The best way to bring an artist to our attention—and I think to any label’s attention—is playing live in communities where we’re actively out in. As you know, we all know the band you fall in love with or the artist you fall in love with generally, you fall in love with that artist live. That’s the conduit to getting our attention. We have artists that we are interested in play for us here in the building all the time, because it’s so important that we can feel their aura live, feel their persona, and feel their whole vibe as a human being as well as a performer. By seeing them live, you get a chance to sit and look in their eyes and see who they are.
It’s a very important part of the process of signing artists to have a relationship and to know that that person is a decent person and compatible and has the vision that’s consistent with the vision that you have for them, for example. We’re here to serve their vision.
In terms of artists that just send in tapes cold calling, probably not in this lifetime. We receive well over 150 a week to this day, and I don’t know how it’s practical—for anyone watching that’s an artist—for us to go through those. Yes, some packages are sexier than others, so you might be attracted. Some individuals might be more attractive than others. It’s more compelling live.
MySpace is absolutely becoming a wonderful conduit. Anything on that is becoming a wonderful conduit, because the numbers are also extrapolated and we know how many unique visits and hits a song or an artist has. That’s very, very helpful to our communications.
There are a number of ways to build it to the attention level for us and for everyone else. (Laughter) I remember someone called me downstairs one day last summer and said, “You’ve got to come down here.” I was in a meeting and couldn’t go down. He said, “No, no. You have to come down here.”
So I ran downstairs to the parking lot and I looked up, and there was about 80-100 of our staff, and there was a four-piece band playing on a crane, and the crane was about 70 feet above us. The crane that held it must have had an arm width of 100 feet or something. This band was way up in the sky. This was a way of getting our attention. It was like the Beatles on the roof in Let It Be. By the time they were into the third song, we had 200 people in the parking lot watching this band.
They obviously had the resources to invest to get our attention, and I’m not suggesting that that’s the way to get our attention every week, because I’d be out in the parking lot all day. Having said that, it was a very unique approach. Anything that’s different, anything that’s interesting and also modest. You don’t have to be pulling up in BMWs here. Something that is very, very hooky.
We’ve had people come in the office—again, I’m not suggesting it—with an acoustic guitar and play outside our lobby. We’ve loved some of them and actually done deals with some of them through one of our various companies, you see.
So there’s a lot of fun ways to do it, but one way not to do it is to just throw a dart, cross your fingers, and hope and pray. It’s all about will. It’s all about, as you know in life, anything that you want, it’s evident that you want. I say that to an artist as well.
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