Jill Weindorf
Having started her career by uniquely holding two WEA jobs at once – Southwest College Promotion for Elektra and WEA Southwest Sales Assistant – Jill Weindorf has never been one to take the conventional approach, which made her perfect to take over the promotion reins for the burgeoning Concord Music Group when she assumed the VP position in 2007. The label had been on a growth curve since Hollywood mogul Norman Lear and his partner, Hal Gabba, had purchased it, recently acquiring the Stax and Fantasyimprints, reviving their storied catalogs and bringing legendary artists like Isaac Hayes and John Fogerty back into the fold.
What Weindorf didn’t know when she signed on the dotted line was that the label was about to solidify a relationship that began as a one-off for one of the most successful records that was spawned from Starbucks’ Hear Music label, Ray Charles’ Genuis Loves Company, by closing on a blockbuster deal with the coffee retailer. The deal was originally a partnership with Starbucks in operating Hear Music, but soon made Concord the sole operator of the label, while retaining a marketing relationship with the coffee company. With that deal came Weindorf’s opportunity to further the careers of artists like Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor andJohn Mellencamp. It may seem that a stable of artists of that caliber would lighten the load for someone who spent the bulk of her career working high quality “niche” records at Verve and EMI’s respected Narada group, but as you’ll read in this exclusive e-QB interview, it also created a new set of challenges for Weindorf. It also makes her happy that she gets to work with the philosophies and tools within Concord – including a marketing deal with new label owner Village Roadshow Pictures – to help leverage her artists in the marketplace.
Talk about what you learned at Verve and EMI that has helped you in your current position at Concord.
When you have records that are what we would politely call “specialty” or “spice” records, you don’t have a tremendous amount of leverage. I always worked for record labels that had tremendous amounts of credibility for what they were, but it never translated to the job I was doing. When somebody calls from Verve, the programmer on the other end knows that it’s a great record label, but he also knows that what they offer is probably not going to be right for his Rock radio station. In the commercial singles world of Rock, or Pop-based formats, there’s an implication that this is likely going to be a spice record at best. So when I went out to work with these formats, I really had to work hard to learn about the radio stations, to understand what they were, and to be able to promote them in a way that overcame any kind of idea in their minds that I should just have a specialty record. I had to learn about what they were looking for in an act.
So now that you were finally working records across all formats within the EMI system, what was it that drew you to Concord?
There were certain things that were coming out of Concord that weren’t happening anywhere else in the industry. Concord was acquiring major credible assets. They had gone from being a Jazz label to acquiring Fantasy Records, making a deal with the U.S. Post Office to sell product, and (clearly I did not have a crystal ball to see that the Hear Music deal coming) there were deals being made that were unprecedented within the industry. And the Norman Lear association and the association with Village Roadshow Pictures were really credible, smart alliances. I was looking at a company that was growing, acquiring real assets, and changing its face when everybody else was downsizing and great artists were being let go. Meantime, Concord was giving John Fogerty back his rights, and figuring out how to acquire Fantasy Records and Stax. That was huge.
What is it about these deals, that makes it easier to work and sell music?
We have strategic alliances with our parent company, Village Roadshow Pictures, which owns a tremendous amount of assets in Australia including major radio stations and theme parks. They own a tremendous number of movie theatres. That gives us a strong international base. We have a strong partnership with Starbucks, which has reaffirmed its commitment to us. There’s a good core group of people at Concord that are into not doing things the traditional way. That has helped procure a lot of deals that wouldn’t have been cut at a major label.
With all of these other tools and marketing agreements in place, how has it impacted the role of radio in building careers and records?
Concord is still a very radio-friendly and very radio-driven company. But there are definitely a number of projects that we know aren’t necessarily radio projects, or where radio will act as only one arm of the marketing strategy and will neither make nor break us. It’s a good thing and Concord is realistic about it.
Is radio still as important as it was for the career of an artist, whether it’s an up-and-coming artist or an established one?
Absolutely. It makes the difference. We see it time and time again. If we have a supportive radio station in a market, we’ll see the sales. It’s very rare that we don’t see a correlation between airplay and record sales, particularly on the Urban side. And if we can have market saturation, that’s the most amazing thing. If I can get three radio stations in one market to play a record, I know I’m going to sell it. Yeah, it’s still important. It’s the most important thing we have, but it’s not everything we have.
With the Starbucks deal and the acquisition of Stax and Fantasy, the label you said used to be a Jazz label suddenly has a roster with artists like McCartney, Fogerty, Joni Mitchell, Mellencamp and James Taylor. Talk about the unique challenges of getting exposure for new work by heritage artists.
It’s a blessing and a curse. For a format like Classic Rock, where they have great TSL and great audience numbers, they’re moving away from playing new music. The loss of major market Classic Rock stations in New York or Phoenix is a tremendous blow because there are no other stations in the market that directly appeal to that same audience. That format has gotten just so notinto hearing about whether there’s a new John Fogerty or a new Paul McCartney, that it’s a challenge. Where do we go to expose our new record?
For somebody like me, Triple A becomes all that more important. When you’re dealing with heritage radio, it’s a lot more advantageous to walk into someplace where you have some real heritage and a loyal audience that still listens to CCR Chronicles, but will go buy John Fogerty’sRevival record.
Then you go to a format like Mainstream AC. There are a good number of stations that will take a shot on the record, but it’ll start on overnights and it’ll be a long time coming before you really know whether or not there’s a story. You don’t have a lot of opportunities to do listener events and bring an artist by and have him play live on the radio. The stations are based on the lifestyle appeal to their audience. It’s very song-based; it’s not artist-based. It’s really about getting that song on and working through to get day-parted rotations that are going to make a difference. Six months later you’ll see whether or not you have a hit.
While sales figures imply that the industry is in trouble, Concord seems to be selling units. What are you doing differently?
We’re not immune to the challenges of the music business. We have felt our bottom line just like everybody else has. But one of the things we have done right is the diversification of the business. We distribute a company that does compilation CDs for Target. We have been speaking to a major floral company, National Florist. We have our Starbucks partnership. We have a partnership with Village Roadshow Pictures.
We own the Peanuts line. A Charlie Brown Christmas is a tremendous seller for Concord. We’ve been able to secure a huge amount of licensing. Take a band like Ozomatli, a band that hit the bottom of the Hot AC chart, did okay at Triple A, but made six figures for the organization. We licensed the hell out of that record. It was a very, very profitable venture.
With the world economy in a state of extreme flux, what are the keys to the record industry recovering and going forward?
If anybody knew that, we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in. Concord’s on the right track and that’s why I’m excited to be here. Again, we do smarter, better deals. When you make a 360 deal, it’s the ultimate investment in the artist. The artist is more vested because they’ve made a big commitment to you to share everything they’ve got, and we’ve made a big commitment to them to try to sell everything.
There’s a perception out there that the record companies are making all this money and the artists are suffering, but I also think we sometimes lose. Ninety percent of new artists fail. We lose money on artists every day, but we’ve also taken deals where nobody makes any money until the project recoups, and then it’s a 50/50 split. We make deals based on what we think both the artist and the record label can find profitable, and I don’t know that there’s a lot of that going on. I never saw it until I got to Concord.
Is the public still interested enough in music for the industry to rebound?
There’s a tremendous desire for music and it’s never going to go away. People love music and they’re looking to pay for it. We need to make it easy for them. But people are buying. Everyday people are downloading music. They listen to it every day in new ways. They’re consuming differently, but they’re not consuming less. We just have to figure out how to get to them. Music will never be over. It’s way too an emotional part of everybody’s life.
** QB Content by Jack Barton **
