Running A Record Company

[Roburt]

It may sound like the perfect job to most of us; but there was a lot to take care of if you were involved with running a record label back in the day.

I'm not on about a small indie here; their main problems were finding the finance, getting their records played on the radio & then getting paid by distributors.

But in a big label, there were many more tasks that had to be well taken care of & lots of different skills were needed.

So you set up a new label (finance has been found) and instantly decisions have to be made.

...... Do you want your own studio ? If so, one has to be built or bought. Then it has to be staffed with producers, arrangers, engineers, etc.

...... Do you want / need your own dedicated studio band, if so you have to find the right guys.

...... Do you need your own in-house sing writing team ... Yes is usually the answer, so again you have to find the right guy, team.

.... Do you just release in-house product or do you go looking to 'license in' outside productions or the best available little indie label tracks.

..... When you want to cut an act, you need an A&R team to decide what product will be most commercial for them. What 'sound' is flavour of the month; it's no good cutting the artist on a James Brown sound-alike track if its Motown that's selling best this month.

..... Appoint a Promotions team. Guys who have contacts & can get your new release on the radio and reviewed in trade papers / magazines.

.... Lawyers, you'll definitely need a few of them. Staff to be placed on contact, artists to be signed & royalty deals to be negotiated.

.... Find & appoint outfits to master & press up your product .... and not just locally but in all the regions across the States.

.... An early release does well and foreign companies come knocking ..... who do you appoint as your licensee across various countries in the world, tricky decision.

... What do you do with the 'unsold stock' of 45's. It's just taking up space in the warehouse (yep, you had to rent a warehouse as well). Do you sell it off cheap, junk it & take it to the tip or just leave all those 45's laying about in that almost forgotten damp basement space that has no other use.

.... and what about future rights; do you even realise that last years recordings will have a good value in the future (CD's, mp3's) and that those old master tapes may be precious. You'll need a vault where they can be stored properly ... & watch out, coz the vault will be full in 5 years time. Do you throw away the tapes that only contain unissued tracks (like ABC did) assuming that if you didn't want to put them out in 1966, not one will be interested in paying money or them in 2006.

........ So working for a record company back in the day wasn't as simple a task as all that.

[Roburt]

If your label was located in one of the cities along the Great Lakes .... and you got your tracks onto local radio ... then it would also be heard across the border ..... so record labels from there would come knocking on your door .......

[Roburt]

You get your first big chart hit & life instantly gets more complicated.

Distributors from across the US want 100's of copies of the 45 by tomorrow .

Radio DJ's & TV programmers want your act on their show in the next week.

Bookers are chasing you as they want your act on their next big national package tour.

..... and these strange guys from overseas keep ringing up wanting to do a deal to put the record out in their country ...

Edited August 19, 2012 by Roburt

[Roburt]

_{A question for our knowledgable US listies ....}

_{Did ABC-Paramount stay with Sun Plastics Co., Plastic Products Co. & Clarion Record Manufacturing throughtout the 60's (as suppliers of their records) ?}

_{..... coz I don't recall any of these companies being mentioned on a regular basis as the places where soul 45's (& LP's) were pressed up.}

Edited August 19, 2012 by Roburt

[Roburt]

The Am-Par Record Corporation was formed in New York City in 1955, as a subsidiary of American Broadcasting-Paramount Theaters, Inc. Their record label was named ABC-Paramount. The President of the company was Samuel Clark and the National Sales Manager was Larry Newton. The heads of A&R for the label were Don Costa and Sid Feller, although Morty Craft, Johnny Pate and Creed Taylor also handled production for the company. ABC-Paramount had a subsidiary label called Apt. In the early 1960s, Impulse, a jazz label subsidiary, was established, and in the mid-'60s a blues label subsidiary, Bluesway, was formed. The Probe label was formed in 1968.

In October, 1959, Enoch Light and his partners sold their labels to ABC-Paramount. These included Audition, Command Performance, Colortone & Grand Award. All of these labels were run by Light and were based in Harrison, New Jersey. Two of the labels, Grand Award and Command, continued to operate under ABC. Enoch Light continued as head of A&R for the Command and Grand Award labels. ABC purchased the Dunhill label from Lou Adler in 1966 and the Duke/Peacock labels from Don Robey in 1973. ABC-Paramount also distributed a number of labels, including Anchor, Blue Thumb, Chancellor, Colonial, Deb, Fargo, Hunt, LHI (partially), Royal, Shelter (partially), Sire (partially), Tangerine, Topsy, and Wren.

So ABC ran a large organisation and were successful for quite a number of years, though their decision to junk 100's of mastertapes to 'save space' came back to haunt the owners of their back catalogue in later years.

Is it documented anywhere just which artists / producers had lots of their work junked (surely it didn't include numerous Impressions cuts or Johnny Pate productions).

[Robbk]

As a former co-owner of a small-independent record company (label), I can tell you that small labels are also faced with almost all those problems and decisions you mentioned above.

[Roburt]

Robb, I realise that ALL record companies have to have people to tackle all the tasks I mentioned above. It matters not how big or small you are, you still have to address every aspect of the biz.

I would guess though that the likes of you had to take on many tasks that didn't come naturally to you, just because you were the only person who would take on those tasks.

A major like ABC & the like would however employ a whole team of people to undertake various tasks. Thus, say A&R or PR guys would be selected for their skills in their own particular area of expertise ..... mind you (record companies being what they were back in the day), lots of square pegs were put in round holes just because the guy in questions 'face fitted' -- perhaps he was a club buddy / hanger-on of an exec in the company.

Guess the only task that an 'indie' was forced to 'buy in' was their legal rep.

In the mid 80's, I used to visit EMI's London offices (in Manchester Square if I recall the name correctly) & the place was full of 'jobs worths' .... guys who thought they were the 'bees knees' but really were wasters of the 1st order. I had a mate who worked there for 3 years or so and became a regular visitor to the offices but I can't say what I saw going on whilst there filled me with much confidence that many there knew what they were doing.

[Ian Dewhirst]

In the mid 80's, I used to visit EMI's London offices (in Manchester Square if I recall the name correctly) & the place was full of 'jobs worths' .... guys who thought they were the 'bees knees' but really were wasters of the 1st order. I had a mate who worked there for 3 years or so and became a regular visitor to the offices but I can't say what I saw going on whilst there filled me with much confidence that many there knew what they were doing.

I worked @ Manchester Square from '83-'86. Who was your mate as I'll probably know him......?

The 80's was probably the last time that record companies were seriously over-staffed. There was a LOT of wastage back then, but the money coming in to the majors was simply astounding at the time. Strangely enough, that was one of EMI's more successful periods.....

Ian D

[Jnixon]

nothing has changed with major labels they are still full of clueless idiots bumbling their way through it all, sniffing piles of chang and thinking they are somehow the most influential people on the planet.

[Dave Moore]

John,

I think as the US indie record company came into it's own in the 50s and 60s, it produced lots of people who would gain the reputation of being 'record guys'. People who were immersed in the business of making records. Berry Gordy, Randy Woods, Len Jewel, Weldon McDougall, Ahmet Ertegun, Joe Ruffino. A good example of a female record 'guy' would be Johnnie Mae Mathews.

These people ate slept and literally breathed 'rekids'. As the majors bought/asset stripped/engulfed them these kinds of people simply disappeared to be replaced by the suits. The days of record companies preferring a good set of ears to an MBA came and the whole industry became a sterile, closed shop where execs simply shifted desks every few years. By the time Sony came in it was all over. Records had become like TVs or fridges. Just something on the bottom of a balance sheet to add to the corporate coffers. There had always been the drive to be commercially successful, but the industry had no space for 'record guys' anymore. It had MTV.

Regards,

Dave

[Roburt]

I worked @ Manchester Square from '83-'86. Who was your mate as I'll probably know him......?

Ian D

Ian, my mate was Alan Omokhoje who was recruited by EMI after his Edinburgh based Move Records ran into money troubles.

He was never really happy at EMI as he wanted to push jazz artists (& rap I think) + do something with the soul artists that EMI released records on.

He never got the chance to work with any of the US artists & I don't think any of his projects were commercially successful.

After a while, they shipped him off to work in their Nigerian branch (coz he was Nigerian by birth). He had a mortgage on a flat in west London & when the UK property crash hit in 1988, he stopped paying the monthly dues as the place was then worth less then he 'owed' on it.

This caused him a few problems when he returned to the UK & moved on career wise.

Daft thing was, my son went to Hatfield Poly just after the mid 80's & he got on well with Alan (having spent a summer helping out in Moves' Edinburgh office). One day, I arranged to meet up with the son & a couple of his student mates and then drop in on Alan. We turned up at EMI central (one old gibba with 3 young trendy lads) and had to wait a few minutes before being given permission to go up to his office. Everyone else in reception (with their 'house brick' mobile phones) assumed I was a 'manager' pitching a new boy band .... so we got lots of 'advice' about how to get a deal while we waited. The lads never were signed by EMI though !!!

[Ian Dewhirst]

nothing has changed with major labels they are still full of clueless idiots bumbling their way through it all, sniffing piles of chang and thinking they are somehow the most influential people on the planet.

Didja just read "Kill Your Friends" by John Niven I wonder?

Not much of that stuff goes on these days I'm afraid. There's not enough staff anymore, so those who are left are working flat out just to keep their jobs I can assure you.

Ian D

[Ian Dewhirst]

Ian, my mate was Alan Omokhoje who was recruited by EMI after his Edinburgh based Move Records ran into money troubles.

He was never really happy at EMI as he wanted to push jazz artists (& rap I think) + do something with the soul artists that EMI released records on.

He never got the chance to work with any of the US artists & I don't think any of his projects were commercially successful.

After a while, they shipped him off to work in their Nigerian branch (coz he was Nigerian by birth). He had a mortgage on a flat in west London & when the UK property crash hit in 1988, he stopped paying the monthly dues as the place was then worth less then he 'owed' on it.

This caused him a few problems when he returned to the UK & moved on career wise.

Daft thing was, my son went to Hatfield Poly just after the mid 80's & he got on well with Alan (having spent a summer helping out in Moves' Edinburgh office). One day, I arranged to meet up with the son & a couple of his student mates and then drop in on Alan. We turned up at EMI central (one old gibba with 3 young trendy lads) and had to wait a few minutes before being given permission to go up to his office. Everyone else in reception (with their 'house brick' mobile phones) assumed I was a 'manager' pitching a new boy band .... so we got lots of 'advice' about how to get a deal while we waited. The lads never were signed by EMI though !!!

Nope, can't recall bumping into him although I was aware of Move records. I think I moved from EMI in early '86, so maybe he came in as I was going out............?

Ian D