Chris Parr Talent Relations
The talent relation side of our business is very much driven – it is very much driven by the music; new music, new projects; things that come out. We work hand in hand with the record business, with the industry. Artists are typically motivated to do things and want to make programming and specials, and they have a story to tell because they go through this creative process on a periodic basis, where they write or co-write with other creative people, and then they go in the studio, and it’s kind of a – it’s a bit segmented as far as like how that process works because – and then, the end result, obviously, they pour their heart and soul in these albums, and the end result is this record, and then it’s like; okay, now time to go out and promote it.
Country artists, in particular, spend a tremendous amount of time on the road. They tour constantly, so it makes our talent relations even a little more challenging because they have to make this choice a lot of times between we need them somewhere on Wednesday in the studio or on location or something, and they’re like; okay, do I take this money to go play this gig or do I forego that because being on CMT is gonna help accelerate or expand my career or maintain my fans. It’s like those are all things that they have weight out.
The talent relations or the talent-booking process that we have at the channel is very much – we’re looking at, as we’re always looking at; well, who are the artists that the audience most wants to see? Who’s most popular? Who has something to say? What artist is really passionate about a project? Not so long ago, Kenny Chesney had a record. It was very much very close to his heart, which was very much about where he spends his off time, which is the islands, and he created a whole record around it, and although he had another studio record come in later that year, he said; you know, I wanna put this out there, and his record label accommodated him to say; you know what; we want you to do that. It’s a creative outlet.
And so in the room next door to us, we created a special that was very much about that project and him talking to the audience and playing some songs, kind of stripped down and really conveying how he came about making this record, and that was something he felt very passionate about, and he wanted to convey it to his audience, to the fans. It’s obviously a promotional opportunity to let people know that new record is out there, so that’s kind of the business end of it.
But it truly is when you strip it down. It’s like if the artist doesn’t have anything to say, it’s like it’s gonna be a hard job to get them to come in here and sit in front of a camera, but, for the most part, they’re creative people, and they have things to say, and that’s what we wanna – we try to capture that along the way, and our weekly news shows, and; I mean, we’re constantly monitoring and out there talking to them, so there’s a lot of that that happens as well, where if they’re on the road, they want the whole world to see how much fun they’re having on the road, so we try to capture those things on the fly and out in the field, as we say.
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