@ EconMusic: Fred Croshal And The Virtual Record Label
This story was written by Staci D. Kramer.
Caught L.A. Girls by Jupiter Rising on The Hills, picked up Elliott Yamin's best-selling CD or the latest Jackson Browne? Then you've experienced the work of a virtual record label partnering with the artist to market their music outside the traditional majors/indie model. In those cases, it's Fred Croshal, the founder and CEO of Croshal Entertainment Group and the EconMusic spotlight Q&A. Croshal estimates he has been involved in selling more than 3 million albums over the past few years.
Croshal, who has 30 years in the business ranging from Sony (NYSE: SNE) Music, CBS (NYSE: CBS) Records and Madonna's Maverick label, drew some of the strongest applause of the afternoon with his description of a business model that gives the artist more autonomy, more participationand more of the proceeds from his or her work. Croshal and CEG provide the same mix of services an artist might get at a major label: sales, marketing, song placement, internet, publicity, budget management. Artists go to him with a finished CD: "They'll come to me, 'I have this disc, I need soup to nuts. What can you do for me?" What follows is "totally a partnership" that "breaks down those labels of 'us and them.' Yes, I'm going to give them my opinions, but at the end of the day, it's their decision."
Some highlights from his interview by Caroline Little, CEO, Guardian Media, North America:
Internet hypocrisy: Croshal mentioned early label resistance to the internet. "We would constantly get into these fights because we broke the rules by giving away free singles." The label was willing to spend $500,000 on radio promotion but push a button and have x millions hear the song online? 'Don't do that." His advice: "Share it. If it's good it's going to come back in some revenue stream."
Springsteen and Wal-Mart: Little asked how Croshal felt about Bruce Springsteen's controversial deal to do an exclusive greatest hits album with Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT). He grimaced: "Personally, I don't think it was the right choice. You limit yourself ... a one-way deal with Wal-Mart is not really cutting edge."
Elliot Yamin: Croshal says he wound up working with Yamin because Clive Davis didn't want the American Idol contestant's album. "19 Entertainment didn't want to manage him, so they let him go free. He would never have bought his first home or really nice automobile last year if that wasn't the case."
Scaling and credibility: Staff size keeps his project level down. While his friends at the labels stress over keeping their jobsnot a good environment for the artist, Croshal sayshe plans to increase his staff this year. Croshal also turns down projects because repping the wrong ones for the wrong reason will hurt his core business. "Some people come to me with horrible projects and offer me crazy money."
The rest of our coverage is at our EconMusic channel
By Staci D. Kramer