Inside the Industry – An Exclusive Four-Part Series

A couple weeks ago I was having an informal discussion with Mark Vrabel, one of the partners in SmoothChicago.com.  His company is the area’s leading promoter of Smooth Jazz concerts.  As we talked I realized there was quite a bit about his segment of the music business that I never knew about, even though I have been working with concert promoters since I started playing Smooth Jazz in 1987. 

Mark happened to touch on several topics I get asked about by listeners and especially musicians trying to break into the genre.  As I was jotting down Mark’s thoughts, it dawned on me that there were a few other questions I regularly get asked about.  And, as was the case with Mark, I felt those would be best answered by representatives of two other segments of the industry:  artist representation (agents) and the artists themselves.  I decided to put those questions to Carol Ray, who has represented guitarist Nick Colionne for many years and Phil Denny, a Smooth Jazz saxophonist.  My conversation with Miss Ray will be Part 2 in this series, Mr. Denny, Part 3. 

For Part 4, which I’m calling “Radio’s Role,” I would like to answer any questions you might have about radio's involvement in the process.  To get you started, here are a few that I get asked about a lot  How do the tracks that make it to the air get picked in the first place?  Why don’t you play more than just one or two tracks on a CD?  What do I need to do to have my music played on your station?  How should I send my material to radio stations? 

What would you like to know about radio?  Drop me a line (FmAm1@aol.com) and, when it comes time for Part 4 in this series, I’ll try and answer as many of your questions as I can.

Tomorrow (Thursday), we will begin with my Q&A with Mark Vrabel.  It will be Part 1 of our series:  Concert Promotion.  I have a feeling you will find this and each of the segments over the next few days interesting and perhaps eye-opening.  And, if you're an artist, I bet you'll pick up a few valuable suggestions along the way.

~Rick O’Dell

Our Smooth Video of the Day:  Mark Vrabel’s company, SmoothChicago.com, is bringing Richard Elliot to the Montrose Room April 13.  Here’s a preview.

 

Comments

[Super Dave]

Looking forward to it, Rick. Should be an interesting & informative series.

[Art B.]

I second Super Dave, I'm looking forward to the series, but something already struck me from the above questions, it was the question of: Why don't you play more than just one or two tracks on a CD ? I go back to the 33 RPM album days and I can remember when the only songs played from an album were sometimes the 1st ones on each side, you would spend the money to buy an album just for 1 or 2 songs. I don't see that much has changed except for the fact that CD's have a better sound, and albums have turned into collector's items.