NJ music promoter Morace Landy gives advice for music career

No one wants fashion advice from a plumber. Or marriage advice from Real Housewives. So before I talk to him about the secrets of his success in the music world,

TheMusicMemo STAFF

- June 5, 2023

in Videos

No one wants fashion advice from a plumber. Or marriage advice from Real Housewives.

So before I talk to him about the secrets of his success in the music world, let’s first clarify what Mores Randy really means.

First, as a promoter and marketing executive, he has worked with at least five major labels including Atlantic, Island, Warner Reprise, Epic and Profile.

Second — he has worked with Jay-Z (“The Blueprint”), Trey Songz (“Lady”), Luther Vandross (“Your Secret Love”), and TI and Rihanna (“Live Your Life”), and has been instrumental in the careers of dozens of artists, including Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Babyface, Fat Joe, and Missy Elliott.

Third – he helped create the hit ‘It Takes Two’ (Rob Bass & DJ EZ Rock), one of the most relentless and jarring tracks to ever hit any club in the western hemisphere.

And if that wasn’t enough, he’s now the CEO of his own artist development company, Evolution3.

So when Randy tells us what it takes to build a music career in 2023, it’s best to listen.

“The main thing I want to say is don’t put yourself down by focusing on getting hot records,” said Randy, an Emerson resident who has lived in Bergen County for the past 26 years. To tell.

share his secret

He will share his advice for up-and-coming artists in his June 6th presentation, “Ingredients for a Successful Music Industry Career and More Than Just a Hit Record.” (RSVP required; admission is $60 for him).

Taking place at 6 p.m. at HBA’s Creative Space at 275 Malcolm X Blvd. Catering provided by Chef Ben Pollinger.

It also includes subtopics such as ‘Negotiating for Longevity’, ‘How to Leverage and Maintain Relationships to Win’ and ‘The Future of the Industry with Artificial Intelligence’.

“I’m a little scared of what’s to come,” he said.

But his main advice is for promising young people. People just starting out in the wonderful new world of social media, rising to overnight stardom on shows like The Voice and American Idol. Especially for Little Nas X and We Annis around the world, they suddenly win gold in viral sensations and big talk on TV.

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Not enough. You have to think three moves ahead.

“There are hundreds of artists on these shows, and you’ll never hear their names again,” he said.

According to him, the music industry has changed dramatically over the last 20 years.

Production has been decentralized. Where once a few big labels held all the cards, now anyone with the talent and home studio can create a fluke that goes viral. The audience has changed, too. Young people think more about singles than albums. And they are capricious. There will always be new internet sensations tomorrow. Anyone remember Sai? Or Afro B?

All of this is good news and bad news for new artists looking to establish themselves.

Good news? It’s easier to get hits these days. What’s the bad news? Having a career is harder.

“There is no iconic star in development,” he said. “It’s getting harder and harder to say ‘she’s the next Rihanna’ about this person.”

studio system

A lot of this is the studio’s fault.

“The big thing on TikTok is whether there is a song big enough for a label to find,” he said. “They’ll come to you with deals, they’ll give you anything to make it possible for you to stream under their umbrella. would like to trade.”

Back in the day, labels like Motown did just that. It arranged its act.

It will refine images, dance moves, and even the speeches of stars. If you can find the exact writers, producers and arrangers to make them shine, you’ll do well. It’s an investment of time and you don’t expect immediate success.

Such labels have existed for a long time. no more.

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“Labels don’t focus on investing in developing artists,” he says. “That’s the missing piece. With young artists, it’s almost entirely their responsibility to develop their own audience, and that’s it. Labels’ focus is on releasing popular records that can be streamed. be.”

If Randy has a long-term view of his career, it’s because he’s a long-term thinker himself. Originally from Brooklyn, he aspired to be a studio musician first, and did many theatrical acts as an instrumentalist in New York (including Joseph Papp’s Public Theatre).

In the 1980s he worked as a buyer for Tower Records. At the time, Tower Records was the grand central station of the downtown music scene. Tina Turner, Billy Idol, Robert Plant and Elton John have all performed in-store shows there. It is an education in itself. “It was a great place to work,” he said. “There was a lot of talent coming and going.”

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