It’s almost CMJ time again, which, besides watching the swarms of 19-year-old college radio DJs wandering the Lower East Side confusedly, also means a lot of other great over-packed-with-sweaty-dudes-in-dive-bars experiences.
For example, the panels. As an innovator in what is now the quickly-changing music industry, World’s Fair will be hosting one this year, appropriately called “Inmates Running The Asylum.” Moderated by World’s Fair co-founder and president Kevin Wortis, the panel will discuss how many well-established acts and their managers, pushing against the advent of the major label 360 model and increased pressure to sell Gold or bust, have decided to forgo the traditional Record Label Structure entirely by releasing their own material, maintaining all their rights and reaping the lions’ share of the income. Is this the age of Artist (and Manager) Empowerment?
Wednesday Oct 22nd, 3:30 PM, Kimmel Center
60 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012
Panelists:
Kevin Day / Rocket Science Inc.
Rocket Science was founded by Kevin Day, a music industry sales and marketing veteran with over twelve years of his career spent at the Universal Music Group (MCA Records and Geffen Records). In 2004, towards the end of his tenure as VP of Sales at Geffen Records, Kevin began to recognize a growing trend of opportunity at the independent sector for artists, labels and management companies. He realized that a focused and experienced staff could deliver releases to the marketplace in the
same manner as a major label, but with much less cost and vastly reduced overhead, thereby providing greater profits often times at much lower sales levels.
Molly Neuman / Indivision Management
Originally from Washington, DC, Molly began her career in music as the drummer for the seminal riot girl band Bratmobile. After graduating from The Evergreen State College in 1992, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and began to work at Lookout Records in 1994. In 1997 she became a partner and
has been instrumental in the signing and development of such artists as The Donnas, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Ted Leo/Pharmacists among many others. After moving to New York in 2004, Molly became involved with the as yet unnamed U.S. independent label trade association as a member of the search
committee for its first president, and a founding board member of A2IM upon its formation. In addition to Lookout, Molly is a partner at Indivision management, a management company focusing on independent artists, has founded a new label Simple Social Graces Discos, and works at eMusic.com. She is absolutely committed to the independent music industry and anticipates being a punk rocker for the rest of her life.
Neal Sugarman / Daptone Records, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
In 1998, Neal was signed as an artist to the now-defunct Brooklyn soul and funk label Desco Records. It was there that he met his current partner and fellow co-owner of Daptone Records, Gabriel Roth. Neal’s experience with Desco Records helped him to understand the power of working with a niche-oriented independent label, and Desco Records would later act as a model for Daptone. The success of the Sugarman 3’s début record on Desco, Sugars Boogaloo, also gave Neal the opportunity to extensively tour the world. Neal stayed on the road for the next 5 years with the Sugarman 3, learning the ins and outs of the business, organizing tours, managing merch, and co-producing 3 LPs, two for Desco Records and one for Daptone.
After the demise of Desco in 2000, Neal joined up with Gabe Roth to start Daptone Records. With a strong artistic concept and conservative business goals, they began building a recording studio and recruiting a family of musicians with whom they are still working today. Their first releases were a series of 7″ 45 RPM records by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, soul singer Lee Fields, and Neal’s own group the Sugarman 3. In 2001, Daptone released the label’s first full-length, Dap-Dippin’ with… the seminal debut LP by Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings. At present time Daptone has released 37 7″ 45s and 15 full-length CD/LPs.
Neal still works as a full-time sax-player for Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, and is involved in all of Daptone Records’ productions and business decisions.
Jon Topper / Top Artist Productions
Jon Topper has worked in the music business for eighteen years as an artist manager, a promoter and a label manager. Topper began his career working with moe., one of the hardest working bands in the industry, and continues to manage them today. The band has gone from bar band to headlining act at such esteemed venues as Radio City Music Hall in New York, Fox Theater in Atlanta and The Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. The band spent over two relatively unproductive years with Sony where their growth came to a halt. After being dropped from Sony, the band re-formed Fatboy Records, the label they had originally created pre-Sony and had released three albums through, and now has gone on to sell over 500,000 albums from its catalog. Topper runs the daily aspect of the band’s label, marketing and touring.
RSS
“ATOMIC PURGATORY!” exclaims Brandon Curtis, the vocalist/ keyboardist/bass player and principal songwriter behind the Secret Machines. The psychedelic New York trio’s founding member has just come out of self-imposed exile after being isolated in a 6 x 6-foot room at Electric Lady Studios for the last 10 days, while he used Apple Loops to tackle the preparation of stems for the upcoming “Atomic Heels” Remix Contest for GarageBand.
