Sky Daniels is the epitome of a seasoned music industry professional. Having worked on virtually all sides of the business at all the right times – on-air, radio programming, radio promotion, record label management, retail exec, trade editor, and now his latest adventure, bringing new sounds up through the Fontana label system – Daniels is no stranger to success, perseverance and the drive to achieve.
Sky Daniels
Sky Daniels is the epitome of a seasoned music industry professional. Having worked on virtually all sides of the business at all the right times – on-air, radio programming, radio promotion, record label management, retail exec, trade editor, and now his latest adventure, bring new sounds up through the Fontana label system – Daniels is no stranger to success, perseverance and the drive to achieve. From his early days in radio in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle to his SR VP role at the Polygram Label Group (a precursor to what is known today as the Island Def Jam Music Group) through his current home at Fontana, Daniels has always been an open-minded, forward-thinking individual that calls it like he sees it. We caught up with him for an in-depth one-on-one and look inside his journey through the industry and where he sees the path leading up ahead.
eQB presents excerpts from the October FMQB magazine Modern Rock Up Close: Sky Daniels VP/Promotion & Artist Development, Fontana/Universal Music Group
“I still don’t think in our business we’ve found the definitive retail relationship with radio, digital or otherwise. That remains my passion. Has radio engaged with a digital partner that truly interacts, and REWARDS their ability to create demand? There’s an enormous opportunity to create a radio driven on-line retail environment in which radio would see real revenues, and the music industry could tap into the immediacy of radio’s ability to foster demand.”
“There is no greater moment of desire for new music than when you hear a station world premiere, in particular, a superstar act’s latest song. Imagine if you could turn around right then and have that song at a discount, station loyalty-type price? The opportunity is enormous and could truly energize sales.”
“Radio has largely maintained the attitude that it’s not their job to sell music. Yes, primarily it’s their job to sell advertising. If you are a music station you rely on music content, and the providers of that content are suffering incredible losses, much like radio itself. This is a time to work in a cooperative fashion and include radio as a retail channel. If labels gave radio real fiscal incentive, unlike the miniscule fees they now receive from third-parties, this would be a robust revenue-stream. Radio generates enormous demand, and then disengages itself in the resulting transaction. My vision doesn’t mandate what to sell, nor tells you what to play. It simply suggests that both sides capitalize on the moment of discovery.”
“Best Buy taught me a lot about large bureaucracy. In every big corporation someone needs to be the one who manages the triage, if you will, of these endeavors. More often than not, our industries have no triage. There are silos—within the respective business cultures, and certainly amongst labels, radio, New Media, and retail. We need to find something that works for all parties engaged and that includes the consumer. While there, working on a lot of large initiatives with radio showed me the critical importance of operational engagement. The microphone was where the transaction must take place.”
“One thing that I cherish is my practical experience at the executive level in all four sides of the quadrant. Radio, labels, new media, consumer marketing/retail. Each time I entered a ‘new arena’, I had to be a quick study, and assimilate what the value systems of those industries were. It requires a facile understanding, without prejudice, of how and why the respective cultures act.”
“My first challenge is establishing Fontana’s identity. The brand at Fontana has great resonance at retail, yet radio doesn’t recognize the enormity of the company. This is the world’s largest music company’s incubator of independent music. We are Universal Music Group’s consortium of 164 independent labels. Collectively we generate and bill more than a lot of so-called major labels, doing it from an incredibly diverse roster of labels.”
“Do consumers recognize major-labels as a currency? Maybe some indie labels, like Vagrant and SubPop have cultural meaning to early adopters. When a consumer hears a great song and loves it, I defy any radio programmer out there to tell me that they’ve ever received an inquiry about what label the record was on. Do you think listeners care? It’s more a part of the conditioning of radio than the listeners, I suspect.”
** QB Content by Mike Bacon **
