Founded nearly ten years ago, CO5 specializes in music and entertainment promotion, publicity, management, social media, creative design, sales and marketing. They were the first kid on the block in this new world of independent promotion and marketing that focus on new and emerging independent talent. The evolution of CO5 has been impressive to watch. Their radio and marketing accomplishments span across formats and place independent artists directly in the center of the major league playing field.
By Mike Bacon
Todd Sievers and Tracy Brown
Founded nearly ten years ago, CO5 specializes in music and entertainment promotion, publicity, management, social media, creative design, sales and marketing. They were the first kid on the block in this new world of independent promotion and marketing that focus on new and emerging independent talent. They are a full-service one stop for artists and labels in search of new school thinkers with traditional and exceptional major label promotion and marketing experience.
The evolution of CO5 has been impressive to watch. Their radio and marketing accomplishments span across formats and place independent artists directly in the center of the major league playing field.
We recently caught up with founders Todd Sievers and Tracy Brown and examined the company’s beginnings, its successes and explored the course they have charted for CO5’s bright future.
What are your backgrounds and early industry influences in your careers?
Tracy –
I started at retail, working for Sound Warehouse at the coolest store in the chain across the street from the University of North Texas. It was the most fun I’ve EVER had on the job. Too bad that experience doesn’t add to my resume anymore. From there I went to CEMA (blast from the past!), which is now EMI, and I did both Field Marketing and Artist Development while I was there over six years. Daniel Glass hired me out of thin air to do promotion for him at Artemis Records where I was under his direct tutelage and learned how to work radio from the best! I knew ONE programmer. That didn’t matter to Daniel, he saw something in me that I didn’t even know I had. Add in working and learning from Danny Goldberg who always (still does) made time to teach and mentor me. They gave me a huge opportunity and personal attention. I am forever grateful to Daniel for the opportunity and all that he patiently taught me as well as bringing the original CO5 team together. Artemis is where I met Todd and Richard Wolod and Toby Russell who rounded out our original team. I haven’t looked back since.
Todd –
I walked on my college campus for the first time in 1988 and less than 2 hours after arriving I was in my first meeting learning how to get my broadcast license to become a jock. After a year as the Marketing Director I became the music director of KUCI where I discovered dinner in LA with reps, free shows and after parties. It was a long ways from economics class and late night study sessions. Ten days after graduating I was offered a job doing college radio promotion for Def American. There I worked for Rick Rubin, Phil Costello, Mark DiDia, Marc Geiger, Mike Bone and other amazing and talented industry veterans. I was hooked. My hobby became my career! I went through the A&M lot, The Dust Brothers start up label within Mammoth and Disney, Reprise and Artemis. I have worked with some of the best in the business before launching CO5 with Tracy in 2003. This has been the most amazing nine years of my career! I feel so fortunate to love what I do.
What made you decide to form CO5?
We started CO5 out of survival and an epiphany. We both worked for the same company and they pretty much dismissed everyone in the field on the same day except for the two of us. Each of us took some outside work to start padding our checking accounts and both of us quickly realized that indie releases were not competitive, mostly due to how the campaigns were run. So the concept was simple, create a company that delivers and works independent records in the same way the major label staffs work their releases.
What were the immediate challenges and benefits?
The immediate challenge was finding someone to hire us! We started getting records New & Active and on the lower end of the charts out of the gate which helped in generating more projects for us to work. The immediate benefit was realizing the opportunity to pursue our own vision not only of how to chart records but also in working records that had different expectations than simply the peak chart position. We could be creative, do things differently than everyone else and get out of the proverbial box and spread our wings. Of course, being your own boss was the most obvious benefit of all and that didn’t mean we didn’t get yelled at. We’ve been yelled at a lot, but it did mean we could be self-reliant and independent thinkers.
CO5’s business model ten years on is now being adopted by a great many music biz veterans that now own and operate their own shops. CO5 is now a full service operation with aspirations to grow more each year. Tell us a bit about how the company works and what you foresee moving forward.
We now have CO5 Music doing promotion to Pop, HAC, Alternative Rock, Active Rock, Mainstream Rock and AAA; CO5 Nashville is strictly Country; CO5 Urban handles Urban Mainstream, UAC, Smooth Jazz and Gospel. CO5 Media, our three-person publicity team is our newest division, almost 2 years old and they have more options for projects than they can handle. CO5 Marketing & Sales is a two-man operation that is redefining how to set up and roll out retail campaigns, offering a myriad of services that go beyond the standard definitions and really blazing some new trails for non-traditional clients – literally redefining distribution. Finally, we have CO5 Management and handle the careers of Brian Wilson, Jeff Bridges and Gingger Shankar. Each division functions on its own but also can and does work in conjunction with any of the other divisions in the company literally creating a label environment where the communication and synergy are seamless. We always have our eyes towards the future and continued growth and are constantly networking and talking to other industry professionals who focus on unique and imperative aspects of an ever-changing industry.
What advantages do you have over the traditional record label and promotional model?
The advantages are limitless! How many labels would have stuck by AWOLNATION’s “Sail” for a year to get it Top 5? Our Country staff broke two records with their #1 Tracy Lawrence record “Find Out Who Your Friends Are.” It was the first song in country history to go #1 without a label dedicated field staff and it was the longest campaign to #1 in the format’s history. At the end of the day, that #1 record translated into huge touring and merch revenue for Tracy Lawrence. We’ve seen the same for AWOLNATION and for Metric. Their guarantees began to grow with each position up the chart their song went and we believe that’s what it’s all about. We work with our artists to try to understand their vision of their career, we want to know how they perceive themselves and then we work them to help accomplish their goals. Our artists don’t have to worry about our agenda because our agenda is their agenda. We share their goals and that’s not always the case in the record label model. None of them are used for leverage for another artist; each of them is a unique project that we work in direct concert with them.
Having the right partners internally and externally has been key. Tell us a bit about the folks that work for and with CO5.
We have some of the best and brightest promotion minds and people in the industry, all of them come with a wealth of experience and deep relationships and most importantly, all of them are people we are happy to call our friends in addition to being our partners. It takes a special individual to keep up with what we do at CO5 and we know we are extremely fortunate to be surrounded by the people who comprise this company.
Patti Martin is a Southern Promotion Diva who takes a personal interest in her programmers lives. She is one of the best in the business and if she covers your station, well you’re lucky because she truly cares and takes that attitude towards our artists as well. Bebop Hobel is a one of a kind! Nominated to the Promotion Person Hall of Fame, she is a closer and a friend and another Southern Promo Diva. She is one of the most tenacious individuals I’ve ever met. Jenn Sligh is all heart and passion. She truly knows and cares about her stations and their staffs and super-serves her stations. William Marion is one of the most refreshing promotion guys you’ll ever meet. Don’t expect him to beat you up with hype, he attacks with facts and a consistent delivery, never over the top. His passion for music is immense and yet he is a very balanced communicator and is respected for that. Lida Galkahas been at CO5 the longest and is another tenacious competitor but like William, she is not about hype. Instead she is steady and consistent and very engaging. She is a trusted fixture in the Pacific Northwest and just incredible to work with. Drew Murray runs Pop, HAC and AAA for CO5 and is the “youngest” member of our team in terms of how long he’s been here. His brain is an encyclopedia and his research is impeccable. He has to have a photographic memory because it’s amazing the things he knows and remembers. He’s worked with just about everyone and is one of the hardest working guys I’ve ever met.
This is just our promotion staff! Jean Sievers brought her full team and roster to CO5 including Brian Wilson and Jeff Bridges – they are a well-oiled machine. David Newmark after working on the rock side of promotion for decades, built CO5 Nashville from scratch! Rob Chapman and Alyssa Levy, who run sales and marketing, came out of the Sanctuary and Universal systems. David Linton worked for Clive Davis, Shannon Henderson runs street teams. We have an incredible team.
What have been some of your biggest success stories at radio and overall?
Our biggest success story is hands down AWOLNATION! May the forces that be please continue to bless the brilliance of Aaron Bruno! We are happy to take credit for two Top 5 Alternative songs and another one going up the charts now but all the credit goes to Aaron for delivering a brilliant work of art and to Berko Pearce for picking up the phone and playing “Sail” for us from his car on his cell, yeah, the song is that good! It was a no-brainer for us, but obviously it took a while for that to be realized across the country. Tracy Lawrence going #1 at Nashville, that was a major achievement. Metric was not only a huge success but hard work realized. We had worked with Metric on a few radio campaigns so to finally break them on “Help I’m Alive” was a dream come true as all of us were huge fans of the band. Dead Sara is another one but the story is just getting started. Of course, we have to mentionCollective Soul who really put us on the map when we worked with them on their album Youth and delivered “Counting the Days,” “Better Now” and “How Do You Love.”
There are so many more we take a lot of pride in that were successful, The Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, The Dirty Heads, Kid Rock, Tantric, Hanson, Band Of Skulls, OK GO, Buckcherry, Gretchen Wilson, Danko Jones, Sevendust,Mandy Moore, Rubin Studdard, Tommy Lee and more.
What new music and projects in the pipeline can we expect from CO5?
We have a new artist named Wax that has a great tune called “Rosana” that we’re going to start talking about. We’re looking forward to shipping The Stellar Corpses’ “Vampire Kiss” in the fall. These guys did a great show at Sunset Sessions Rock and we got lots of great feedback from programmers. And get ready, we’ll have a new Danko Jones soon and we feel like it’s the best album they’ve ever put out!
What one thing about this business keeps you up at night?
Adds and airplay! Moving multiple records up multiple charts at the same time.
What stokes the fire in your belly in regards to where the business can or is heading?
Knowing that hits can come from anywhere and anyone can put out music to consumers. There are no walls, which means this industry is limitless and can go as far as your creative ideas will allow. The fire in our belly grows knowing we have some big ideas and we will continue to break bands even as the industry evolves. Our left of center thinking has generated hits and that is the core of CO5. Every trend starts with a trailblazer and hard work. We are not scared of hard work and plan on continuing to blaze new trails!
[eQB Content By Mike Bacon]
