Jill Weindorf

Raised by the Jersey shore in Seaside Heights, NJ, "long before Snookie," Jill was hooked as a lifelong music fan when she heard Bruce Springsteen's "Jungleland" in the back seat of a car at 10 years old. Her industry career began as a college rep for Elektra and WEA distribution while attending Arizona State Univ., launching as a promotion executive at Verve Music Group for seven years. She moved to Milwaukee, then L.A. for a brief stint at Narada and Blue Note under Kevin Carroll, which led to her being hired at Concord Music Group by then-GM Gene Rumsey 11 years ago, rising to her current post as SVP/Promotion & Marketing for all formats. During her stint at Concord, Jill has worked with the likes of Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, John Fogerty, James Taylor and John Mellencamp, while presiding over the breaking of new acts like Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, The Record Company and current Top 40 climbers The Revivalists. One of a handful of successful female promotion executives over the years -- including such stalwarts as Judy Libow, Andrea Ganis, Polly Anthony and Suzanne Berg -- Weindorf, despite her modesty, continues to be a role model for breaking down barriers in the music business.

You were a music fan growing up?

My parents raised me on MOR country, things like Crystal Gayle and Eddie Rabbitt, terrible stuff. The first time I heard the real goods, I was committed for the rest of my life. My sister and her boyfriend were going to the mall to buy one of the first Prince albums, they popped "Born To Run" in, and I was hooked. When they took it out, I just swiped the tape. From that point on, I was a Jersey Shore rock kid. I was raised on a combination of WPLJ and WMMR, because growing up in Toms River/Seaside Heights, you got both. Monmouth County was the best radio market in the country.

How did you develop an interest in radio?

I thought I was going to be an "Almost Famous" kid, a rock journalist. I wrote for my school paper, and the local alt weekly pubs, reviewed records, and also worked at the college radio station. My father got a job in Phoenix, so we moved from the ocean to the desert, and it was horrible. I became very introverted, but they had great record stores there - Zia Records - and cool radio stations like KUPD, KUKQ and KZZP on the Top 40 side. I read an article about college reps in Rolling Stone and decided to apply to Elektra because I thought it was the most interesting label - they had real artists like Emmylou Harris and Tracy Chapman, but I also loved their rock artists, like Metallica, AC/DC and Crue. I had a pretty diverse musical palette. I got the job and won a marketing contest among college reps, $500 and a summer internship in New York for $250 a week. After it was over, I got a job as a sales assistant there to Steve Heldt and never left.

But you were drawn to radio promotion, a field not traditionally open to women.

I liked the excitement, the add board, the running around, but, of course, I saw that immediately. Most of the women at Elektra were career assistants, even if Sylvia Rhone was then head of the label. And unless you did AC, there was no shot. But I wanted to do Rock promotion and there were no female Rock promotion execs.

So you ended up at Verve Music Group?

At the time, Suzanne Berg was one of two female heads of promotion, along with Polly Anthony. She hired me and even though they had largely an AC-oriented roster, I loved her, and she offered to teach me how to do promotion, to train me to one day run my own department. And that's what she did. She was just so cool. It was great. I loved it. We worked on acts like Diana Krall and Jamie Cullum, promoted the Verve/Remixed series. I think that was the only all-female promotion department in the history of the music business; there were six of us and we were good. We delivered from Jazz to Triple A to Urban and AC. We had a lot of success.

Is there pressure, as a female promotion executive, to prove you can be a member of the boys' club?

I was very fortunate. I grew up in a family of four girls, and my father raised us very much sans gender roles. At the time, it was miserable. Three of us played basketball. We were pretty tough kids. When we went to the park, my father would challenge the other dads and their sons to play two-on-two with us. If we won, he'd say we were just as good as the boys, and if we lost, he'd say, "See, you have to work twice as hard as a girl." We were brought up in a competitive atmosphere from early on. I always played above my age. He always pushed us to be the worst player on the best team. So, I don't know those roles. I'm so used to being the only "chick" in the room, that I don't even think about it anymore. I feel like I've got a seat at the table; nobody treats me any differently. As long as I'm saying smart stuff and delivering. By and large, I've never felt any more sexual harassment in the music business then when I worked at Albertson's in high school and college. But I do resent the fact, having not had any children, I'm dismissed as a "career woman." I have a very fulfilling life, a very balanced one. I know who I am.

You've had an incredible run at Concord Music Group, more than a decade now.

The job was tailor-made for me, a great opportunity. They were an AC, jazz-oriented label at the time, but had plans to move into Triple A and eventually, Rock. It was the first time in my career I felt something was perfect for my skill set, given where I had been and wanted to go. I met for pancakes with Rumsey on my 32nd birthday, and he offered me the job on the spot.

And then Concord Music Group went on an acquisition spree.

Six months in, they partnered with Starbucks and suddenly, I was working with all my heroes. And it was like, "Weindorf knows how to work all the old guys." We were regenerating these artist's careers. Concord then acquired Rounder, and that brought us Robert Plant and the late Gregg Allman. We then got deeper into rock and now we are the #1 Rock label with artists like Seether, Ghost, The Pretty Reckless and Marilyn Manson.

How involved are you in working records at Top 40?

We don't typically launch records at Top 40, but we love to cross into the format. We just launched The Revivalists there and already have KIIS in Los Angeles, KVIL in Dallas and now SiriusXM Hits 1, so we're capable of covering the format when we have the right records. My goal as we began growing the department was to be able to say to any artist considering signing to Concord that we can take you from zero play all the way to Top 40. Thanks to our amazing promotion team, I can confidently do that. I have to say we're scrappy as hell. I've quietly got the best promotion team in the business and they are constantly winning. That's how our success has happened. Exceptional artists and records being driven by a tremendous promotion team.

How has the promotion job changed over time, with the advent of streaming and its attendant deep-dive data?

We have the kind of instant metrics we've never had before. The launch of the campaigns is still the same, but how hard and how long to play comes to view a lot sooner. The biggest game-changers are Shazam and Spotify. If I'm getting quality spins at my best partner stations, it's reflected immediately. You can usually tell right away if a record's got game when you get to a certain threshold of exposure at radio and you see the correlating pop in one or both of these two places. You can see whether the audience is passive and just likes to hear the song on the radio, or they want to have it and save it to their library or playlist. We worked The Revivalists record for 40 weeks to #1 at Triple A; it then took 20 weeks to get to #1 at Alternative, breaking the record for most spins during a week there. Then we went to Hot AC and it took 15 weeks to go halfway up that chart and we knew we'd go all the way to Top 40. It was all reflected in Shazam, Spotify, and to some extent, Pandora. We could see each connection that the radio drove the engagement. I'm not saying there is an instant connection, but there is a measurable connection and that's something we can all see building. That's how we knew this record could go all the way. It's exciting.

Are you bullish on the music industry's future?

There's a tremendous opportunity for growth now that things are starting to level off between physical and digital. The direct-to-consumer and experiential side of the music business is the next area of growth for record companies. But we also want to continue to support the independent retail community as well. Publishing, licensing and luxury products are also great growth opportunities for us. We want to be in business with everybody who has equitable practices and serves the music well.

What are your professional goals?

My soul is always on the marketing side, making a more meaningful connection with the consumer. Music is an emotional experience. And I think it's important we continue to develop artist careers, not just Top 40 hits. I've always believed in making a deeper connection with an artist, bring the fans to want to engage in artists with a body of work. I want to work with artists who have long and rich careers.

Career high points?

What beats getting kissed at least a dozen times by Sir Paul McCartney on both the left and right cheeks ... the cute Beatle? I've got a picture of me and John Mellencamp ... and he's smiling! Joni Mitchell and I once shared a smoke. If you haven't heard "Blue," you shouldn't get to work in this business. The career high points evolve every day. I'm working with some of the most exciting artists on the planet right now. New music by St. Vincent, Manchester Orchestra, Prophets of Rage and Van William have me convinced the highs are still coming.