What I remember from when I first started in the music business back in the 70’s was that record companies had ‘record people’ who worked there. I was fortunate enough to work for two labels who were run by three such people, Jerry Moss and Herb Alpert..the two guys who’s initials together made up A and M and Chris Blackwell the man who started the legendary Island Records, always my favorite label.
Island was my first outing in to the world of promotion and what a great place for an initiation. Everyone who worked there from the front desk at reception to the ladies in the canteen lived and breathed music….for them it was the best job they could have. Although I had first hand knowledge of both Island and A and M I made a great many friends at other labels and they too were there for the right reason.
When I got my first job the guy who employed me, Ray Cooper wanted to know if I was interested in music before he even interviwed me. We discussed what the job entailed, obviously but we compared notes and discovered we had similar tastes. I was used to talking music because I did it most of the time with my friends, it came naturally.Maybe that interest was what swung it for me, got me the job, after all I had no experience in selling but I had enthusiasm and passion driven by a love of music rather than a love for selling.
I think where the record companies benefited was through the experience of these people. They knew what to do with artists, they understood them and the collaboration of creative minds was a marriage made in heaven. They understood how to get the best out of their artists and were sympathetic to their needs, and artists invariably need! They didn’t force them to deliver records to satisfy their timelines and by a certain date to satisfy quarterley sales figures. They allowed them the time to make the right record…what creative process can produce thgeir best work that way? Nobody said to Picasso, paint..he just painted. You signed an artist because they had talent not because they could meet deadlines. The irony was that if they delivered a substandard record they sent them back to make a better one, so what was the point anyway ?
There wasn’t the huge turnover of staff either, they had the right people doing the right jobs, no more , no less. Somehow over the years record companies lost their way, they expanded, made mistakes but couldn’t accept that they had made those mistakes and started to unceremoniously dump everyone in order to have a more streamlined operation. In doing that they lost the very core of those people who made it work in the first place.
Filed under: Business Lessons, Journey Through The Past, Risk, mistakes , A and M, Add new tag, Chris Blackwell, downsizing in the music business, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, Island Records, mistakes, tony michaelides
