A Conversation with Hard Rock Records’ John Galloway – HuffPost 6.27.12
Mike Ragogna: Hi there, John Galloway of Hard Rock Records.
John Galloway: Hey, how are you doing?
MR: I’m doing OK, how are you?
JG: I’m doing fantastic tonight.
MR: The last time I checked in with Hard Rock was with the hotel chain with Brian Klein who was putting out the word about the integration of music with people staying at Hard Rock hotels. But you rep Hard Rock Records. Can you go into how this venture started and what the future holds?
JG: I’d say music has been core our brand, Hard Rock, since it really came to life in 1971 in London. Our founders, Isaac Tigret and Peter Morton, made music essential to what the brand stands for and forty-one years later, it remains the case whether you’re at a hotel, casino, or café. I think after long discussions, Hard Rock Records emerged from wanting to give back to an industry, the music industry, that has been so good to us and really bringing to life our properties and allowing us to deliver authentic experiences that rock. Ultimately, it’s for us a way to show the industry that we care about music, that we’re involved in music and that we want to see music succeed on a global scale.
MR: You have A&R people that work under you?
JG: I sure do.
MR: What is the process? How do you filter through what’s being submitted?
JG: I have two co-heads of A&R, a gentleman named James Buell and a gentleman named Blake Smith who both have significant music backgrounds and passions. James and Blake are the judge and the jury of who gets to be a Hard Rock Records band. We have a thing called Hard Rock Rising: The Battle of the Bands. We had 12,000 bands participate in Hard Rock Rising so we got a sneak peak at 12,000 bands across the globe. So certainly, by looking at potential talent, it gave us a huge pool to pick from. In fact, Rosco Bandana, the first band to sign to the label, came out of our global battle of the bands from 2011. That’s certainly one way we can do it. Ultimately beyond that, we are keeping an ear glued to the street from our contact in the music industry. We’re doing a showcase in Chicago, we did a showcase the other night in Orlando to see the up and coming bands are out there. We invite bands that seem to have good buzz and credibility that are unsigned and see how they perform on stage and also what they think of Hard Rock and if they meet certain criteria, being a band that enjoys the brand, seeing a band that has potential, a band that has a little different look or feel to them, they may just fit our relationship.
MR: As you may not know, at the end of the show, I’m going to pitch you two bands that I think are amazing.
JG: If they’re amazing, I want to hear them for sure.
MR: (laughs) Okay, let’s get into Rosco Bandana, a Gulfport, Mississippi, group. How did they win?
JG: I would say this. Rosco had a very different sound to them. They had a different look, they had a different sound, and ultimately what mattered for them and got them into the contest was support of fans beyond Gulfport and in the entire Southeast. So to at least get noticed in our battle of the bands, you have to have fan support and you have to have fans voting for you. You had to be somewhat credible enough to get that. When they ultimately did win in their section from Hard Rock Rising: The Battle of the Bands, I had an opportunity to see them in Orlando–they played a showcase for us. I was really struck by the sound, it was a sound which, quite frankly, I hadn’t heard. It was a combination of a little rock, a little blues, a little country, and a little jazz, brought all together in a unique sound. I heard them on the stage for the first time in Orlando live and thought that those guys really have what it takes. We weren’t just looking to introduce the same sound that’s out there today. We wanted to bring something new to the music world and I think Rosco does just that.
MR: Now you’re a Hard Rock VP and Chief Marketing Officer, right?
JG: That is correct.
MR: So that means you truly aren’t John Galloway of Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives.
JG: I do not know John Galloway the house representative. I only know a goalie from Syracuse, New York, named John Galloway, but now I guess I know two John Galloways.
MR: (laughs) How are you going to promote and distributing your acts on this label?
JG: I’d start with probably the most unique thing. Hard Rock right now is in fifty-three countries worldwide. If you put that in perspective, Starbucks–which is pretty ubiquitous–is in fifty-two countries worldwide. So we’re in fifty-three countries with a major reach across the globe as a brand.
MR: You guys win.
JG: But in every single one of those countries and every single one of our venues, we have video music systems. From day one, when we launch Rosco Bandana, we will be able to transmit Rosco’s music video into fifty-three countries around the world. We’ll be able to get them in front of consumers in Bangkok, in Mumbai, in Singapore, in Destin, Florida, and in Seattle, which is rather unique. We’re going to finish shooting their video on the 19th of June where we’ll debut it in Nashville, Tennessee. At that point, we will broadcast that video worldwide, so a pretty good distribution hit for a newly signed band. We also have 4.5 million Facebook fans where we’ll also be able to interview those folks for Rosco Bandana as well. We have a program, Sound of Your Stay, that goes out to all of our hotels around the world. We’ll be able to introduce, via free downloads of our tracks, programs to our hotel guests and visitors to the Rosco Bandana band as well. We’ll be responsible for their PR, so we’re working with Tell All Your Friends PR, as well as using our resources to bring to life the band. We’re hooking -up with a digital distribution agreement as well, so we’ll get distributed on iTunes as well as Amazon. In a sense, we’re using all the creative resources we have as a worldwide global band to bring Rosco to the same place as Hard Rock travels today.
MR: Nice. May I throw something out you?
JG: Throw it.
MR: Wouldn’t it be fun for guests at hotels, since they’re renting guitars as part of their stay, to encourage them to record their own video of the Rosco Bandana song.
JG: I think it would be great, we will add that one to the list!
MR: (laughs) John, what does the future bring? As Tom Petty might say, is it wide open?
JG: The future is very wide open. Right now, we’re in our infancy of Hard Rock ideas. The idea today is not a revenue idea generating from us. From a dollars perspective, it is a revenue generator in good will. We’re trying to generate good will in the music industry with artists as well as the tastemakers in the industry. For the future, we’re looking to sign 2-3 new bands in 2012 and beyond that, the future looks bright to 2013 and beyond. To be honest, we’re ironing out the kinks, we’re new to this game and we’re finding out, certainly initially, some of the challenges in getting these bands through the recording process, through the video process, through the distribution process and getting them out on tour. We want to kill it with Rosco, we want to give them everything they need to succeed and eventually go on to sign with a big label. That’s the win for us. Right now, we’re very close to signing two additional bands for 2012.
MR: John, what advice do you have for new artists?
JG: I guess the advice I have for new artists is be as creative as possible in terms of how you’re reaching out to people in the industry. We go through a lot with artists in terms of asks for play, asks for monies, contingencies they put on deals. Right now, the music industry is suffering a little bit and artists need to be willing to go out there and put together unique ideas that they can play from a marketing perspective and with marketing partners that are win-win, but maybe necessarily, huge financial trains that may limit their opportunity for exposure.
MR: What do you think about the goal of being on a label versus not being on a label? There seem to be two levels of the business right now–the DIY approach, and trying to pitch yourself to indie or major labels to get “that deal.”
JG: Ultimately, I still believe in the major labels. I still ultimately believe in the support. There is a school of thought of DIY, but the reality of it is that it’s hard. As a small, new label, I can tell you it’s hard. We talk to folks in the industry and it seems to be better to be a big boy these days than a small boy. We are a small boy, a little infant, in the industry. All I wish for our bands is that we’re able to give somebody a chance to make it on the big stage and I think the big stage often comes with a larger label than actually we are today. Otherwise, we’d go into that business further.
MR: Although you have distribution that is definitely envied by the music business in general because you have those alternate means of getting music to people that record companies still have problems with because they have their traditional lanes of getting music out there.
JG: Absolutely, I think that’s why we wanted to start this business because we thought we have the assets. We do control that every day. I can decide what goes on at 10 o’clock, what goes on a video screen in Bangkok, or what goes across our entire system. So we’re bringing that music to consumers already, we just needed to take more of an active role and actually how that music gets out there and what the future of music is. Again, for us, it’s a big, big learning curve, but it’s also something where we can help the industry introduce new acts. We also have venues. This year, we did over 17,000 live music acts across our Hard Rock hotels, casinos, and cafes, so an enormous number of acts goes through our venues. Again, it’s important to us and we wanted to show that we care and we appreciate it.
MR: What do you think looking back at the forty-one years that you guys have been doing this?
JG: Wow. I’ve only been with Hard Rock for 2.5 years. There are so many people, certainly our founders Issac and Peter, who invented this concept of this theory of hard rock and the relationship with Eric Clapton giving us our first piece of memorabilia forty years ago. So I’m happy and proud to be a caretaker of the brand while I have the pleasure of serving it and see if I can add a piece or two to the legacy of the brand. I certainly think Hard Rock Records is a way to give back to the industry. Ultimately, I think that’s how I want us to be viewed. We care, we get it, we understand it, and we want to be credible in the music space because it’s given a lot back to our different venues.
MR: John, thank you for spending some time with us and giving us a glimpse into the new label, Hard Rock Records. All the best of luck with it in the future.
JG: Thanks a ton as well and you just let me know what those two bands are sometime.
Transcribed by Narayana Windenberger