're on tour. Youragents and bookers can do nothing unlessthey have a piece of product in their hand.
We asked Maurey to clarify theproduction deal.
If it's what we call an artist royaltycontract which is signed directly to thecompany, it is my duty and obligation toprovide him with a producer. Hopefully it'san in-house producer ... as we callthem ...who's on staff and gets an over-ride,of course, if their record is successful. Thenumbers are immaterial because it changesas far as the artist goes and according to hiscontract. In the case of a HelenReddy ... sometimes an established artist likesto identify with an identified outsideproducer. Helen Reddy, this past album ... Iprovided her with Tommy Catalano, which Ihad to go and make a deal with Tommy. Ifit was a production deal it would be up toHelen to provide her own producer. Weoffer them a higher royalty to provide aservice that we don't have to take careof...in ' other words, they take care ofeverything ... they set up their own studiotime ..•they are responsible for their ownbills. When they present us with the finalbills.••they're going in for a budget of$25,000, they spent 24 we just pay themthe 24•.•if they go 10% over the budget weallow that ... if they go beyond that we makesome settlement... we usually pay for it, butthey're responsible for everything ...in otherwords, they deliver to us finishedproduct. •.a 'master. Some artists, someproduction companies have in theircontracts that they can do their own artwork ... that gets a little hairy ...because thattakes time ...From then on in, Capitol takesover...we'll sit down with their managementor with the artist...with the marketingpeople ..•and plan a program for when thealbum is released.
The wholesale price of an album is about$2.81...somewhere in that area ...we usuallystart...I say usually because contracts aredifferent... We usually start a productioncompany at 16% of wholesale ... of course wecan have what we call a "step-royalty." Asthe album sells, I try and communicate withthe management. ..saying "Look, if we makemoney I'm only too happy to share it withyou ...we have a fantastic overhead ...if yousell so many we'll go to 17 and then to18...if 'we sell so many more we'll go to19... there's no stopping ...if we make moneywe're only too happy to share it with you."
THE PRODUCTION
Now the deal is set...the productioncompany has negotiated its deal... the budgethas been okayed ... the group is ready ...thesongs for the LP or the single session areselected ...producer, artist, songs...In orderto understand a little of the actual recordingprocedure we visited several recordingsessions over· the past months ...learningimmediately, that certainly for the producerthere was no "right" way to do it. One ofthe sessions we were invited to was withproducer Dr. Don Altfeld ...~Don is byfar no newcomer to the record or musicbusiness ...but after several years he hasfinally gotten his first number one in thecountry The artist was AlbertHammond the song...lt Never Rains InSouthern Califomia ...This particular sessionwas a "tracking" session... the "layingdown" of the basic rhythm, using drums,other percussion instruments, bass guitar,rhythm guitar, piano and whatever otherinstruments we missed. Albert and Dr. Donwere producing a new group of five youngladies who ("really that's their name") areca lle d Th e Jackson Sisters ...Dr. Don'sbackground is certainly not typical (if theword typical could be used when speakingof the "category" of producers) ...butinteresting. He grew up in Cleveland,Ohio ...becoming interested in popular musicwhile listening to Alan Freed and BillRandle ...Certainly it was in this area at thistime that "rock and roll" was being born.Dr. Don would get home from school andtake a note pad and write down all the songshe knew as he turned the dial from stationto station. He would make a check mark bythe song and then once a week add them all
no matter how big we get.were going to stay smalt
We hove [ust o handful of artists. A handful and hand-picked We work our toils(pardon the pun) off for them and theirmusic because we're o record companythat revolves around our product. Not theother way around
We'll stay this way and that's whySiegel-Schwall, Megan McDonough, Wolfman Jock, Styx, Jomes Lee Stanley andExile are with us.Who needs growing poins? Not us. We'vegot RCA for their manufacturing and distriburion advantages.
Manufactured and Distributed by RCA Records
768
Let's See...Yes, 3 T. ambones. Uh ...And,
up and make up ¡,:. .wn charts. "Who'dmake them for" I " .idc them for myself.Nobody else ever saw them." Later, hemoved to Los Angeles and in a new, strangecity he became even more involved withradio and music. He began sending tapesback and forth to his friends, in Clevelandof LA stations and vice versa. Cleveland andthe northeast was indeed the leader in topforty radio while LA and the West Coastwas just beginning to pick up on it. Whilelistening to Cleveland tapes, Dr. Don startedcalling local jocks and hipping them torecords that were going to happen. It wasthe first involvement for Dr. Don. Later inthe school newspaper, he wrote a musicalcolumn and through it met Jan Berry, whoat that time was a lino-type operator. Theybecame friends and soon were writing songstogether. During this time, Jan and anotherfriend, Arnie Ginsberg (not the disc jockey),cut a song in their garage that through thestrangest of quirks became a hit. .. Jenny Leeit was called. Dr. Don kept writing until hisfirst hit, Little Old Lady From Pasadenacame around ... He kept writing, withrecordings on albums etc. He later produceda group called the Woolies and had his firstchart record called "Who Do You Love" forDunhill Records ... At the same time, Dr.Don was becoming a doctor ... throughcollege, med school, and internship. Uponfinishing, he immediately started aproduction company with Steve Zacks;raised money with some private investorsand signed a group from Texas called theFever Tree ... starting a big campaign andthen (with someone else producing) wentabout placing the master, finally wound upwith MCA. For two years after that theycontinued to make production deals ... Thiswound up with the beginning of Prophesy
Records and finally MCA Records wherehe now resides. Besides Albert Hammond,he produced, among others, the last PFSloan album ...
So, now we have the artist (The JacksonSisters) ... the songs (written by severaldifferent people, including AlbertHammond) and the producer (in this case ...producers ... Dr. Don Altfeld and AlbertHammond). Already we've over-simplifiedit. Dr. Don usually works with what he calls"a road map," ... A basic lead sheet and idea,that he will take in the studio with him .. .inthis case, he has the opportunity to workwith one of the countries leading arrangers,who arranges everything down to a teebefore going in ... Dr. Don uses his ownengineer, rather than having the studiosupply one for him ... He is called. A meetingwith the arranger and suggestion ofdirection, studio and date ... A discussion ofthe pieces that will be used. The arranger,then calls a "contractor", a man responsiblefor contacting various musicians to play theda te ... The arranger will ask for specificmusicians on specific instruments ... or hemay want the contractor to suggestso 111 eon e ... There are still other people
The Mailing Room
necessary, but this is the basic nucleus ...Upon arriving, the musicians are already
set in place, Paul is rehearsing theband ... the engineer and helper are gettinglevels on each instrument...In the corner a"copier" is copying parts on songs that willbe recorded la ter. There is sound of masscon fusion ... Levels being moved up anddown drums being tested ... guitars beingtuned Finally the session ·begins ... this isbut a "track" ... Later, when the track iscomplete it will be "sweetened," (horns or
769
strings or some other support orpunctuation will be added) ... Finally, whenthe instrumentation is complete the fivegirls will be brought in the studio, donearphones and sing with it all in theirears ... This particular session is being cutsix teen track. That will be equalized."Mixed down" (levels of each instrumentand voice will be balanced and set), andwhen it sounds complete, a "quarter inch"tape will be made of it...This is known asthe "master tape". Down the hall, is a roomcalled the "mastering lab". In here, from the"master tape," "refs" will be cut...They areequalized in various ways and the producerthen takes them home and listens (or "lives
Copying parts
with") to them. If they are okay, he thencalls the studio and tells them. The studio isthen given the green light to cut a "masterdisc" ... That is then taken to the processorand it is "metal plated" ... and that becomesa "me la I negative"... From it. "testpressings" are made ... A "test pressing" isthe actual disc that you will find in theshop ... It's bro ugh l back to the studio andtested. If all is okay with it then the order ismade lo go ahead with the pressing. If it's aproven artist the initial pressing order maybe 50,000 or more ... but, we're getting aheadof ourselves ... Back inside the control roomthe engineer continues to makea dj u s t m e n t s ... the producers listen andoccasionally will instruct... take one ... taketwo ... "Thal was a good track ... Let's takeone more ... try his mike ... maybe you shouldadjust that. .. bring it down ... which one is hedoing now ... he isn't limited is he ... yes heis...why isn't he coming out...lot of levelcoming into that limiter. ..his amps tooloud ... he's breaking up ... okay, that did
it. .. take three ... great ... yeah keep it..."Albert Hammond .. "It's tough you know,when you get home you realize how much ittakes out of you" .
Don Altfeld you figure it out on yourown ... there's one to tell you "this is howyou make a rccorcl" ...You pick up byobservation ... by watching people makerecords ... this does this ... and that doesthat.i.and this is what I'm going to do ... I'mgoing to make a record in this style and thisfashion ... and you refine it and develop andretine your habits un ti! you have your ownsystem. That's why when I talk to youabout record production what I say may beso totally different than what any otherproducer will tell you. I mean there arebasics ... You've got lo have material. .. youcan't work without it. ..There are peoplewho have formulated it. ..some hit groupscame from "formula" records ... butgenerally speaking it's better to get awayfrom the formula so that you have theadaptability to do something fresh ..becauseit's a creative act, essentially. I do itdifferent myself every date I work. Onething I usually do pretty much the same ... !go in with a "road map" "road maps" arcchord sheets ... a chord sheet merely says,"we starl here at letter 'A' which is the verseof the song ... it's an a chord followed by a echord followed by a cl chord ... the time isthis, it's 4/4 time ... It goes like this and itchanges into a little repeat and goes back tothis and goes back into another verse andthen the chorus ... and these are thechords ... so the musicians, given those chordsthey couldn't play anything other thanchords ... then the artist or I will sing thesong ... You see I am very well versed inrecords from the 1950's on, I 'JI say to thepiano player "I want this to sound
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The Master of the Masters
like fats Domino h that part in BlueberryHiU... remember [¡:,,.berry HiU? I want youto play that kind or thing" or "rememberthat base run you did on Simon andGarfunkel's records?" So I'll talk in terms ofrecords ... maybe nobody else doesthat...maybe everybody else does that...!don't know that because I don't go to otherpeople's sessions. But what I'm really sayingis, "You're a professional. You play thisinstrument 3 or 4 sessions a day. It's yourinstrument...it's your life ... it's your form ofexpression ... I don't want to confine you bya bunch of notes and say play this and thisand this and this." I would generally say it'sbeen very successful for me ... not in theterms of record sales but in terms of gettingthe kind of record that I'm after. I feel like Icommunicate with the artists and musiciansvery well. .. but I don't have the musicalvocabulary because I can't read music. Thatwas something I learned in the early daysfrom Lou Adler. .. because Lou 111 the earlydays ... ! don't know what he does now ... buthe had the same kind of thing ... lt was moreof an emotive kind of thing ... hecommunicated with his emotions so well itwas almost like people could read hisrnind ...just his presence got people to openup ... So that I would say is the only realstandard so far, that in cutting the basicskeleton of the song, we allow a lot ofla titude ...We encourage them to expressthemselves ... ! don't do that with stringplayers because string players in Iha t kind ofarrangement can only do it by the notes ... soI'll get an arranger and I'll sing him thepart. ..hum the part... tell him what we wantit to sound sort of like ... play himrecords ... he'll write it out...and we'll leaveenough time to make changes on thedate ... and I'll bring someone to the date
that can work with the players.- 'Arrange' to set out for one
performing medium a composition writtenfor another. (Normally this indicates stricterfidelity to the composer's notes, and lessartistic license, than does the term'transcribe' ... (from "A New Dictionary ofMusic" by Arthur Jacobs), Paul Riser hashad a string of successes with his note bynote designs of other people's songs ... Hisla test was the familiar and effective PapaWas A Rolling Stone, a hit for theTemptations ...
As the session ended we sat in the studioand talked about"arrangements." - A producer
Dr. Don and Albert
will call me and say, "Hey I want you to dosome arrangements for me ... and then we'llget together and listens to the songs andexchange ideas on different tunes ... both ofus give our feelings and come to a commonground ... we discuss the group ... and work toarrange around them too. The job of anarranger is to coordinate the rough sketchesof the music that comes from the producerand the writers ... put it together in ourmind ... and then get in on paper and then getthe musicians to comprehend what we'vedone ... An arranger's job is very important tothe overall product. Normally, the producerwill also leave the selection of the musiciansup to the arranger also ... The producer isn onnally not a schooled musician andtherefore they can't technically know who'sdoing what you know ... The arranger figuresout what pieces should be used also theengineer takes care of how it's set up andit's the producer's job to coordinate thewhole thing ... I concentrate on what's on thepaper. They usually give me a tape ... and I
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make everybody's part coordinate fromthat. ..
I started in Detroit ... a guy with Motownnamed Dale Warren, brought me in as atrombone player. .. and from there I becamea copyist (copying other arrangersarrangements) and then finally started doingmy own arrangements,
How much do I get paid? It depends onthe company ... the deal you have with theparticular company ... a lot of things vary but90 percent or the time arrangers get paid aflat fee. If you have a lot of hits like QuincyJones or somebody you might get apercentage. You get anywhere from $250 to$450 per tune ... so you figure out an averageof ten tunes on an album ... tha t includes somuch tor charts ... so much for being leaderor conductor or the session ... you get twicescale tor being leader ... scale tor musicians is$30 per hour or $91 for each three-hoursession, so bare minimum for conductor is$182 per session ... that's minimum!'
Another person at a recording session isa "contractor." He Selected the musicians inmany cases or followed the instruction ofthe arranger or the producer in contactingthe various musicians and "contracting"them for the session. It is up to thecon tractor to see that the musicians getpaid ... lt is also up to him whether or not themusicians should get paid overtime if thedate goes past the three-hour session.Overtime is $4 7 per half hour for each halfhour past the first three. For this job thecontractor gets paid double scale and maybook as many as four or five sessions in oneday. It is possible for a contractor to makeas much as a quarter or a million dollars ayear. ..and the best do. But at the same time
Albert Hammond
Musicians and staff listen to Playback.
the pressure or the musicians being adequateto the task wanted by the producer andarranger is on the contractor's back. He'sresponsible for their performance and if forexample a musician he selects does notperform properly and ruins a session he isresponsible for the entire cost of asession ... word is that this seldom happensbut technically is responsible. People suchas drummer Russ Kunkle spend their daysdoing nothing but studio dates ... and thepossibility of them making a good deal ofmoney is also good ... but said "it'sa rough life. To me, studio musicians are thebest musicians around ... because they haveto come in and they have to sit down andthey have to sight read ... whatever,whatever's put up in front of them. That'stheir job ... if they blow it, they blow the job.The blacklisting might last for a week ... for(\VO weeks .•.might last for five years ...because he came in and blew one session.The word gets around. That's why themusician is a very, very criticalperson ..• they're very touchy ... very strong ...you have to be. A lot or people don't realizewhat's involved in being a studiomusician ... the competition isatrocious ... there's always someone in theirshadow waiting to get into their place. Heusually breaks in through being a musician'sfriend ... by knowing a contractor. He doesn'tjust go up to a contractor and say "I'd liketo play." That's like nothing' ... that's like anant...never happen ... I don't care how well hemight play ..• it's a clique ... there are first callmusicians ... second call. .. third call. .. it'spolitics! It's who you know' You can makea lot of money though. You take a musicianin this city ... he can average three, may be
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THE MASTERING LP
four sessions a day ... that'spushing ... four ... and that's not at scaleeither. See. because he must be in demandlo get three sessions a clay ... he can make$3.000 a week easy ... lt's a chemistry ofthings that have to work together see ... it's apuzzle ... you try to fit the pieces togetherover a life span over a period uf time ... ancl ifyou miss sume pieces it's going to cost yousomething ... you know ... down the line ... andif you're really conscientious, une one clayyou're going tu have all the piecesthere ..• hut, it takes constant being un thebase ..ºp •.~ssing. Bill Shnea was the engineeron the· session .•.He's a free lance engineerand is call eel in especially to do thesession ... He makes about $35 an hour. Withgroups and producers into sound today, thefree lance engineer has come about. .. ratherthan just accepting whatever engineer is atthe session .•. besides engineering he also hasrecently started working with Sweathog ... hisfirst single being Hallelujah, producing. Billis considered as one of LA\ bestengineers ... working sessions with suchgroups as Three Dog Night. .. The last twoLive albums for Barbra Streisand ... and thelatest Carly Simon album •.. 'He alsoproduced White Trash and part of NewBlood by Blood Sweat and Tears. He hascontinued to work closer with RichardPerry and will be going into more projectswith him over the next months ...We askedhim to tell us the job of an engineer in thestudio ...
"There are really two ways thatrecordings take place. Nowadays, one is themost prominent, what you saw tonight,where basically a track is cut...justm u sicians .•. Primarily rhythm instruments
and then any sweetening, such as horns andstrings or certain percussion or maybe organor other rhythm instruments used assweeteners or what not things woven aroundthe basic track are added later at anothersession and then vocals, also used assweeteners ..•and then the lead vocal and thebackground vocal are added. All of this, in astep by step process, over a period ofhowever long rt takes to pul together. Thenit's all mix eel down to stereo, which is whatis released for consumer. The other type isLive recording, which is the way it used to bedone where everything. goes atunce ... There's still a certain amount of thatdone. Most "artists," such as BarbraStreisand. still like tu record that way ... theylike tu have that whole thing there ... at onetime instead uf working with a track or withjust rhythm instruments. In either case, inthe original recording elate whether it's live,or just a basic track session, there'sanywhere from an hour to two or threebefore the session in setting up. Obviously,the three h our s would be when you have 40pieces ..• full orchestra ... it takes quite a whileto set it up ... 10 get all the positioning ofinstruments in ihe room for sounds sake andfor musicians sake, so they can see each
Bill Turning up...
other and work off each other the way theywant to ... So, you have to position theinstruments the way you want them andthen all the microphones, for the sound onthese instruments, music stands, and all theearphones and stuff, so that when themusicians come in they sit down and areready to play.
While the sessions going on ... everybodydoes it differently .. .in the medium now w)th
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the sixteen track going to twenty fourtrack ... it\ not nearly as much of a mixingjob per se, as it is getting it recorded theway you want it done. In a live session,everything is there at once. Everything isthere .. .it's happening in those 3-1/2 minutesthe song is being performed. Here with the3-1/2 minutes it takes to make a tape, thebasic track is being performed but you haveno idea .. .it hasn't been written yet. .. thehorns and strings and voices haven't beenconceived ... so there's no way to really mix.You're just getting them balanced the waythe individual mixer feels comfortable andputting them on a sixteen track on aseparate track so that when everything isadded together, you'll have enoughseparation and control over the variousinstruments to put them together and thendo a mixing job ... the real mixing comes atthe "mix down", after everything is puttogether. Now if it's a live session with 35pieces, that type of thing, if you're puttingit on a 16 track medium you're still doingthe basic mixing right then.
After the mix down and the song iscompleted it goes to be mastered and that'swhere they take the two track tape and putit on a disc from which they make metalparts that make many many discs that theydistribute and I usually follow through withit...! want to make sure everything comesout all right.
Balance and mix? The most importantthings invariably in any record, I feel, in thefinished thing is not what an individualinstrument sounds like or anything ... It's theyes, or no of it. .. because that's still what itcomes down to in selling records or pleasingpeople. It's a fcel. .. lt either movessomebody or it doesn't' ... It either movesyou or it doesn't. When I'm done balancingand mixing it and I listen to it, I like what Ihear.
Basics? Set formula? Not at all. It's likesaying in that art form ... you have to use redor blue or green ... It's very similar ... paintingwith sounds, rather than with color.
THE RECORD PRESSING PLANT
"The test pressings are okay ...go aheadand press ... " Those are the words of therecord producer. What he has just said, isthat the labor pains have started ... the childwill be born momentarily. It begins with the
"master disc" and the record processingplant. It is fast sprayed with silver. .. thismakes it a conductor of clec t rici ty ... thenthey put it in the bath and it draws thenickel anodes from the bath of nickel. Thismakes it a plate on this one side ... they splitthe plate apart and when they pull it apartthat makes a master ... then it goes back inthe bath again. From the "master" thevmake a "mother". Then they splitit apart again and from the "Í11other" theymake the "stamper." And now, at MonarchRecord Manufacturing Company we are
THE MOTHER & THE MASTER
subject to a new kind or excitementdifferent from the piano ... different fromthe studio ... This is a tour or the pressingplant. An "A" side a "B" side go in thepress. These arc stampers and they are givento each press. A second machine is takingthe pellet-like raw vinyl and melts itdown ... it drips out like licorice tooth paste.One man operates two presses. He spots thelabel in the middle or a huge waffle irontype of machine. It reaches over and picksup the soft vinyl... puts it on top or the labelin a pile ... closes the machine ... and under120 ton pressure within but a few secondsthe record has been made. The 53/4 recordis then trimmed 1-1/4 ounces for a perfectcircle in the trimmer. The waste material isthen picked up and put into a huge barrel. Itwill be used again. Each man is able to press550 records on each machine in an 8-hourday. That's 1,100 records per man. The costof the record to each company depends onhow many he buys. If he orders 500pressed, he pays 35 cents each ... if he goesup to as high as 500,000 the cost goes downto 30 cents. Album jackets and labels arefurnished by the record company. A huge
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conveyor belt continues to move over theheads of the presses ... when there is a certainamount, it's placed on a rack andt r a n sp orted into the next room •.. Eachrecord is then individually inspected fordamages ..• bad labels, etc .•. put in the sleeveand then pul in the jackets. They arestacked on the side to put in a long slide likerack. From here the records go through amachine that slips the album and jacket intoa plastic bag ... This is then pressuresealed ... stacked again and packaged into abox of 25. It is then stacked ready for
Checking all day long for defects.
sh ippiug ... Trucks back up to the backdoor ... the boxes are put onto <motherconveyor belt and loaded onto the trucks.The trucks are owned by a freight companythat continually does work with the pressingplant. •. but it is in no way owned by thepressing plant. Freight charges are biJleddirectly to the record company.
An order will come in, usually by phonefrom the record distributor (we're gettingahead of ourselves again) ... to the recordmanufacturer ... the record manufacturer willthen call the pressing plant and ask him toship the designated amount of records tothe distributor. A supply sits on the floor ofthe pressing plant and when it gets low, themanufacturer who is keeping track ofsupply (along with the pressing plant) ordersmore records pressed. The order from themanufacturer will also include how it is lobe shipped .•.either directly by truck ... or ifthe need for product is great enough ... byair ... the truck, of course, is cheaper and as aresult preferable, if speed is not thatimportant.
Some interesting sidelights to thepressing plants ...
The quality of a record is not changedwhen pressed from the master except in avery extreme case.
A monitoring department iscontinuously listening to the pressed recordsto make c e r t a in there are nomistakes .•.despite this some bad pressings doget through occasionally.
A record can be pressed in styrene orvinyl...styrene has more brilliance but doesnot wear as well as vinyl.
Monarch Records, when operating at fullspeed (24 hours a day, which they do) can
STUFFING THE JACKET
press up to 65,000 records a day ...It usually takes three days to get a test
pressing ...Labels cos! a record manufacturer
$16.00 a thousand ...jackets, of course, varyin price according to their sophistication ...
Our thanks to who was sokind and patient in explaining this processto us ... even though he couldn't tell us wherethe name "mother" originated from.
The Press
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IS BEINGNUMBER ONE IN
12-45important to you?
Beginning March 1st, The Radio Report becomes fourhours of interviews, records that will be hits, currenthits and current news, important to the active 12-45year old.
Scientifically created utilizing the methodology ofDr. Ernanual Demby and Shannon's theory of Communication, this is both INFORMATION andENVIRON1\1ENTAL radio ... produced in LosAngeles with the aid of one of America's most pro-gressive sound laboratories .
May be run as a four hour monthly special of a weeklyone hour program ....
Stereo or Mono
Conforms to non-idealistic standards set by the President'sOffice of Tele-Communications ....
Exclusive ... One station per market
Priced per market size .... SRDS ...
First come ... first serve .....
THE RADIO REPORT IS ON THE AIR ...COMINGMARCH lst .... For further information call ....
Dennis Carhart 213-278-2570
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FROM HERE TO CONSUMERTY
NEIL BOGART
There are those, though they even maybe part of the daily workings of the musicbusiness, who would watch the truck pullaway from the pressing plant and wavegoodbye with their handkerchiefs waving inthe air. •."The life of a record .. .its story"they would sigh ... "How beau ti ful." Andthose who know would add, "Its story has
only just begun." One more step tocome .•. the final and, because of its finality,the most important. It is now time to figureout whether or not that record will beappealing to the ultimate judge: "theconsumer". The song, the copyright, theproduction deal, the mix, the pure tones ofthe horns, and the electro-litic plating mustnow succumb to the mercy of the public. Ifthey buy it. there will be new heroes on thestreet. l f they don't, the I 0,000 pressed upwill be of no use even to the pressingplan L. not worth the trouble and expense oftaking them back out of their shucks andrecycling them. The final piece of thepuzzle, therefore, must be puttogether. .. some record companies call it"marketing." While the chief executive of arecord company must be well rounded in allphases of the record business ... from havingsome idea of what the public will like in asong to concepts of have to motivate clericalworkers to get in at 9AM...his report card isprinted in ink ... the bottom line must beblack. If,from the beginning of the song to
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the end result or a consumer buying it, it iscorrect, till' report card will be straigh l'A's". The blame or positive recognitionfinally falls back on the Jerry Mosses, theMike Stewarts, the Clive Daviscs, and theNeil Bogarts. The history of Neil Bogart andthe company that he is president of arc ainteresting study in how a record companycan succeed or fail. Certainly all or thecompanies in existence today have the samekind of story ... they had at the helmsomeone who figured ou l how to gel it froma copyrigh l lo a consumer. Neil Bogart wasonce branded by Time Magazine as "TheBubblegum King" back in 1969, a title heearned from his trip with a new companyand a new concept.i.Buddah. Neil is nownearing his 30th birthday. He was born inBrooklyn, New 'York, attended the highschool of performing arts and majored inlaw al Brooklyn College. He began his careerin the field of entertainment as aprofessional singer under the name NeilScot t. finally moving in to the business enclor the music biz with Cash box Magazine, asan account executive. He moved from therelo MGM ... where he gol a good base innational promotion, later becoming nationalprom orion director for Cameo/Parkway. Althe time or his departure he had moved tothe position or Vice President and GeneralManager.
He joined the Buddah Group in I 967 asGeneral Manager. He talked about thoseclays during a discussion several weeks ago ...
Artie Ripp and Art Cass had come lo meand presented 111ewith the idea of starting anew label called Budduh . Records. Theywere Kama Su tra at that time, pointingtoward a "folk rock" type of music. Theproblem they Imel at Kama Su tra was thatthe company didn't have the kind of moneyit look to bankroll these acts and supportthem until they made it. So, I basicallychanged the direction of the company andthe quickest way and the quickest directionto make money lo be able lo do what wewan led to do was teeny-bopper rockmusic ... formula records, studio records. Thefirst four acts tha l we signed were Thelrui tgurn Company. the Ohio Express, theFive Srairsteps and the Lemon Pipers. All ofthe groups had lead singers - the rest of thegroup was made up or studio people. Webegan having hit single after hit single. Wesold about 18 million singles our first yearin business, \Ve had offered MGM forKama Sutra records. Simon says ... and they
turned it down. We were trying to buildboth labels at the same time ... gct them backin the public's cyc ... and into thebelievability position of if a record comesou l on these labels it could be a hit.
The term "Bubblegum?" I was beinginterviewed by Ti111eMagazine and in tryingto describe it, I just said it was a "Happy golucky. good lime music, sort of like thepiel ur c of a kid chewing Bubblegumstanding on a street corner really happyLike." It came out in the article ... NeilBogart, Bu b blegurn King of America.Bubblegum music was really not adiscovery, it's been around for years. I hatethe expression "Bubblegum." It became atotal put down and it just didn't representanything artistic. lt wasn't easy to make ahit "Bubblegum" record. There was an artto it but it became a put down. Most actswould say, "we could have hit singles likethat, but we don't want to have'Bubblegum' hits."
We're not putting out the same kind ofmusic like we were before. The first reasonwas that we lost our outlet for those kind ofrecords. People stopped giving us therecords. That was really the first reason. Thereason I had first gotten into that type ofmusic, which is important, is that I justdidn't understand the "psychedelic" musicthat was happening at the lime. That's whatit was called. All l understood was the easyrock. It was just an accident that the recordswere called Simon Says and YummyYum111y. They could have been called halfof Credences' hits, or lop forty rockrecords. It could have been the same thing. Ihad nothing to do with saying, "Let's make'Bubblegum' kind or records."
It was certainly the quickest promotioncompany you've ever seen. When we startedmoving in another direction with theImpressions and the Stairsteps Marty Thauwas national promotion director and CecilHolmes knew how lo work the recordsR&B. lt became almost a formula thing. Atthat time Cecil would start the record, buildit to a point. .. and Marty would deliver it.We were very small. ..and we ran it like afootball squad ... or half a footballsquad ... and it was carefully planned andscientifically promotecl ... if there is such athing.
Under Neil Bogart, since its inception in1967, the Buddah Group has earned twentyseven gold records. Just a Iittle bit of one ofthe many stories of the men who are at the
778
helms of the record industries. For furtherreference, try Jerry Moss and Herb Alpert'sstory of A&M...or Jim Stewart's explanationof Stax beginnings ...or. ..or. ..the recordexecutive.
PROMOTION & MA.RKETING
The marketing then of a record canprobably best be explained in the articlewritten by Mr. X on the Life Of A SingleRecord. No one company markets theirproducts exactly the same way. Recordsales...product release figures are unavailablefrom an industry that likes to keep itsstatistics to themselves for the most part.But certainly 1972 was no different. ..theaverage amount of singles into a radiostation averaged around 130 per week ... theaverage number of albums was from 40 to6 O ... and that certainly was not all ofit...certain forms of speciality type records(classical, children, Spanish etc.) were alsobeing released. The over abundance ofproduct has been as big a problem as theindustry and the stations themselves havehad to deal with.
The basic structure of any recordcompany (big or small) starts with its chiefexec u tive ... general manager, president,whatever. ..Within that company he hasleaders in the division of Sales andMarketing, Promotion, Public Relations,A&R, and Business. If the company is smallenough he may have to do all of these thingshimself. Certainly in even the largercompanies he is concerned with all thefacets.
Once the job of getting the record out isover, the A&R departments job for the mostpart is·over, except for the fact that he toois as concerned with the artist himself ispresented to the public in the best possiblelight. ..and that finally that piece of productis successful in terms of its sales. In mostcases, he is on a day to day contact withhow the sales of the single is going. Becauseof its vagueness we will touch only brieflyon the marketing of a record ...and continueits investigation of the next months so thatwe might have a more in-depthpresentation ...certainly it's a whole schoolin itself.
The differences in a company such asColumbiaaJM! companies like A&M...and stillsmaller organizations such as Avco are night,day, and night and day. Columbia owns its
own distributors ...A&M and Avco use whatare called independent distributors.
A promotion director of a recordcompany like Epic for example works in atotally different way than a company suchas Avco for example ...Blue Thumb is a fineexample of a basic record company ...Theirpresident Bob Kransnow does not only the"presidenting" but does the A&R aswell. ..Louis Newman is responsible for allpromotion ... He's not only promotiondirector. ..he is promotion ...same is true withsales Sal Lacotta is responsible for all thesales and that's it.
At Epic, there is a sales manager,marketing manager, the titles getlonger...also at Epic, Stan Monteiro- is notonly Director or Promotion but has a bevyof promotion men in all the major cities ofthe country who do nothing but promotefor Epic. We asked Stan to write us up alittle something on what his job asPromotion Director for the company reallyconsists of...
What It's Like To BeANationaTPromotio;i Director
By Stan MonteiroPromotion is fun and hard work,
nerve-wracking and annoying, heroic andexhilarating, frustrating and exciting, andthe best job in the world. One day you're ahero and the next day you're a bum. Iftheteam delivers a number one record, the manwants to know what's happening withrecord number two. It's a crazy professionand that's probably why we all do it... we'reall crazy. The real reason, however, is thatwe love music, people and radio.
The duties of a National PromotionDirector are many and varied: He's ababy-sitter, public relations man, salesman,administrator, diplomat, father-confessor,businessman and entertainer (we're all in
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show business!).Hem ust be able to:I. I land le thirty or forty phones calls .a
day, mostly from managers, artists, and inour case any one or our custom labelpeople.
2. Motivate and direct a field promotionforce. They depend upon you for nationaldirection and back up. You try to keepthem happy, excited and in lo their ¡,~gs.You must be able to do what they do andgive them the benefit or your many years ofexperience.
3. Coordinate all airplay with the salesdepartment. Make sure that the airplay thatthey secure is backed up with stock in themarket. You must keep the sales managerappraised daily of new airplay and excitingactivity at key stations.
4. Seek advertising support on keyproduct. Very important with new artists,especially.
5. Make recommendations to the A&Rdepartment for suggested singles fromalbums and follow-up singles. The A&Rdepartment depends on the team for timingor product and for new trends at radiostations and in the market place. Thecoordination between these twodepartments is most important.
6. Travel. Visit markets - as many asyou can every year. Work with BranchPromotion Managers at radio stations andaccounts and rap with Branch SalesManagers. At tend conventions and meetingsduring the year. You must stay on the streetor you lose touch.
7. Co ordinate artist tours andappearances. Sending out itineraries,advising the field of key points regarding theartist or artists (i.e, will they visit stations,who is the most articulate member ormembers for interviews, little things thatwill make the artist happy). The artistappearance work load is very heavy and amajor part of the Branch and RegionalManager's job.
8. Communicate weekly with the tradesand radio and record reporters. Feed themaccurate information as to new airplay, keyjumps, important local, regional or nationalsales that arc significant, interest them innew records and new artists, feed theminteresting information about yourcompany and its direction, enlist theirsupport and give them yours.
9. Attend various meetings during theweek. These meet ings are all crucial to the
success of a company. The exchanging ofideas, formulating of plans, creation ofprograms, and internal communication allcontribute to this success.
IO. Organize an internal system withinthe department to give the necessary toolsto the field force so that the job is thatmuch easier (i.e. Master Sheet radio checklists, artist itineraries and up-to-datechanges, bios and photos, press information,support programs for artists, promotionalsupport material (T-shirts, buttons, posters,blow-ups, sales figures, etc.), fingertip albumplay information, daily airplay additions.
11. Listen to competitive product andcompetitive activity. Always know what thecompetition is up to.
12. Send a steady flow of informationto all the people whom you represent -artists, managers, custom labels.
I 3. Above al I, I istcn to productconstantly, over and over again. You mustknow your product inside out. You mustlisten objectively and fairly. You must neverallow your personal taste to get in the way.A record is a record is a record.
As you can see, the du tics of a NationalPromotion Director are incredible andsometimes awesome when you realize thatwhen you pick up that record you areholding someone's future and life in yourhand. It's a hell or a responsibility. Youmake the wrong move, the wrong decisionor allow your emotions to cloud your mind,you can blow someone's career. You mustrealize that when all those people came outof the studio, they knew that they had justcreated a hit single or album. You must givethe same loving care to the promotion ofthat record as they gave to the creation oftheir music. Every record isn't a smash butevery record is a piece of someone's life andyou must treat it that way. And, for all youknow, with your golden ear and expertise, itmight be a smash anyway.
So you see a National PromotionDirector's job is not just getting recordsplayed, just as a Program Director's job isnot just listening to and programmingmusic. He must be a human being who lovesmusic and can get his head in to all the manythings that contribute to the success of anartist and the com pan y.Background - Stan Monteiro
World War II veteran, Army - GraduateBoston University, B.S. in Creative Writing- Professional jazz musician, clarinet &tenor sax, private studies, New England
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Conservatory of MusicRecord and Radio Background
Program Director, WILD, Boston - alsodid jazz show, news and sports
Started in warehouse of independentdistributor in Boston, Records, Inc. Oweterrific debt to Cecil Steen, my first bossand President of Records, Inc.
Record salesman on street - localpromotion man for Records, Inc.
New England Promotion Manager forMercury Records and Field Promotion repfor RCA Records in New England
Assistant National Promotion Managerunder augie Blume at RCA Records
National Promotion Director forMetromedia Records
Head of Marketing and other things forGrunt Records - to present.
Other fields of endeavor - short ordercook, shoe buyer for department store,small weekly newspaper editor, father ofthree and happy husband.
NARMby JULES MALAMUD
N ARM, the National Association ofRecording Merchandisers, is the tradeassociation which represents themerchandising segment of the phonographrecord industry via its Regular Membership.The Regular Membership of NARl'vl iscomprised of rack jobbers, independentdistributors, and retailers of phonographrecords, tapes, accessories and equipment.The NARM Associate Membership consistsof the suppliers of all types of product andservices to NARM's Regular and AssociateMembers. Virtually every recordmanufacturing company is an associatemember of NARM. In addition,manufacturers of display fixtures, printingand packaging services, and blank tape areAssociate Members. In 1973, three hundredcompanies comprise the NARMmembership.
In September, 1958, when the firstmeeting of the Board of Directors of theNational Association of RecordMerchandisers was held, thirteen companies,rack jobbers who placed phonographrecords on racks and in cardboard dumpboxes in supermarkets, grocery, drug andvariety stores, became the charter RegularMembers of NARM. In February, 1959, the
first Associate Members affiliated, and atthe time of NARM's first convention at theEdgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago, theAssociate Membership had risen to nineteen.
The next six or seven years saw thetremendous growth of the number of recordrack jobbers in the United States andCanada and the even greater growth of thekinds of departments these rack jobberswere servicing. The great success of rackjobbers was clearly demonstrated in theexpansion of rack jobbing activity inservicing full-time record departments intraditional department stores and discountdepartment stores.
As the number of rack jobbers increasedand the importance of the rack jobbingconcept to the merchandising ofphonograph records increased, so did themembership of NARM. 1965 saw a new
JULES MALAMUD
infusion of Regular Members. As theconcept of rack jobbing grew from that of arack of promotional records in thesupermarket to a full-line record departmentin the large discount store, recorddistributors began diversifying theiroperations, and became rack jobbers. Manyof them joined NARM, and led to theaffiliation of record distributors first asAssociate Members, and in 1967, as RegularMembers. NARM then was representative ofthe entire wholesaling segment of thephonograph record industry.
The next important change in theNARM membership profile came in 1967,when the growing importance of tapecartridges and cassettes to the musicindustry brought an influx of tapemerchandising and manufacturingcompanies into NARM. Beginning in 1967,NARM was the trade association which
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represented all phases of recorded music.The name of the Association was officiallychanged in 1971 to the National Associationof Recording Merchandisers to reflect moreaccurately the scope of its membership.
As in the mid-sixties, when recorddistributors were diversifying and becomingrack jobbers, a similar movement in NARMmember companies became evident in thelate sixties and the first years of the ?O's.An increasing number of NARM's rackjobber and distributor members wereexpanding their operations and becominginvolved in retail operations. As the earlierexpansion resulted in distributors affiliationwith the formerly all rack jobberassociation, so now did the retail expansionresult in the mass merchandising retailerbecoming a part of NARM's RegularMembership i-n 1971. NARM nowrepresented the entire wholesale distributionand mass merchandising segment of the111usic industry.
Jules Malamud is NARM's first and onlyExecutive Director. He came to theAssociation in 1961 as its first employeeand has been with the Association eversince. ln conjunction with the NARM Boardof Directors, his is the primaryresponsibility for all NARM activities andprojects, including the annual convention.
The annual NARM Convention, held inlate winter of each year, is the musicindustry's best-attended, most importantmeeting. Top echelon executives from everycompany attend, as do other management,sales and promotion personnel. More than1,300 industry members and their wivesattended the 14th Annual Convention at theAmericana Hotel in Bal Harbour in 1972.The J 5th Annual Convention will be heldFebruary 25-28 at the Century Plaza Hotelin Los Angeles.
Keynote speakers at NARM Conventionshave included such industry dignitaries asGlenn Wallichs, of Capitol Records (1962);Goddard Lieberson of Columbia Records(1963); George R. Marek of RCA Records(1964); Archie Bleyer, Cadence Records(1965); Irwin Steinberg, Mercury Records(1966); Clive Davis, Columbia Records(1967 and 1971); Norman Racusin, RCARecords (I 968); Stanley Gortikov, CapitolRecords (1969); Jae Holzman, ElektraRecords (1970); and Jerry Moss, A&MRecords (1972). Larry Uttal, Bell Records,will keynote the 1973 Convention.
Speakers from outside the record
industry are heard at the NARM forum. Thelist of distinguished men of letters andbusiness who have addressed the conventioninclude Dr. Laurence Peter, author of "ThePeter Principle" and "The PeterPrescription"; Dr. Haim Ginott, childpsychologist and author of "Between Parentand Child"; and Robert Townsend, authorof "Up the Organization." At the J 973Convention, Dr. Pierre A. Rinfret,economist and advisor to PresidentsKennedy, Johnson and Nixon, will speak.NARM also draws on the academiccommunity and has featured sessionsconducted by members of the HarvardSchool of Business and Ohio StateUniversity.
The Annual NARM Awa rd s arepresented at each year's convention. Theseare the only industry awards based on thenumber of actual consumer dollars spent forrecords and tapes. Records and artists winthe awards on the basis of having been "thebest selling" of the year. Awards for 1972will be given in the following categories:Best Selling Hit Single Record, Best SellingAlbum, Best Selling Movie Sound Track orOriginal Cast Show Album, Best SellingMale Artist, Best Selling Female Artist, BestSelling Male Country Artist, Best SellingFemale Coun try Artist, Best Selling MaleSoul Artist. Best Selling Female Soul Artist,Best Selling Group, Best Selling Orchestraand/or Instrumentalist, Best Selling ComedyAlbum, Best Selling Jazz Artist, Best SeelingClassical Album, Best Selling Children'sAlbum, Best Selling Economy Album, BestSelling New Male Artist, Best Selling NewFemale Artist, and Best Selling New Group.
NARM's Person-to-Person Conferenceshave become an essential feature of itsconventions. These have provided anor ga nized method of bringing togetherbuyer and seller. As a result, themanufacturers have an opportunity toexpose new products, sales plans andfeatures, and to write orders during aconvention. Similarly, the members have anopportunity to meet with therepresentatives of each of the manufacturersand become aware of what they areoffering.
The Annual NARM Study, started in1962, has grown into a vital industryyardstick of the growth of massmerchandising of recorded product. TheStudy serves as a guideline to the individualmembers by providing them a basis of
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comparison on business volume and salestrends. The NARM Study is also widelyused b~ stock analysts and researchorganizations as well as businesspublications.
The NARM Scholarship foundation is anon-profit foundation established by NARMin l 966, for the purpose of providingscholarships to employees and children ofemployees of NARM member companies.Scholarship recipients must have excellentacademic records, and financial need. Morethan $250,000 in scholarships have beenawarded to students by the Foundation.Jules Mi.larnud serves as Executive Directorof the NARM Scholarship Foundation.William G. Owen, Secretary of theUniversity of Pennsylvania, is thelounda lion's academic consul tan t.
High on the list of NARM's services toits members are those provided by theassociation's law firm, Arent, Fox, Kintner,Plotkin and Kahn, of Washington, D.C. EarlW. Kintner, the Federal Trade Commissionchairman during the EisenhowerAdm ini-.tra lion, became NARM's generalcounsel in 1966. His firm includes a numberof legal experts whose guidance in theirrespective areas of specialization is availableto the members through the executivedirector's office. These include: MarkJoelson. a specialist in antitrust law andgovernment regulation of industry, whoserves as Kintner's associate in handlingNARM's affairs: Allen G. Siegel, an experton labor law, conducted conventionseminars in J 967 and 197 J on the specificways members should handle wage and hourinvesLgations; Charles Ruttenberg, anexpert in legislative matters, has worked inNARM 's behalf to effect the passage of theFedera! Anti-Piracy BiU and has since beenw o r k in g with the NARM membershiptowards State Legislation; Stephen Tucker,a specialist in tax-exempt foundations,served NARM in establishing its ScholarshipFoundation; and John Sexton, an expert inestate planning and tax laws, handled the196 7 convention seminar devoted to theproblem of esta te planning as affected bymergers. The association's membership iskept informed on all legal matters affectingthem through regular bulletins issued byMalamud's office.
NARM has cooperated with the RIAAand tl.e Harry Fox Office in the industry'sfight against piracy. The Association was inthe fc.refront of the fight for the federal
Anti-Piracy Bill, and initiated the meetingwhich spearheaded the industry effort.Currently, it is sponsoring a shoppers'project, whereby reports are filed on retailoutlets handling pirated product.
NARM enjoys a close workingrelationship with the other music industryassociations: RlAA, NARAS, CMA, andNMPA, etc.
Local PromotionFrom "national promotion" come other
titles ... A "regional promotion" man alwaysworks for a company such as Columbia,RCA, \Varners or one of the largerorganizations. He is responsible to overseethe activity of the promotion man in eachcity in his "region." He also works as kindof a trouble shooter. .. or utility.nan ... traveling into various cities to workwith what is called the "local promotion"man ... a term we'll explain further, after wetouch on the "independent promotion"man. He is a man who works for himself asthe title implies ... He'll contract with arecord manufacturer to promote a territoryover a period of time ... or he'll contract witha company to work on a specific record in aregion or locale. The deals between thecompany vary so we'll not spend time onthat...We'd estimate that there are no morethan 50 independent promotion men in theUS ... if that many ...
The local promotion man is as much thekey to the success of a record as any facetof promotion. He may work just onecity ... might add smaller outlying areas ... ormay work two or three major cities and thesmaller territories on occasion. Generallyconsidered as one of the best localpromotion men in the US, is not apromotion "man" at all. .. but, a lady ... Hername is J an Bash um ... first beginning herentrance into the record business viapromotion for GNP Crescendo ... she latermoved lo promotion for RecordMerchandisers, an independent distributorin Los Angeles and most recently hasbecome the LA area promotion man (can'tfigure out how to get around that word)A&M .•.On one of her treks through thesmaller cities on the coast we sat over coffeeand she explained her job ...
How do people become promotion men?Various ways ... out of the mail room is oneway ... Also promotion people usuaUy havehad something to do with the businessbefore .. .like radio ... or musicians or members _
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PaulWilliams ...Anybody'
of a gro u p ... or if you know ofsomebody ... like brothers, cousins orwhatever of people in the business.
This is the end of my fifth week withA&M ... lt's a linlc different there than atRecord Merch ... so I'll kind of relate what Ido from that standpoint. The first couple ofdays of the week, since most of the stationschange their Lists on Tuesday... are theworst, as far as time is concerned. \Ve aslocal guys must hit the top forties in town,KMPC which changes its list on Tuesdays,KROQ, KRLA, KDAY, KGBS andKHJ ... plus we have to sec the Hamil tonoffice and the Billboard office on those daysbecause they also go to press ... that's inbetween trying to call the outlying stationswho arc also changing their Lists onWednesday ... I also sec John Wellman atProgramming DB every week. Then you justtry and pick up as many LA stations onMondays and Tuesdays aspossible ... KNX-FM ... KBIG, I see aboutevery three weeks, because I don't have a lotof product for them ... and then I try to goout of town once a week. By out of town Imean the Oxnard, San Diego andBakersfield trip. At Record Merell, it got tothe point where I couldn't get out of town alot because I had so many otherresponsibilities but at A&M I'm able to dothat. Because the ou tly ings are veryimportant to us because, even though theytoo have tight play lists still a record is goingto go on and why shouldn't it bemine ... Wednesdays is KGFJ day and if Ihave a piece of black product, then I mustpick up the rest of the stations in town suchas progressive and MOR that can addrecords anytime. Thursdays I'm trying tomake my out of town day ... some market
every Thursday. Now San Dic20. thank GodI can finally make it a two-day trip, becauseit's a huge market. ..no longer is it a hit andmiss. go to two stations and you're out...!mean you have 8 stations that at least youshould see ... and since you don't see them allthe time you spend a lot longer than youwould with the LA stations. Friday, again,1'111 picking up the rest of the stations. Nowduring the week from publicity and things. Ijust finished the Groucho Marxthing ... trying to get the tickets toeverybody. I try to set up interviews withour artists ... ! work with our own publicitydepartment. .. like they call me and tell mewho's in town and who's available. I have anavailability List but because we like to worktogether they'll say so and so is in town,could we get a couple of interviews? Thatsounds very easy but when you have anunknown artist it's not that easy ... but,everybody wants to interview Cat Stevensbut very few want to interview Joe Blow;who has his first record and you can digit. .. you can understand that. I try to talk tothe outlying stations every week, on thephone .. .if it's possible.
At Record Merch we had a lot ofmanufacturers, so I was on the phone a lotto talk to our manufacturers when I wasover there. I don't listen to product in theoffice ... because you just can't ... so I listento it at home ... ! listen to an album all theway through.
I have to go to the concerts and do theartist relating thing at night...Last week, Iwas out three days.
My husband works for a company thathand les unemployment insurance ... and Ihave two da ugh te rs, twelve and fourteen. Heused to go with me when I had to go tothese activities but he doesn't too muchanymore.
I love what I'm doing ... ! want to makethat clear. .. that being a local promotionman is where it's at... for me ... because we'reinvolved in every facet of the business ...Wehave a little bit of dealing withpublishing ... and we deal with artists and wedeal with public relations and we deal withnot only program and music directors, butwe deal with general managers ... we dealwith distributors ... trades ...you name it andthe local promotion guy is into it. ..
Promotion men make ! would say thelowest is $150 or SI 75 and from then onthe sky's the Limit...lt depends on thecompany ...it depends on you .. .it depends on
ALBERT HAMMOND 0 THE ASSOCIATION 0 MICHAEL O'MARDIAN
P.F. SLOANE 0 CHARLIE STARR -0 LYLE 0 BILL RINHART
llllumms Records, A Record Company Distributed By Columbia Records
A LANDERS ROBERTS COMPANY8899 Beverly Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90048 (213) 273-5050
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a lot of things.In the long run, the local promotion man
has the greatest responsibility we're in theradio station day in and day ou !...dealingwith day to day problems and that's why Iresent them putting inexperience promotionmen on the street...without a care in theworld ... with a list of radio stations and astack of records and they're on their own.
Pres su re? from the company? ... Ihaven't felt it yet... I believe that a goodpromotion man puts his own pressure onhimself...and if he does I don't think thecompany has added to it...
Frustrations? Oh yes Like when yourelly believe in somebody like I currentlybelieve in Paul Williams ...When you feel inyour bones that an artist is there ... and topforty wise you can't get arrested andunderground they think he's too pop PaulWilliams is just brilliant...so the frustrationsare when you believe in something and youcan't make it happen ... some of the otherfrustrations are some of the music directorsthat we have to deal with. In radio, and I'mgoing to say radio rather than mention thespecific stations ... they're constantly sayingthat we should be more professional... we aspromotion men ... but then they give us anon-professional to work with ... lt'sfrustrating on music day to sit and wait foran hour. ..I try to time it so I avoid thecrowds .. .! prefer to come back rather thanwait...l'm not fond of waiting but that'swhat I'm getting paid to do ... l'm not adelivery body ! do not leave my records atradio stations lf I cannot see the programdirector or music director I will not leavemy records ...
We asked Jan to explain the word"promotion" ...
I think it's a matter of "information" ... !really think we're informational rather thanpromotional. .. In this day and age of thetight play list. .. I know things have changedsince I started ... It seems that if you weretruly excited about something and the radiostation believed in you and also heard therecord they would give you a shot withit...Now with the tight playlist...all .theemotion and all the hopes I've had for PaulWilliams have not enabled me to get himon So it's not so much promotion as itis I'm a source of information for a radiostation ... not only on my records ... but onother records as well. .. l've always tried tohelp the radio stations any way that Ican ... There are still some radio stations that
will go with a local guy if he's truly excitedabout something ... For the most part I getnational figures, regional figures sales wisefor both singles and albums ... success storieson a record ... they're one of the mostimportant thing that I've gotgoing ... Background on artists currentinformation on what they're doing ! try tolearn as much as I can about our artists ... lt'snot just a mechanical thing ... Otherwise theycould just hire some kid to deliver therecords ...
Although Jan didn't touch on it in ourconversation, the simple purpose of a"promotion" man is to "promote" therecord. 111is not only has to do with radiostations which was the subject of ourconversation, but in many instances willentail promotion of racks, one stops, retailrecord stores ... and just about any place theycan promote. Certainly also the method ofpromotion has changed ... once promotionmen were thought of and certainly wereapproaching their "promotee" a little like aused car salesman sell cars on late nighttelevision. There are still those who use the"negative" approach of having a battle withtheir "promotee" and some of them are stillsuccessful... ... but it's aharder way to go as some of them will tellyou ... but in certain instances will get arecord on faster ... the general idea today isto build relationships with the music orpromotion director with "music" as therelatable ... rather than it being a quick ... "Igot it on" ... Both methods, in all fairness,have their advantages but the new"communication" rather than "sell" seemsto be the majority method of promotion.
The Sales ManagersBud Katzel is general manager of Avco
Records, a small but very successfulcompany situated in New York. He began inthe record business in 1951 after graduationfrom college doing public relations forDecca Records. After six months he becameDecca's first promotion man in Chicago.From there he became Sales Manager ofRoulette Records. He's been involved insales since then, on one level or another. Atone time he was doing national sales forABC-Dunhill. We asked him to explain thesituation of sales to us ... He began initiallyby reminding that, depending on the size ofthe company there will be a MarketingDirector and a Sale Manager. The MarketingDirector is responsible for everything in
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moving the record trom the plant toconsumer. .. which would include advertising,public relations, promotion, in storemerchandising and s,,les itself. The salesmanager or a company may take on all orthese chores with promotion possibly beinga separate department in itself. "Thercspunsibility of a sales manager," saidKut zel is simply to sec to it that the productis out there" ..• by "out there" Bud explainedthat he meant "merchandise that's beingplayed on tite air must be in titemarketplace at tite retail level. .. it must beavailable when the consumer wants it."
So titen how does this happen? ... Thesales manager does it in several ways. Firstor all in the case of Avco they use what arccalled "independent distributors" ... Thesedist riburorships are privately owned (ratherthan owned by the record company) andthey contract with the various recordcompanies to carry their line. We'll explainmore about distributors in a later section."It used to be," said Katzel, "that beingsales manager of a company was simply amat ter of calling up a distributor and askinghim how many records he wanted ... trying toget him to take as many as possible ... but,today an order clerk can take tite order. It isnot as structured as it used to be because ofthe rack jobber who may sell product inMiami and Pittsburgh and Atlanta and allover the place." "A local store may buyfrom a one stop or rack jobber 500 milesaway ... and those racks and one stops are notas aware of radio station play." A record isbought by a distributor. .. then sold to onestops, rack jobbers and retail outlets. Radiostation play is still the most importantinfluence on whether or not a record is soldin a market. A company like Columbia forexample has successfully used othermethods such as coordina ting sales of arecord to an outlet at the same time theartist is appearing in concert in themarket. .. but "they have the n~1mber orsalesmen to be able to do that." Columbiaalso Itas the number of people to cover basesthat would again be a book in itself onrecord merchandising. Advertising too playsa key rule in developing them a r k e t .•• whether it be newspaperadvertising or radio station advertising orpoint or purchase, display advertising."Radio advertising" said Katzel "is cominginto its own." I'm a total believer. I've seenit work time and time again. But it can't be
a haphazard kind of buy ... the spot has to becarefully planned." Avco has donesomething interesting with their productionof spots ... first. experimented with on thelast Stylistics album. "Most spots play alittle of the hit single ... then a littlerap ... then a little more of another cut... thenmaybe another cut. With those spots weused only one cut out of the album on eachspot and asked the station to rotate titespots ... using five spots ... the final spot didcontain several cuts out of the album. Theinitial buy on the Stylistics album was$35,000 ... then a second buy was made.Avco decides on where the buys will bemade and tries to key in with a local retailstore and distributor when making the spot.
The first decision made by the salesdepartment of a record company is todecide how many records should bepressed "This depends" said Katzel on titerecord whetlter it's an unknown groupwith no hit single ... whether or not it's aworking group or a studio group, wherethey're from, what kind or record it is, whoproduced it and so on. "I usually take thealbum if it's a totally new group, to I O keymarkets that I think it might be suitable for.I usually play them a couple or cuts, letthem know what we're going to spend Ioradvertising, what kind of advertising will bedone on it, etc., then they give me an initialorder, and from that I decide how many I'mgoing to press." Usually on an album on an"unknown" the company will press about10,000 LPs with about 25,000 jackets toback it up as they take longer to getprinted than the pressing process.
In the case of Avco, dealing withindependent distributors is a whole differentset of problems than a company that ownsits own distributors will have. It's up to thesales manager to continue to buildrelationships with the distributor, to makesure that the distrib. salesman is out on thestreet selling his product... to make sure he'sgetting tite promotion that's needed ... tomake sure that point of purchase displayadvertising is being used correctly in thestores ... so part or his job is to motivate hisdistributors rather than attempt to sell themthe product itself. "Finally" said Katzel,"when you hang up the phone, you don'ttake anything tor granted ... you get on aplane and make sure it's being done ... Yougo in to a city and visit all the keyaccounts ... make sure the product is in the
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store when there is airplay ... make sure that,once again, your product is being presentedin the stores correctly. "There was a time"said Ka tzel that we used to pressure adistributor into taking as many records aswe could, but no more ... why overload him,when we'll just wind up getting them back."
Records are sent into the distributor andthen he sells them to racks, one-stops andretail stores. At a certain point the recordstops selling and what's left on the floor ofthe distributor becomes a problem.
"The stock return deal today is I0-15'/obut, realistically, we give practivally 1OO'losupport."
This then becomes one of Katzel's majorproblems." You have to know how muchstock to sell, you don't want to overprcssand ship, because you'll just get it back ... yetyou don't want to lose sales by not havingthe stock in the market. It's always been theglob of the business ... product goes in andcomes right back out."
Katzel keeps in constant contact with hisinventory. If one distributor has 2 or 3thousand records on the !loor at the end ofthe record and another distributor "orders2,000 rather than press more we'll transferthem from one distrib to another, ratherthan just getting it back."
"A sales manager must learn not toshove merchandise out there, there's nodemand for yet, he can't be too cautiouseither."
"Today," Bud told us, "the rack jobbersaccount for 65 or 70% of the volume of LPproduct. Handleman, J.L. Marsh and ABCRecords and Tapes are the major racks. Thebiggest returns with singles come from theracks ... not necessarily with a top 5 recordbut, you get killer' with the mid chartrecord."
This again goes back to the rack jobberputting singles in one ,,¡- his outlets wherethere's no display ... he orders based onwhat's happening on charts that havenothing to do with certain individualmarkets.
"Twenty to twenty-five percent of singlesales today go to juke box operators ... then agood percentage, again go to racks.
Katzel who says the difference betweensales at a large company ("they coordinateinformation coming in from everywhere")and the small company ("he is involved inevery aspect. .. ") comes down torelationships.
Katzel is continuing to talk with distrib
owners he's known for years, plus built longtime relationships with racks and onestops ... He has 17 5 one stops on mail in~ liststo keep them informed .. "Credibility withthese people means everything" Katzel said.
"Trade advertising doesn't meananything ... it just lets other companies knowyou're in business" ...We do very little.
"It all boils down" Bud ended, "with thefact that there arc only human beings outthere ... distrib racks one stops retailers ... afterall they arc just people."Whatever way our sales manager works he
at least must have some of the same ideasthat Ka tzel does if he's successful. TheStylistics and several others have sold theirshare this year. .. and the company is stillalive. With the competition in this very largecountry, that's saying something.
The DistributorThere arc two kinds of distributors ... as
we've pointed out earlier. ..The independentdistributor and the company owneddis tribu tor. Columbia, RCA, United Artists,MCA and Warners own their own ...They inturn will make a deal with other labels tocarry their lines in the distributors. Stax forexample just made a deal for Columbia tocarry their line, rather than using theindependent.
We visited both kinds of distributors -Record Merchandising in Los Angeles whichalso has its own rack jobber and one stopoperation, to get a look at those phases andthen with the very large UDCdistributorship in LA ... to talk with theRegional Sales Manager ... LennyChapman ... He gave us a super detailed lookat what really happens at the branch ...
"When you follow it th rough and realizewho really has the responsibility, that'swhat would drive an artist nuts. If youfollow it through man, here comes alegitimate artist who really firmly believes inhis product and he comes through and he'shyped man, and goes through months ofnegotiations, and gets his contract, gets hisproduct, the company goes in and gets intothe session, and all the hoopla and S30,000in recording costs and buying the covers andall that. When you're putting a recordtogether, the jackets come from one place.the middle of the record with the label copyfrom another, proof reading, more money,and all that goes on, and finally there's thislittle guy making $125 a week walkingaround with your wallet. That's the freaky
789
part or the businc «. I low do you motiva tethat 111an .md get hi111 excited about thisartist's career'! The artist is seeingshow-biz clistribution or records is not"ho\\·-biz 110 way ... no ho\\·.
Take us, lo r example. We've µol Pulydor.U1\. ~JG~!. DDG and all that. in 30 days last1110111hwe had released ... 110 albums.
Singles arc not even a problem becausebasically a distributor is a leech on a singleto a pr om o tio n 111a11.\Ve cunuo: sell singlesu n l es s it's on the radio ... exccpt "x ".un ount. ..xurc , if ~1 new Don Mcl.c:iu singlecomes lHI t. .. o r a new War "ini.!lc ... we'll getsonic in. hut ir it's a new artist. without aprevious hit. and it's not on the radio .. noman.
When ;1 new record comes out. wenutomn tirnlly µct so 111;111y... but it's basic"lll'just to let us know the record is out. .. it'susually ver)' smull. ..MGM is averaging 10singles a week. UA is averaging 6. Polydor isaveraging 4. su 1hat initial allocation is ~1slow as 65... that's stock ... DJ's, we always getthe sanie ;1111<H111t.\Ve handle the I I westernSlates. \Ve gel in 5()0 of a single LO111aiJ,pluse ach promotion 111an in each branchprobably µcts 150 sinµlcs to service. But !'111say inµ th:i l the single and the LP are twoseparate things. \Ve can sell an LP to anaccount. it\ not going to be a big seller,unless we get play on it. but we can sellsome. unless it's a big artist. that's adi tfcrcn t thing too.
You sec 111an. in Distribution. we don'teven listen lo the records, 111a11.Why'> Ourjob is to distribute them. we make no A&R.You never find 111y salesmen. except maybepersonally at home. saying "I don't like thatrecord. I like that record."
We sell to one stops. racks. 111a111aandpapa stores. There arc about 30 racks in LA.But you take a large discount store likeTower. they buy all of their singles fromNehi, which is a large one stop in LA.Singles is the toughest thing in the world tobuy. much tougher than albums. What kindof mistake ami going to buy on the ... sayTony Bennett album. 1'111 going to buy5.000 and 1'111going to be close. I know onTony Bennett. .. !'111 going to get out 4.500initially ... at least. But on singles I don'tknow. You've got to keep on singles everyclay. Because you can get an order asingle Soul City for example likes asingle they'll buy I0.000. you may haveonly 6.000 Oil the tloor, so singles is a muchharder faster sale.
Radio Play... Of Course
"Loose Stock"
And back again...
In this city, as far as singles play areconcerned ... KHJ and KGFJ are tile wholeball game. We get the intorm.u ion Oilwhether these stations are going on a
790
record ...as soon as possible when they goon a single... l'll order today I 0,000 say, ifKHJ goes on a record. Once it's on KHJ it'smy job to immediately alert theaccounts ...they know too when a record isgoing on KHJ ... they immediately call alltheir major one stops ... the salesmen do.We'll have the 20,000 out in less than a day.
This region is the worst singles buyingarea in the country. A top record, top fiveaverage is about 60,000 and the average oneon KGFJ is about 45,000 ...so you get bothof them on a record, you get your white andblack market together and you can sell rightaround l l 0,000 ... as in War's Slipping IntoDarkness.
Outside of LA, I have branches ...I have abranch manager and two salesmen in SanFrancisco, I have a branch manager and twosalesmen in Seattle and I have a branchmanager in Denver... that's strictly a rackterritory. In this region in the 11 westernstates I have 20 salesmen, that's excludingbranch managers. If they want to cover thestores in San Francisco they call me...Myjob really is coordina ting. I report to theVice President and General Manager ofUDC. There are six regional people ... thestrength of our organization is that if you'vecalled these six people you have called thewhole country ... they in turn, IO minuteslater have just got on their respective wattslines with their branches ...who in turn relateit to their salesmen. You have somethinghappening with the whole organization atI 2 o'clock tomorrow. That's a lot ofstrength.
A11 singles are 100% guaran teed toanybody ...from manufacturer to distributorto accounts. That's to all accounts, albumsare guaranteed for exchange. You have twotypes of accounts you're sellingto ...wholesalers or retailers, a one stop is awholesaler. ..When you sell to a mama-papastore you're selling to a retailer. ..that's whatmakes the price structure different.
How is an album broken ...new artist? It'sa freaky abstract trip. If I knew that answerI would be making half a mil a year. Once ina while some thing happens ...every thing isdone right... the artist comes over. ..the headoffice gets excited ... they in turn excite thesales and promotion staff...Like take DonMcLean .•. what happened ... He wasunknown ... Let's be honest...the salesmenwalks in with 110 records ... the promotionman ...how many records can go to KHJ andsay this is a smash ... this is a smash... this is a
smash...There are 81 people that work in this
building ...lt's by chance that the LA branchand the regional office are both in thisbuilding ...there are two separate entitieshere.
Lenny then took us on a tour of theUDC distrib ...A new record comes out andthere is first the DJ alloca tion ...and the salesallocation. The next step is to let thesalesmen know they're coming ...We thenwent to the mail room ...DJ samples come toth e branch about a week before theallocation ...It's here that several young menare sending out records to radio stations,major buyers, and trade publications forreview. The mail people stuff the records inenvelopes and send them out immediately.
We then went to the freight departmentwhere the records are delivered to thebranch by truck. It is taken out andstacked ...(the men who are stacking aremembers of the Teamsters Union) ... Theyare receiving until about 2:30 in theafternoon, after that the process is reversedand they are shipping out...Boxes of hotalbums are stacked near the freightdepartment, lesser albums go into anothercataiogued area of the warehouse. (Theysold 80,000 of the War album in the first sixdays of release ... the boxes of War albumswere stacked near the door.) Lenny gets anhourly report of what records come in. Alsoin the warehouse were filings of loosealbums that have been out for a while but,that they still get occasional ordersfor. ..Then we went upstairs where severalladies were sitting ... taking orders on thetelephone. Once the order is taken a form isfilled out...and placed into a specificarea ...the orders are then picked up (and acopy of it picked up by accounting). It isthen taken downstairs (the invoice) toinventory control. Here the invoice is postedonto cards and deducted from theinventory ...so that Lenny knows how manyrecords he still has on the floor. He alsothen knows how many records he hassoid...at any moment he wants to look. Theorder is then picked up by men in thewarehouse who come to the window ofinventory control...they go through thewarehouse ...make up the order. ..and it isthen packaged in a special mailingdepartment...The order is either mailed outor if big enough and need of expediting isimportant enough it is shipped bytruck ...otherwise it is mailed.
Where you'refriends are!
President/RussRegan
National SalesManager/Tom Rodden
National Pop Promotion Director/Paul LovelaceNational R&B Promotion Director/HoseaWilson
8255 SunsetBlvd., Los Angeles,California 90046Tel. (213) 656-8575
792
We then went upstairs again to what iscalled the RA department...RA-ReturnAdjustment. (On the way up we passed bythe tape department which is kept underlock and key because "thev're too easv torip off".) KHJ is playing all through thewarehouse on speakers.
Once in the RA Department Lennyexplained ..•"This is 30 percent of the recordbusiness "returns" 30 percent of everythingyou sell, comes back. It's an exchange ofalbums (100% - singles it's 100% straightguarantee. The records come to thisdepartment and are then taken backdownstairs to go back in to inventory. (LP'smust be out 90 days before it can comeback) ... Back into inventory control, thepaper comes back to be readded back on thestock accounting.
So the over- "simplified quick tour of arecord distributor. ..ending back in Lenny'soffice with a statement again aboutradio ..•"Hey man you tell me one majorartist that ever broke, without a single,name me one .•.yes, radio play ... that's it."
lndys, Racks& One StopsWe then visited Record
Merchandising ... independentdistributor .•.Here the difference is that thedistributor makes a deal to carry a line... hethen takes the records and treats them muchthe same way that the UDC branchworks ... The distributor has its ownpromotion men and salesmen. Indydistributors have seen serious days in themost recent years because of the companyowned distributorship ...but as owner SidTalmadge explained ..•there will always be aneed for the record distribu tor on theindependent level••.everybody can't go tothe manufacturer owned distributor.
Talmadge also owns a one stopoperation ..•this is in its most simple form astore for the store owners. Most of them goby and pick up the records from the onestop themselves. The one stop buys itsrecords· from the distributor ... they carry alllines.
Same is true of the rack jobber outletthat Sid owns .•.Only the rack outlet has adeal with the store itself to buy all of itsrecords from the rack. A truck takes almostdaily shipments to the 20 or so stores(which in Sid's case included armyba ses) ••. that included records from allcompanies. Some rack jobbers are muchbigger.•.they'll service in the 100+ category,
possibly all of the Sears stores, or theWalgreen drugs or whatever. A "rack" isusually a department of a large store thatsells a lot of other products as well. A 'smallmama and papa store will almost always doits own buying and generally from a onestop, advantage being the convenience.
From the Outside ...
Sid and his son and office right arm, PatMooreland.
The One Stop & the Rack Jobber
793
The Record Store
There are basically two kinds of recordstores ..• the large discount store in recentyears has come on st rong ... prior to thatmost stores were small. .. what are called"mama and papa stores." We visited twosuch stores both on Sunset Boulevard inHollywood. Talking first of all to TowerRecords Stan Goman ... Stan is the assist an Imanager, Charlie Shaw is the manager. Weshot questions as fast as possible ...
Q. Let's start with how you orderrecords ... where do you buy them, ..how doyou decide what you buy?
A. We buy them from companydistributors mostly ... We have independentdistributors that distribute smallerlabels ... What's weird is the larger companiesare now getting into owning their owndistributors ... so you have the giganticconglomerates distributing for the smallrecord company ... Then you get into thatfine Line between a one stop which isdistributor that carries everything ... theydon't sell tu the public ... they sell to l.ittlerecord stores. We buy our singles from theone stop ... for the convenience •.. they tell uswhat the top ten is and it's just racked. Wego by the KHJ top forty ... and if it's numberone un KH.l it's number one here. We getthem for a cheaper price from themanufacturer, maybe 10 cents less but wedon't want tu go the trouble. They're I00percent guaranteed ...
Q. How many Tower record storesare there?
A. Two in Sacramento, one inBerkely. one in San l-runciscc, one in LAand one in San Diego. We're still spreading ...
Q. You buy for this store and not furall the ethers?
A. Right ... We buy independently butif there is a special deal •..like a chain deal wehave a general manager, John Shire inSacramento who coordinates total buys forthe chain. Like right now we arc setting up achain wide on Atlantic Records, so he calledall the store people, ancl said "Okay. we'regoing to do the Atlantic thing and here arcthe ten titles, what do you want? So we givehim our order and he takes everybody'sorder and puts it all together into one bigorder and gives it lo Atlantic.
Q. What do you get a 50-50 co-op onads?
A. Usually you'll get the ad money,
and say you get the $275 on the LP.Okay ... to run on the weekend ... and what wedo with that we use that to pay the radiostation which we advertised on, and sec wehave a running account with them and atthe encl of the year maybe we have to pay alittle more ... llut there arc so many otherdeals, you'll get like a thousand dollars toadvertise like 5 things over a weekend here.So there's surplus money there, it allbalances ou l.
Q. Who started Tower Records andhow did it start')
A. Russ Solomon started it inSacramento. His father had a drug store andafter World War II Russ was just hanging outand his father said "Take over the recorddepartment" so he did and really got into Iguess. In those clays you had to buy afranchise so, he got an RCA franchise andstarted from there. Then that got bigger andbigger and he opened a store in the northarea in an old barber shop and then to astore in a shopping center and finally wentacross the street from a drug store andstarted a store there. So then ~stereo cameout and Russ ... he's really an artisticrnan ..•he's an artist in the record business.Russ is into kindness. He works with therecord company. Anyway he really got intostereo, so he got a whole bunch of Deccastereos and sold them at cost and turned thewhole town into stereo ... He's a promoterand innovator. He was the first guy to thinkof giving away free posters instead of sellingthem. Like the Cat Stevens poster which isbeautiful and it's got Tower Records in "little bitty area clown in the corner veryart fully done.
Q. Salesmen call on you from themanufacturer?
A. Yes ... It depends on the company,what they try tu sell yuu ... they usually trytu sell you their new releases ... we havesalesmen from one store, distributers andmanufacturers come in and let us knowwhat new LPs they've got and we'll givethem an order. The order is based onexperience, we kind of know how muchwe'll sell, but it doesn't make muchdifference because you've got I 007' return.We try to work with the company on thattoo. They negotiate different deals atdifferent times.
Q. How much du you pay for analbum?
A. I don't know ... around S2.80. Itdepends. for a $5.98 record we pay S2.86 I
794
think sorne you pay $2.81.Q. Whal makes the difference?A. They'll give you 10 percent off on
invoice if they're having a big promotion onsay, RCA Red Seal classics to gel people tobu y their older stu If and to genera tebilling, get people buying .
Q. What's the annual billing of thisstore?
A. I don't know, you 'II have to askRuss. I know it's probably in excess of amillion dollars ...
Q. How many people do you haveworking here?
A. 26Q. What arc the various jobs?A. \Ve have a manager, an assistant
manager and then we have about 4 othermanagement personnel. People that like runshifts. like the foreman or the crew youmight say in other words they're in chargeat night or in the day when the manager orthe assistant manager isn't around. Theother people have sections or the store ... oneguy will be in charge of the country section,one guy will have the rock section, we havea manager or the tape department, and one!,!UY just runs the back room, shipping andreceiving and a guy that helps him out. Hedocs reseals and refiles. Like a guy comes upwith a record and says how much is this? Hesays I don't want it. then we put it intorefiles, or somebody will come in the storeand open it up, we'll find it and take it backhere and reseal it.
Q. What about defectivemerchandise?
A. We don't get too much, recordsare fairly well made, the only problem youhave is war page and that only affects theguy with the S400 stereo ...
Q. When you're out or arecord ... what do you do?
A. You call the brunch and tell themto send you so much ...
Q. How do you know when you'reout?
A. We just know ... that's theuniqueness of this operation. is that we'renot on an inventory system (they tageverything and when they sell it they takethe ta¡! and put it into the box and at theend of the day they total up the tags andthey know how much they sold) ... whereaswe don't do that,,,we get a feel for it. Likerecords have a peaking sales ... like a recordmay start out slow, a month later selling like
~ ,.. ~!;UUO:)JUi. ,, . H<l'./HDOl!CHJ
«~t~'1"~~~<g'~aitI< -~· l 'Stacks and stack s
. /I
I
And Stacks ... And Stacks ...
$6.98' That's $4.88
hot cakes, and after that nothing. Therecord business is like any other fo rm ofshow business, it's an emotional business,it's really essential too. You have a feel for
795
Bill Belcher, The "Papa" of A Mom 'n PopStore.
this group, you order a lot, just because Ilike it, and I kine! or promote it. Evcrytimea salesman comes in we go th rough theracks, and l keep a mental note in my headlike how many we usually keep in stock,and we've got more than that.
Q. How do you discount records?A. We have certain stanclarcl prices.
We have a rack price which is all theircatalogue stuff and just standard base priceof $3.99. Stuff that sells really good andreally sells fast is cheaper, we'll sell it for$3.44. We have a weekend sale price saywe'll run four albums over the weekend asdraw, that's S3.22 then we'll have prices onspecial· buys might sell for £2.99, then thebudget line stuff which is a S2.98 list, we'llsell for $1.88. Su we have different pricesbut they're constan t.
Q. How many albums would you sayyou have there?
A. I really don't know, I'd say just awild guess maybe between I 00,000 and500,000 albums. It depends. We returnthree or four times a year, when we have aninventory.
Q. What about merchandisinu itself?A. Yeah, this is Russ Solomon's basic
merchandising idea, and a few things arc ourown, like the way you see the iron t of thestore, that's our own. This is a very uniquestore, the largest store in LA recordcompany presidents come through. ask usabout putting the name of their artist on themarquee. Artists come in. They paint albumcovers on our windows.
Q. Radio stations call you forreports?
A. Yeah, they ask us for the topthirty, the singles buyer knows what heorders, our singles sales aren't even one
percent of our volume, singles arc fun,they're like toys. We carry them for thesame reason we carry children's records. it'san integral part of' the business.
Q. Who buys the single?J\. The same people that have been
buying them forever. the 10 to 15's. Theycan 't blow all their brand on an LP, sothey'll buy a single. We sell them for 75cents, buy them for 55 cents, we could buythem from the company for about 45 cents,it's easier to let somebody just rack us. Thesingles buyer coordinates that...
The Small Record StoreTower Records, 111e biggest store in
town, before them Hollywood's recordcenter was Music Hall, right across the streetfrom the Whiskey ... Bill Belcher is owner ofthe store which appears to be about II I0ththe floor space of Tower, and about I/20ththe inventory. One person is behind thecounter, in the back Belcher and an assistantarc going over boo ks.
Q. I'm trying to find the differencebetween the large discount record store andthe mama and papa store ...
A. It's difficult to explain for sure.Tower and \Vharehouse have just come intothis area and they've caused an awful lot ofpeople to close. This store has been hereabout 7 years. They have locations all overCalifornia and they buy at a lot better pricethan we do ... they've brought prices down tothe point where it's very difficult to stayalive. I'm in a peculiar si iua tion where Ihave four billboards here, they actually paymy expenses. I have another location inNewport, and we don't have the Tower typecompetition like we do here. We're trying tostress in our store ... some kine! of service.which Tower can't do. We try to be reallyconversant about the music. \Ve have peoplewho arc really into music.
Q. I-Iow 111uch do you pay foralbums?
/\. Wei I, don't think that'ssomething I want to say. I mean, because itdocs vary. We're all fighting for bet terprices. One of the things happening to thebusiness is that the large buyers are buyingso much better than the ordinary recorddealer and bringing prices down. I have afeeling that we're going to see a problem inthe very near future because of thattuo ... because they're dosing clown a lot ortheir record outlets. Those big stores wholeinterest is in turning dollars and turningproduct. Sure, you can turn a lot of product
796
through these types of operations but, Iwonder after a while when you start closingdown small stores all over everywhere. We'rethe only place left within miles from here,there used to be a lot, but one by one theyclosed.
So that's it ... the record business ... finallywhether it's a Tower or a Mu sic Hall, thedollars go over the counter and people likeEd Gezcik, twenty years old, walks out withit. How many new albums does he buy ayear, maybe two, or three, occasionally ifhe's really into a song, he'll buy a single. Hegets about 8 new LPs a year ... most of themcome from friends as gifts, he listens toKLOS, doesn't own a stereo because hecan't afford it, just has a little record player.How did I know he bought records? Becauseat the drive-in I overheard him saying, "Heyyou chicks want to come over to my pad?I've got the new James Taylor album."Which could be the clue to it all. How muchdifferent from that statement was thereason1 for Eddie Reeves writing asong? ... From Eddie or James or Carly orSantana or whoever, from their head to theears of the consumer. ..
Over simplified, certainly this story isvolumes of books, that would have toin-depth show far more differences than wehave, what about the music business
attorney, or the RIAA, the pira ting, theneed for legislations, the Spanish-typerecord company, the returns, the story islong and endless and we didn't expect tocover it all, but we hope you've gotten alittle idea about that "electro-Ii tic processedpiece of vinyl, that in truth, is the sound ofman's soul.
IT'S YOUR MOVE
I "And then there's John Rook at WCFL. After a five year stint at ABC'sKQV ·Pittsburgh, Mr. Rook was brought to WLS in early 1967 as ProgramDirector. By mid 1968 WLS's audience had risen to about 4.2 million lis·teners each week and was #1 across the board. Mr. Rook was approachedby Lew Witz of WCFL with an offer to counsel WCFL, Mr. Rook beganwork at WCFL on May 1st of this year" Broadcasting Magazine (1972)
I'"After a year of frustration, mounting costs and diminishing returns, JohnRook took over the consultancy of KTLK Radio. He brought us the bestpersonnel we've ever had, upgraded the News, straightened out our soundand currently has the programming at its highest professional point in his·tciry. He's done it all .••. it's in the book" ••.••..••..••••••••.•••••••••
Joseph A. Finan Vice Pres, & Gen. Mgr.KTLK Radio· Denver (Nov. 1972)
JOHN H. ROOK19031 Marilla St. • Northridge, California - (213) 885-7404
797
We are' reminded of Gibran ...
Farewell to you and the youth I havespent with you.
It was but yesterday we met in a dreamYou have sung to me in my aloneness.
and I of your longings have built a tower inthe sky.
llu t now our sleep has fled and ourdream is over. and it is no longer dawn.
The noon tide is upon us and our halfwaking has turned to fuller day and we mustpart.
If in the twilight of memory we shouldmeet once more, we shall speak againtogether and you shall sing to me a deepersong.
And if our hands should meet in anotherdream we shall build another tower in thesky ...
This is our report. .. we hope it serves youwell. .. on your journey 10 the promised landacross the mountain.
The Seoul
A limited supplyof additional copies
are available . . .r---------------------------------------1 I1 Group rates on request :I I1 Enclosed is __ for_copies of the Operating Manual 1
I@ 25 dollars per copy.....
1
NAME I
COMPANY :ADDRESS 1
CITY STATE IZ. I
I Ip IL ~ J
it's about people!Hard working ... dedicated intense people' To whom radio is more than merelya sound, a dial, some knobs and a bunch of transistors. People, to whom radio isa career. A profession. A way of life. A form of communication ranging over bothsides of the microphone. People communicating with people.RKO Radio People. From maintenance workers to man-agers. And they all matter. They a// count. Because with-out the people who make up RKO Radio, regardless ofposition, we could never communicate with people wholisten to RKO Radio Stations. And they number in themillions.RKO Radio people, we, ourselves ... and our listeners.We know- they know-what RKO Radio is about. It'sabout people! !
REPRESEMEDNATIONALLYBY-RKO RADIO AEPRE"5E'.1Ail«'ES INC
HARMONY
It~
the music peopleColumbia specializes in Everything. Not only today 1s hi ts, but artist
futures, distribution, manu f'acturLng and promotion. I.f you' re going to call
yourself "The Music ,0eople," you'd better have it all together.
To reach the pub Lí,c you have to nave a list of bop artists. And to keep
those artists you have to ~eserve t.hem. There' E only one way to do that:
Have the best tools. Use them best.
Expcr ímeut , sure. Get into eve ry r n í.ng . Across the beard from Rock to
Rachn:aninoff, from Baroque to Rubbl~ Gum. It's all mu.>ic, and in every category
there are those who do it great. And others.
All right, you d~n't HAVEto be a total recording company. There aren't
very many. It 1s eas í.er to specialize in your single f:ield. There 1s only one
trouble witohthat. Youmiss a lot.
In a way, it's easier to be all over the place. Whenthe u:>expected happens,
the unpredictaole, you're covered. You have friends there. And the unpredictable
is what's predLcted for tomorrow. In the record business and in radio. Howmany
industries pay so muer.attention, so carefully, to exactly what is happer.ing?
Andwhere, among whom: Weand you do it because we have to.
Last year -- 1971-72 -- Columbia got muchmore involved witr. Black music
than ever be f'or-e. Sµcc_e~s.fully_,._.tb.ank.y.ou,c.--llu:t·-We"·krrw·that the musical frontier
(praise be !) retreats beyond reach as you advance toward it. It can never be
closed. Andwe wouldn't have it any other way. Mayne·-t.ómorrow·we'11 discover
