2. Reading, Task 2 - No recipe for a star

 

Now and again an artist or a group appears on the market, and suddenly everyone is talking about the way record companies make stars, but it seldom really happens that way. At least, that is the opinion of Michael Dowson, 40, a record company manager with over 15 years of experience. “People imagine that nowadays you can just put all the facts into a computer and it tells you exactly what a star should be like. But it’s not that easy. Stars don’t come out of a hit factory.”

Record companies are in the business of marketing a product. But their products are the artists, and marketing strategies that work when selling coffee are not effective on the record market. People are not buying a brand name but the performers and the records.

 

How do the record companies promote their products? The first step is letting the public know that a record exists. Radio and TV are the most important areas here – appearances on music programmes help sales, but even they are no guarantee of success. So record companies send all new records to the radio stations and the radio DJs. They also have representatives who call on the stations and say, “Look, this is a great new record. You should listen to it.”

Nowadays, TV stations use a lot of videos in their music programmes. The problem for record companies is that these are so expensive. For world famous stars, a company will pay around $ 200,000 for a good video – but most performers are not that famous, and there is no point in making a video that costs more than the record will make.

 

That is not the whole story, though. Music is like fashion, and fashions change from season to season, from year to year. Artists not only have to produce good music, but the right music at the right time. Exactly what is going to be “in” and when, is almost impossible to say.

 

The final problem is persuading record dealers to buy a record. The dealers cannot afford to buy all the new records on the market, so other factors help. The representatives may say, “This performer is going to be on TV and radio 4 times in the next 6 weeks,” or, “this record is No. 10 in the United States.” Then the dealer will perhaps buy the record.

It is a long and difficult road from the first demonstration record sent to a record company to a hit record. The record company manager says, “A lot of money may be able to guarantee the production of a successful car or stereo system, but there is no recipe for success in the record business. If I did know exactly what makes a hit, I’d be a multimillionaire today.”

 

 

  

1. Lots of people believe that record companies make stars.

2. Michael Dowson has always produced big stars.

3. Marketing a star is the same as marketing any other product.

4. Radio and TV are the best ways to start promoting a record.

5. A record often heard on the radio is certain to be a hit.

6. Record companies try to influence radio disc jockeys and TV producers.

7. Videos often cost too much for record companies to make.

8. Fashions in music play a big part in an artist's success.

9. The record companies are not interested in the record dealers.

10. People with the right experience in the record business can make any song a hit.