Face Off

[Kemmy]

KYLD (WiLD 94.9)/San Francisco, PD, Cat Collins & Dennis Reese, SVP Promotion, Capitol Music Group


Cat: The most important question first! What artists (retired and still working) have you seen naked? Don't lie! I speak fluent bullshit Reese!
Dennis: I'm no John Mayer...no kissing and telling here. I will say if I'd ever seen one baring themselves, I'm sure they were real and spectacular.

Cat: Artist development is so challenging in this economy, with current technology killing your margins. How do you sign and develop a new artist? Take me through Katy Perry. No ass kissing here, that is a great story. We need more Katy Perrys!
Dennis: First and foremost you need to have a Katy Perry to start with. She is a very special artist that delivered what she said she would to her fans. Katy had most of the album done with "Thinking of You," Waking Up in Vegas" and "Ur So Gay" completed. She then worked with Dr. Luke and came up with "Hot n' Cold" and "I Kissed A Girl." Everyone fell in love with her, and that's just pure Katy!
Before we started setting up "I Kissed A Girl" we sent out "Ur So Gay" as a lifestyle and specialty show song. Madonna ended up loving it so much she was talking about it on morning shows like Johnjay & Rich and Ryan Seacrest...not bad for a new artist. Katy's in the studio now and I guarantee she will come out with nothing short of an amazing album. When you find an artist you think might have the talent and maybe they don't have the right songs, you get them with writers that will make them successful. It always comes down to having great songs...always has and always will.

Cat: I’ve heard record execs tell me that radio is still very important, but there are now other important outlets to achieve exposure. Outside of radio, what outlets do you promote to get exposure on a song or artist?
Dennis: Radio is still where most people hear music, but it's clearly not the only place. With iTunes being a click away it's a major place to find music regardless of age. We've found that it's not only young people discovering music online but the older demos are growing rapidly as well. MySpace, Perez Hilton, YouTube, AOL, Facebook and all of the key social networking sights have impact. The Internet has made the consumer smarter and they know they can find every genre with just one click. Obviously, TV can have a major impact as well. Look at a Miley Cyrus and Jonas Brothers. Would radio have embraced them? The challenge is to find those next places where we can get new music exposed and not just count on the ones we already have.‪

Cat: If you had to choose getting your song on one or the other, do you choose Grey's Anatomy or Z100/New York and why?
Dennis: That's the best problem to have. You choose both! (laughs) It would depend on who the artist is. But I would say if it's Katy Perry I would choose Grey's Anatomy and if it's Norah Jones it's Z100. The reason is simple. The audience already knows that Katy is Z100 and touching the viewers at TV would expose her to another audience, same for Norah at Z100. Sometimes going outside the box is important if it makes sense. We are currently doing that with Lady Antebellum by exposing them to a new audience at Top 40 and HOT AC. I know they are making new fans in the Pop world. They are the first artist of 2010 to sell over one million albums and they did it in just four weeks, proving it's not just country fans buying and they're growing outside of their base.

Cat: It's 2010, what is your business model? How do record companies make money?
Dennis: That's still a work in progress. Music sales would constitute the biggest percentage, but ringtones, TV commercials, licensing, videos and single downloads are all playing a bigger roll. We need to continue our drive to the digital consumer by creating content they want to buy and not steal. iTunes has been a real positive in the way we've been able to offer exclusive content. I also think you'll start to see more releases coming out online for a period of time before it hits traditional retail. We are growing our digital relationship with music fans.
We've been very active in building our third party model. Partnerships with labels like Vanguard who have Kimberly Caldwell and Matt Nathanson have strong upside, not to mention great music to be part of. This might be the only business that has allowed people to shoplift from us and do nothing until the shelves were empty. It would be no different than an advertiser breaking into a radio station commercial log and putting their spots on the air and never paying a penny. You couldn't survive and we barely have. I do think we are turning a corner in some ways and we need to budget accordingly in the new model.

Cat: It took U2 at least three albums to break. They are arguably the most important Rock act of the last two decades selling millions of CDs and concert tickets. Nowadays they would be dropped after their first or maybe second CD. Will Capitol have the patience and financial resources to develop artists, as opposed to the next big ringtone?
Dennis: The belief needs to be there for that type of commitment and we are doing that with two artists right now with Sick Puppies and 30 Seconds To Mars. Both are on their second albums, as well as Saving Abel which is coming soon with their second album. The passion from Bill Carroll, Ray Gmeiner and our staff made everyone care about them from the beginning. Promotion staffs are on the front line and we can feel when something is about to pop, or not in some cases. In many ways the label heads look to us and ask the question "Do we keep fighting?" Music is like wine. It might take a little longer but the taste will be so much better when it's done the right way from the beginning.
Quick U2 story: They played the Orange Bowl in 1986 and I programming at the time and was not playing "With or Without You." The Island rep takes me to the show and when they were half way through the concert and the crowd had sung ever word, he leaned over and said "Hey how many people are in your callout each week?" I said, "125." He said, "Well I have 70,000 here and they say it's a smash…F**K your 125!" It's still one of the best lines ever, and I added the song the next day.

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[Cassie]

Very cool to see them get mentioned. That was a lot of reading! haha