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10 Questions with ... Rae Cline
December 8, 2008
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NAME:Rae ClineTITLE:Head of PromotionCOMPANY:Nettwerk Music GroupBORN:1964, Saginaw, MIRAISED:Grand Rapids, MI
Please outline your radio career so far:
Prism Productions - Director Marketing and Advertising: 1988-1993
89X Detroit - Director Marketing and Promotion: 1993 - 1998
Virgin Records - Detroit Regional Promotion - National Director Alt/AAA - 1998-2002
Nettwerk Music Group - Head of Promotion: 2002-present1) What led you to a career in the music business?
I started a fanzine when I was in college and recruited several friends to help. This was the mid 80's and we interviewed artists like REM, Black Flag, and Elvis Costello. We were too lazy and disorganized to sell advertising so I convinced the local pub to let us have Monday nights. We'd book the bands and keep the door, they'd get the bar. We consistently packed the place, even in the summer. After graduation I was offered a job by an Ann Arbor concert promoter and I gleefully blew off grad school.
2) What made you want to get into the music business? Who were your early mentors?
Michael Plen (a.k.a. "The Attack Hampster.) He taught me that record promotion is a marketing job and the real fun begins after you get the add. How are you going to make that song a success for the station?
3) What is the biggest misconception about record executives?
That we work records because we have to. Certainly on the indie label side, we're usually involved in the process of an artist or record from before signing, and it's a very long road that results in a particular piece of music.
If we're taking it to radio it's because we're passionate about it, we've spent time with the artist, and we know what they're about on a personal and an artistic level. If we didn't believe in our records, we'd be better off selling pharmaceuticals.
4) What do you feel is the most valuable research tool that radio should be paying more attention to?
Soundscan. Who are those artists who are selling 50,000+ records with no commercial airplay? It's flippin' hard to sell 50,000 records these days! If you're doing that without radio something's happening organically. The same goes with single track sales. If a song is consistently selling 500+ tracks a week with no promotion, there's a solid word of mouth driving it. These things can speak to how "real" a record is.
5) What can radio and record companies be doing with their radio station web sites to drive more music fans to these sites?
Programmers have stacks of records they like but don't have room to add. Add those songs to the web - give them away for free (smart labels and publishers will let you) You don't have to clutter it. Just add the songs you like, feature them, create an online music meeting for your listeners. If you know a song is going to get a sync on "Gossip Girl," give that song away the next day. Talk about it on the morning show. Labels still do EPKs, that's content. They're often more interesting than the videos. Put them on the Web Site. Get your listeners to blog, and "vlog." Spend the time to give your website a personality and a clean, compelling look. Make it a community that people want to visit often.
6) How have music file sharing services affected the way you market your music?
We try to give away as much free music as we possibly can. We're selling a brand. If a fan gets the music for free he might buy it anyway. If he likes it, he'll want the best quality, the liner notes, a hard copy which is still the best back up. Even if he doesn't buy the record he might buy a concert ticket, a T-shirt, or convince someone else to walk into that tent.
7) Many say that because of the Internet, we are now in a "singles business." Should musicians be writing and recording every song with the intention of getting radio play? Or is today's music consumer looking for more of those "deep tracks" rather than three-minute uptempo songs with catchy hooks?
Artists should never create music for the consumer. Artists should create because they're artists and they have no other choice. Still, I think the question is flawed. If anything, the trend is for artists to write songs for TV and film placements. I don't think this is anti-artistic, quite the opposite. All art is communication and composing for a narrative is just another way to tell a story.
8) What's been your biggest disappointment in Radio today?
Stations that won't consider a record unless it's at a certain chart position. I grew up in the Midwest, and I still have a special fondness for the regional hits of the 70's. J. Geils "Musta Got Lost" I'm talking to you. I don't think that happens very much anymore and it's a shame. Radio is more interesting when it reflects regional tastes.
9) Who is your favorite artist that you have ever met or worked with?
Bleach-era Nirvana. They were poor and pimply, driving around the Midwest in a van, averaging 30 people a night. I booked them onto a bill with the Flaming Lips and the club (250 cap) sold out in advance.
A couple of years later, "Nevermind" had just been released. They were playing a 1,000-seater in Detroit and Kurt asked why they weren't playing that same club. I said, "It's too small. If there's another leg you can play the Michigan Theater. It holds 1,700." He thought about this for a moment and said, "Well, maybe if the record does better."
10) If you had the opportunity to work any act/artist from the past, present or future who would it be?
Queen, "Bohemian Rhapsody." I'd love to play that record for programmers for the very first time and record all the reasons as to why this crazy-ass song "OPERETTA" will never fly.
Bonus Questions
1) What's the worst excuse you ever heard from a programmer?
"I'm not interested in a reaction record right now."
2) What do you do in your spare time?
I write short fiction.
3) What was the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you at a radio station or artist meet & greet?
The Spice Girls were awful to their young fans. They would come out for meet and greets with cotton candy or popcorn in their hands so they wouldn't have to touch them. It was horrifying to me.
4) What was the craziest promotion you ever did with a radio station?
When I was in Detroit I put together a charity softball game, 89X against the "Real Live Brady's" (a theatre troupe out of Chicago) who played in character. The game was called live on the air. I put a mime in right field and you got an automatic home run if you hit him. At the end of the day, our weekend jock had two hotel room phone numbers in his pocket. One was from Jan and the other from Peter.
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