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Wednesday, Feb. 4 -
"Turbulent Times... Where are the answers?" - Rob Light,
CAA
Agents
like Herb Spar, Chip Rachlin,
Alex Hodges and Terry Rhodes, who may have been the best pure booking
agent I ever worked with. Personalities such as Wally Meyrowitz and
Jonny Podell, who reinvented the definition of a signing agent. Dan
Weiner, Fred Bohlander and of course Tom Ross, who created a business
on the thriving West Coast.
Brilliant and innovative agents took their entrepreneurial spirit
and tried new things. Steve Leber (who, by the way, started the first
college middle agency) and David Krebs left William Morris and created
one of the biggest management firms in the ’70s and ’80s.
Irving Azoff gave up agenting and opened a management company that
would be the basis of an empire. David Geffen, maybe one of the most
brilliant men in our business, was an agent who started a little independent
record company and just happened to sign Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell,
Neil Young and a few others. And, through their love of this music,
their innovative spirit and emerging new technologies, this new generation
became a business.
What new technologies?
FM radio created album rock. There would be no Led Zeppelin or Black
Sabbath were it not for FM. And with the blossoming of FM, the radio
business decried the end of AM radio. Not so. The recordable cassette
was going to be the end of records as we knew it. Not so. Some pundits
even cried that a new music genre – disco – would be the
end of contemporary music. Thankfully, not so.
In the ’70s and ’80s there were national promoters. Concerts
West, run by Jerry Weintraub, was promoting Elvis Presley, Eric Clapton,
Frank Sinatra and Neil Diamond in arenas across America.
Agents and promoters were concerned that national tours would put
them out of business. It didn’t happen.
The first amphitheaters opened at that time. Nederlander created a
new venue – fans loved it, artists loved it and agents loved
it (they had not yet created surcharges). Yet, arenas were suddenly
concerned about summer events ruining the arena business. It didn’t
happen.
Labels were already starting to merge and create numerous banners
under corporate headings. The cry of too many albums, not enough airplay,
no follow through on records and play lists not being open became
an all too familiar refrain. Promoters bitched that the deals were
too tight, agents bitched that promoters were ripping off the artists
and everyone bitched that the catering sucked.
Did all these concerns bring an end to business? No, it didn’t
happen. In the early ’70s, New York was
dominated by Bill Graham and when he moved west, Howard Stein became
the dominant promoter.
Out of nowhere, a young ad executive, who loved music and thought
the market was being underserved, tried to break in. He was told that
there was no way to get into concert promotion in New York. Had he
stayed in advertising, we would be missing one of our industry’s
most colorful characters.Ron Delsener made a deal with
the Parks Department and created the summer concert series at Wolman
Skating Rink in New York City’s
Central Park. The tickets were cheap – $2.50 the first year
– the schedule was amazing and the public made every night a
sellout.
And, while Mr. Sillerman may have made some jokes at Ron’s expense
a few years back, he showed the
rebellious and innovative spirit that our business was built on.
So flash forward again, to the ’80s and ’90s. A new technology,
the CD, comes along – kills the LP, kills the cassette, thank
God the 8-track was already gone, and creates new revenue and new
life for artists, labels, agents and promoters. Another new innovation,
MTV, is created and the purists scream bloody murder: It will kill
the touring business and the radio business. But innovators see opportunity.
A whole new generation of artists and music emerges. And, a new generation
of promoters, agents and innovators starts to come forward. Rick Van
Santen and Paul Tollett start Goldenvoice. Seth Hurwitz starts a club
in Washington, D.C. There is Lionel Bea, John Peters, Monqui Concerts,
and Perry and Amir in Detroit.
We see new tours, new venues, and artists like Perry Farrell creating
Lollapalooza or Kevin Lyman and Darryl Eaton creating Warped. Consolidation,
a la SFX, was innovative and changed the paradigm, which some embraced
and some denounced.
But even consolidation could not stop innovators, who today create
events like Coachella and Bonnaroo; two festivals originally created
by innovators without a Clear Channel, AEG or House of Blues.
New indie labels emerged against the tide of Wall Street starting
to sniff around music. Sub Pop, Vagrant, Epitaph and Matador. We had
new agencies like High Road, Leave Home Booking and Pinnacle. There
are numerous great new managers who have brought a fresh, innovative
and rule-breaking view to the artist development process.
So, what do we learn? Technology changes, obstacles have always existed,
stagnation tries to hold an industry back, complainers and negativity
always abound. And yet, through the clutter of the noise, every generation
manages to find its innovators and entrepreneurs.
I know what most of you are thinking: that it’s different today,
the hurdles are higher, the obstacles more oppressive and the barriers
to entry more impenetrable, the big companies more imposing and less
embracing.
Well, I say bullshit.
It only feels that way because we continue to work within the same
rules and model in which we have worked for years. We don’t
challenge ourselves in a way that forces radical innovation.
There is a great book by Clayton Christensen called “The Innovators
Dilemma.”
Its premise is that large companies that are segmented are unprepared
to deal with disruptive technologies.
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