Variety (Oct 1941)

Wednceday, October 1, 1941 ORCHESTRAS 09 HERE'S WHY THEY B UY RECORDS Joy of Victor Thinks Radio Is a Great Plugging Medium for Bands—SackS Of Columbia Thinks Radio Has Helped Music Appreciation in General—Kapp of Decca Emphasizes Showmanship Record Biz IsnH Coming Back; U'8 Been Back For Over A Year By MANIE SACKS (Manager Popular Artists and Repertoire, Columbia Recording Corp.) only possible lead on which to hang my thoughts could be summed up in six words—'Record Sales Prove Discs in Groove'—because it certainly looks that way from in^ seat on the 50-yard line. The comment that the record busi- ness is coming back is out of date. It's be?n back for more than a year, and there's every indication that it will reach new highs undreamed of in what used to be referred to as 'the good old days.' There are many factors that have added impetus to the healthy rise of the record market. The war economy has undoubtedly had much to do with the tremendous current demand for records and will have an even greater influence in the months and years to come. Records have assumed a much more important place in the entertainment picture, because of the necessary restrictions along other lines. Also they have proved to be good stimu- lators of morale. Radio's Buildup But the rise of the record Industry pre-dates the current Industrial botom by a substantial margin. The comeback was well on the march before Hitler started tearing up Versailles. And I believe without a doubt that the most important factor in its return was the same thing that kicked it In the head years ago—radio. With radios more common today than telephones and (yes, it's true) even l>athtubs, music—and lots of it—has been available to over 28,000,000 families every hour of every day during the year. Since good' music was available to one and all, it wasn't long until occasional radio performances of their favorites weren't enough to satisfy the appetite of music's new friends. Music had finally taken its place in America—and America really took to music! And that's where records come In. With high fidelity re- cording, surface noise drastically reduced by better record stock formulas, and phonographs reproducing the music with remarkable brilliance and clarity, the demand for music in a permanent form was inevitable. Because America's musical appetite was awakened so dramatically, many other factors entered the picture to rush the new movement along. The coin-machine industry, long a struggling enterprise, became established in thousands of new locations over the country, and is today one of the greatest single markets for popular records. Radio manu- facturers soon* found out that combinations were the order of the day and introduced new models at prices unheard of years ago. Retail stores dusted off their record shelves and put in stock to meet the demand. And this wasn't confined to just the old-fashioned music store of yesterday. Department stores opened up valuable space for modern record departments with complete stocks and ample audi- tioning facilities. Chain stores, which were at one time a negligible record market, soon expanded their activities along these lines and today represent an immense market for popular music. Record prices were lowered to bring more records to more homes. But let's not put the cart before the horse. All these things followed the new demand, after it had once been established by radio. I think that It was radio primarily that made America music-conscious. The record business Is operating on a broader base than ever before In Its history. Although it will, of course, fluctuate from time to time with our national economy, the market today is no passing thing. It's here to stay. But to get on to some of the other phases of the record business ... More Discriminating on Wax This new and broader market for records carries with It a tremendous responsibility for the artist and repertory de- partment. Hand in hand with the new demand has been a trend for better music on records. Nowadays some five or six-man combinations can turn out excellent sides, It's true, and a certain class of buyers will grab them up. But the mass record market wants more than that. It wants a 12-18 piece dance orchestra, with capable soloists and vocal groups to interpret full-bodied arrangements of its favorites. The arrangements can still have plenty of solo spots where outstanding instrumentalists can take them 'out of this world,' but the whole thing has to be done up in a musical pack- age that is no letdown from the live talent air shows they hear so often. People must pay money for records; they can listen to the radio for free. By the above I certainly don't mean that arrangements have to be intricate and demonstrate a lot of technical ability on the part of the players. No, the arrangement can be very simple, but it has to be executed with all the punch of a production number.' The fans know their popular music and they know their bands. A slipshod performance on records is dangerous for the artists and for the record com- pany. A band can easily have a best seller one week and a flop the next. And the flop can be a tune that eventually climbs into the Hit Parade—with another band's arrange- ment. It's true also that some tunes are one band's beat and another band's noise. This is particularly true of novelty numbers, which usually take a larger organization to pro* duce than the usual run of bands, although a good novelty vocalist can sell for any band he's with. [I am purposely omitting artists' names and song titles in this piece, because somebody would always pop up with the exceptional case. The selection of repertory and artists is far from being an exact science. I personally don't like every best seller on the market, and many times I can't understand why a release doesn't climb higher in the sales sheets. Recording directors aren't crystal-gazerg. They're salesmen.] No Set Formula for a Click Some people will hold that a hit record must be a ballad in strict dance tempo with a bang-up vocal, and will quote a bunch of examples; others will claim that the biggest selling hits are novelties; still others will push for all» instrumental arrangements of originals. All of which proves only that there is no single formula for a hit. The alert bandleader is the one who first analyzes the ■ talent he already has in arrangers, musicians and vocalists, then selects his numbers for the purpose of making the best possible use of that talent, with due regard to the public's desires. If he has a good novelty vocalist and the arranger can set the background, the leader's tempting fate not to take advantage of the opportunity. If he has a good In- strumentalist, he's losing money if he doesn't 'let the fellow out' as far as arrangements are concerned. The bands that do the best possible job with the type of music they're best qualified to play are the ones that sell a substantial quantity of every release. And to my way of thinking, it's much better for a band to have a healthy sales average for every release than it is to have a smash hit one week and a dud two weeks later. And now on to item No. 3 . . . Great Trailer for Any Band I think that, all things being equal, records are tm- doubtedly the most important single item for a band In a promotional way. Some persons will put up a howl and claim that radio time should be on top of the list. And I would agree with them if there was any band who could have air time on a regular schedule on a sufficient number of stations to cover the country year in and year out. Ob- viously, that isn't possible. It's probably true that for a new band, there's nothing like air time. This has been proved time "and time again. But for the established band, records stand in first place. The reasons for this are too obvious to spend many words on here, but a summary would include the following facts: records are sold in every part of the country; records pro- vide in many cases the only means whereby fans can hear their favorite bands; on records the listener can hear a band or a^particular tune as often as he wants and can familiarize himself with every member of the band; the possession of any band's records keeps that band high in the fan's In- terest for many months after the purchase is made, often for years after the tune itself would be considered dead. In addition to the above are, of course, the promotional activities of the record company itself. Posters, displays, publicity and all other sales work of the record company are often much more valuable and In greater quantity than the promotional materia\_ produced by the booking - offices. Even such unadorned promotion as listings of releases in record catalogs for many years has more than once been Important to the life of a band. ~ Which seems to be a good place to end this discussion—In the record catalog. I'm sure most of this article is more or less familiar stuff to many of the seasoned showmen and the veterans of the entertairmient business who read "Vawett regularly. The best advice I can give to the new men In the business is to talk to some of the oldtimers. Decca's Name Value Idea JACK KAPP'S success story with Decca Records, of which company he is president, follows the Hollywood pattern. From the start, he has tied up l^g wax works with film names like Bihg Crosby, Mary Martin, Deanna Durbin, Tony Martin, Marlene Dietrich, Connie Boswell, Judy Garland, et al. Ditto on the radio end. The paralleling of Decca releases with filmusicals in the past or, where there was a downbeat of celluloid song ex- cerpts, the usage of w.k.. names from screen and air gave Decca a solid merchandising foundation. The rest was up to the recording standard. Thus, names like Jimmy Dorspy, Bob Crosby, Phil Regan, Frances Langford, Merry Macs, Martha Tilton, Carol Bruce, Carmen Miranda, Ted Lewis, Irene Dunne, Glen Gray, Guy Lombardo, and others, from radio and pictures, gave 'billing' substance to Decca platters. Kapp has been taking the 'comeback' phase of the record business for granted. His idea was that proper showmanship, giving name value to the 35c platters, could create a distribu. tion marquee value to merchandise records akin to the film distribs who; after all, likewise sell a canned product, in- sured only by name value of the artists. In fact, according to Kapp, the disks have the advantage since they're not bought sight unseen—or, more literally, sound unheard. The tunes usually are familiar and, if coupled with a surefire interpretive artist, it is sure to command an immediate market. In the picture business, only the recent consent- decree, advance, tradeshowing idea parallels that. Greater Year Than Boom Days Of the 1920s Enjoyed By Disc Companies By LEONARD W. JOY (RCA Victor popular Ttiusic director and conductor of t/ie y. S. Treasury Department's 'JWtllioTW for Defense,' be0i7in'ln'0 September 30 over the JVBC-Blue network.) 'T^HE whirling black discs are spinning around to an even greater sales tune than ever before, and record copipanies are enjoying an even greater year than in the boom days of the '20s. We who have been in the industry for a fairly long time, see the answer to this remarkable growth in a large number of interrelated factors. Radio and automatic phonographs? Definitely yes, but along with them such items as inexpensive record players, .better technique in recording, more important orchestras, and most important of all, good tunes. All of these have to be considered; no single factor remade the record business, but all together they did a remarkable job. As to the trends, we have got to Consider two kinds of irendst in styling and instrumentation, and trends in the tunes themselves. Some people say strings are coming into their own again. Sweet music is on the up, with swing definitely on the down-grade. I don't think we can make that definite a statement. If a band is popular ^ and has strings, the listeners accept the strings and like them. If an orchestra, well up on the list of money bands has plenty of brass and no strings, it is accepted and liked. _ Neither Glenn Miller nor Tommy Dorsey use a violin, yet their records are in as much demand as those of any. orches- tra today. . War Songs?—No With the defense setup as it is, one would think patriotic songs would be in the majority. Definitely, they are not. In fact, only one or two Have made the grade. Irving Berlin's 'God Bless America,' which reached the top long before the thought of drafts and convoys, and now two songs which he wrote for the Government, 'Any Bonds Today,' and 'Arms for the Love of America,' look as If they will get somewhere. Conriedy and novelty tunes, such as '$21 a Day, Once a Month,' which Tony Pastor cut for Bluebird, are doing very v/ell in the automatic phonographs. Probably as this year goes on we will see more sailor and soldier tunes brought out, which should please the people's fancy. The reVival of the old warhorse, 'We're in the Army Now,' still meets with public favor. What kind of records sell best? Any man who could answer this question intelligently and thoroughly would be worth a fortune to the industry. Generally, however, we could say that a combination of a good song, interesting ar- rangement and a top band sells. While conversely, mediocre songs, with a commonplace arrangement and a band that the kids aren't interested in, get nowhere. Sometimes you can take these combinations turn them around and get a good seUer; I mean by that a. top song even by a lesser known band, will do very well. A little known number with a good arrangement, and played by a Dorsey or an Artie Shaw, will also make money. Radio's Hypo Commercial radio buildups are great things to get a singer ^ or a group of singers started. Take Dinah Shore, for instance, on the Eddie Cantor program. Her record sales have Increased tremendously since this setup started. Sustaining shofs»seven, eight, nine, 10 times a week, are invaluable in helping name bands. Take Teddy Powell who is now at the Rustic Cabin in Jersey. Almost all the orchestras try to plan so that a good part of the year will be devoted to airtlme, even though they know that during these intervals on the air they make little or no money. - Of course, there is such a thing as good value received from this air time. 'There are certain bands which seem to have a definite knack for squeezing out every bit of good which can come from these air shots. One reason, in my opinion, why records are on such a terrific upswing is the boom which has come with defense work. So many more-people are employed at wages which allow them to buy more than the necessities of life, more vlctrolas, turntables and records are being put into the homes, end more money is being spent in automatic marchines in cafes and taverns. The old-timers in :.the business will remember tl^at the same thing occurred during the last war. In fact, the retail price on all records was increased during the last war. The record business today is at an unprece- dented high. This is definitely Victor's greatest year. Some have contended that this is natural and will most certainly fall off again to the proportions of the low years of the early '30s. I doubt it. For the most part, the record business today looks solid. People are buying discs for one reason. These discs give them, to quote an old Victor slogan, • 'Music They Want, WHEN They Want It!'