Dub dot dash

Move the crowd
Ex-pat Kiwi and now Senior VP of International Marketing at Motown Universal, Kirk Harding, wrote an excellent piece for the latest issue of NZ Musician, its 20th anniversary issue - CONGRATS to them! Read the full version at the MTC blog (Link).

snip..."The industry’s playing field has changed a great deal since the days that I was pushing Richard Thorne and the good folks at NZ Musician to give me some column inches for a then unknown act called Supergroove. We all know the bands story, but I would like to use their example for a minute to highlight/illustrate how quickly that the industry’s playing field is changing.

In the 1990’s the only way to get your music out to the world was via methods that seem to be rather archaic in the present day. The fact that we went on to sell a considerable amount of Supergroove albums internationally was no accident, it was a result of a big system pushing a little group from New Zealand, who had proven themselves to have huge potential in their home market first..."
Kirk also talks about the current processes A&R use to find new acts, such as monitoring iTunes sales globally, Myspace traffic etc...


earlier posts from Kirk - Droppin Knowledge part 3 Defing the grind;

Droppin Knowledge part 2 Come together: snip "at that point the word had spread that Daryl [DLT] was making an album and no one in the (very small scene at the time) wanted any part of it. I remember it so clearly, rather than taking the opportunity to work with D, everyone started hating on the concept; with one very established artist proclaiming to Daryl “who the fuck do you think you are? You’re not Dr Dre? You don’t run this scene”. I was gob smacked. I couldn’t believe it and still can’t. Daryl was the first Hip Hop artist that was signed to a major label."

and Droppin Knowledge part 1 Lost art of A&R.
Go read em all.