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"I don't know if it's vital for a musician to learn this stuff," Williams said. "A lot of musicians do fine without it, but I just think it's smart. It was really interesting to learn about the differences between indie label A&R and A&R at the major labels.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday, January 06, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 40 words Type of Material: Correction
Musicians Institute: An article in Monday's Calendar about the Musicians Institute in Hollywood identified Kenny Kerner as head of the school's artists and repertoire staff. He is director of the Music Business Program, of which A&R instruction is one component.
"The majors can't take that many chances anymore because there's so much on the line, and people will lose their jobs if an act they sign isn't successful right away. But the indies have to sign more acts to build their rosters, so a heavy-metal band like ours will probably go with an indie. Stuff like that has been useful for us to know."
Katie Scanlon, a 26-year-old 2007 graduate of MI's business program now working as a management and marketing assistant at Nettwerk records, said she's been able to apply much of what she learned at the institute in her day-to-day encounters.
She stressed the importance of having artists truly understand the role they must play in their own success.
"If someone develops an artist on the label or management side," Scanlon said, "there are still a handful of fans who react positively to that -- especially if it's a pop artist like a Britney Spears. But there are quite a few fans for whom it's more important to get that personal connection from a grass-roots marketing campaign through the Internet. And those fans really gravitate more toward the proactive bands who know how to effectively use their websites and MySpace pages."
One of the key changes Kerner and his staff make sure students are attuned to is the ever-increasing churn rate for bands with record deals. Between fans' shorter attention spans in looking to make new discoveries themselves on MySpace or other Internet portals and record companies' heightened focus on immediate financial returns, it's harder today for musicians to get the foothold that can lead to a long-term career.
Skills essential
It's not impossible, of course, but Blue and the others note that, despite evolving technological ways for artists to connect with fans, it's still true that the best way to get a gold record is to shake 500,000 hands through touring and personal appearances. And no amount of live Web chats or Facebook activity will substitute for good old songwriting skills.
Perhaps the big lesson for those involved in any facet of the music business is to get used to living with less -- less profit and fewer multimillion-selling acts.
"There will always be record labels, even though the nature of the business is changing so much," Grierson said. "I just think we're going to be seeing a lot more small levels of success rather than the giant levels of success we've had in the past."
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randy.lewis@latimes.com
