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November 24, 2010:

AHEAD OF THE CURVE

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, as I was discussing A Broadway Love Story yesterday, I began to think how ahead of the curve I occasionally am in terms of ideas – this, of course, does not always serve me well, as sometimes others catch up some years later and then things get really popular. But for a lot of things we were there at the beginning, in terms of my recording career. In fact, a few years after the Christiane Noll album, Sally Mayes attempted to do her first non-me album and it was basically the same album, just not done as well. But the most I’ve been ahead of the curve was the creation of Fynsworth Alley back in 2000. Varese had just ended the Broadway line and I was at sea, having been promised a job for life I was suddenly without a job. And I was VERY used to my lifestyle and salary and I did not want it to be changing. I had a few months’ severance pay to tide me over, but I began casting about for other opportunities. The one thing I knew is that no other label would hire me to produce albums. While I was doing nineteen a year and had, at the time, produced more albums than anyone in history in that short amount of time (at least in the Broadway genre), the fact is other labels were playing catch up to us. When we began in 1993, no one was doing much of anything with Broadway music, only the very occasional cast album. When we came out swinging, the market was basically ours and we sold huge amounts of almost everything we released in that first two years. Then everyone at other labels saw what was happening and they all suddenly decided the party was worth joining. And so it became competitive and worse, the market began to be glutted by the end of the nineties. No one was doing solo albums with not that well-known Broadway singers when we brought that back in 1993 – by the end of the 1990s it was hard to find a singer who DIDN’T have a “debut” CD – most of these were not well-produced CDs, but vanity projects, some better than others. As the decade closed, many of our albums were not selling nearly as well as they had (all things are cyclical and it would have changed, but Varese was completely ignorant about their decision and it cost them what would have become a single-player game had they stuck things out).

My first try at creating something new was with the owner of Playbill – but I could tell that he simply had no idea what he was doing and I moved on quickly. I then began serious talks with a website known as theatre.com. They really liked the idea a lot and I flew to New York, we did a great business plan, salary was set and we were ready to go. Until, that is, some video company purchased theatre.com and decided the label wasn’t a good idea or fit. This company was going to make a fortune taping Broadway shows, but when their first attempt at doing so, Victor/Victoria, tanked they and theatre.com quickly went under – yes, they got exactly what they deserved. The label is the only thing that made sense with that website and it would have made them a player.

Then I talked to the people who would eventually fund Fynsworth Alley, and the lady loved the idea, we talked about it a lot, and then I was flown to Louisiana to meet with them, and I came home with a check for my first month’s salary. The reason that I’d been talking to Playbill and theatre.com was because I had an instinct about the Internet, which was then beginning to get huge. No other record label had a real Internet presence and I knew we were on the cusp of something. And that was my vision and business plan for the new label. To create a huge and strong Internet presence and eventually not distribute to stores at all. I saw all this clearly. Very few believed me, but the people who funded it did, and that’s all that mattered. None of us were secure enough to forego conventional distribution at that time, so we made a deal with Varese to distribute us through Universal. I got Varese to sell us almost all the albums I’d produced at an incredibly low price. So, we had an instant catalog. But most of our effort and energy was about creating this Internet presence. We hired web designers to create what we hoped would be the most magical store site ever – and we did groundbreaking things – a twice a week radio show, video, interviews, a chat room – the idea was to create a site that people would love coming to and once there we hoped they would purchase an album or two. Today, the site that was designed could probably be done for ten grand – back then it was all extremely cutting edge stuff and cost almost $150,000. But it was the grandest most fun site, beautifully designed and we spent months simplifying things so that no one would ever get confused about where to look or click. Then we had the idea to do two separate pressings for some releases – ones purchased via the site would have a bonus track not available on the store version. It was a bold idea we hoped would serve us well and not upset too many people. We offered autographed copies of some CDs. When we went live, the traffic on the site was instant and unbelievable. We came out swinging with The Stephen Sondheim album and Liz Callaway’s first new album in years – both sold over 2000 copies alone at our site at full price, which is exactly the idea – those 2000 copies basically paid for the album and the store sales were all gravy. It all went swimmingly for the first year – rave reviews, people loved the site and came often, and albums sold well. In fact, in slightly less than a year’s time we’d grossed almost a million and a half dollars in sales – not bad for a little upstart company. Mind you, I said grossed, not netted. We were spending a lot of money to do albums, have our offices, and keep the site up to date and running smoothly.

And then a fellow I’d been using as a contractor saw a way to cause trouble and he slowly and subtly began to plant the seeds that would end with my being ousted from my own company. This guy was evil incarnate – a bad reed player who became a not well-liked contractor. But I used him, gave him all our work and this was the thank you that I got. He wormed his way into the affections of the money people and that was that. I remember telling him that in a year’s time the same thing would happen to him. And, even though it took a year and a half, the same thing DID happen to him. They ousted him, too, and found out that he’d actually been doing everything that I’d been accused of doing but hadn’t been doing. Karma took care of it all – they sued him and won, he disappeared and I’m sure is having a hellish time, which is a little payback for the hellish time he gave me – and our beautiful baby is basically not in business. We could have owned the Broadway market and I mean OWNED it in just a couple of years, had everyone remained calm and let me do my job.

But our incredible business model was noted by others and within a year we had two new labels who just “borrowed” our model wholesale – everything about it. And they happened to be there when the tide turned and producers began paying for their own cast albums and just handing it to these two labels because, well, they were there. If we’d still been there, we would have had it all because I was partially responsible for that new model of how cast albums get done. I was asked to come to New York with a budget to produce Amour’s cast album. I did. Unfortunately, I hadn’t started Kritzerland yet, but told them I would if we did the deal. But it made them nervous that we weren’t quite in business yet, even though at that time I had a distributor just waiting for me to begin. And so, because one of the producers was friends with the owner of another label, they simply took my budget and gave it to him (he’d done his own budget but it was MUCH more than mine) and the rest is history.

But there’s something nice in knowing that we were the first to try what was then a bold experiment. And I would be ahead of the curve once again in 2005 when I created Kritzerland. After many conversations with many people, I made what was then the absolutely insane decision to forego conventional distribution. It was unheard of, really, in the Broadway market. But I knew conventional distribution was the road to ruin, thanks to the return policies that enabled stores to return 100% of what they bought the day after they bought it. It put you in the rut of always having to have tons of new albums to offset the returns and I swore that I never wanted to be in that rut again. And so we began Kritzerland on no money and a wing and a prayer. We had some angels help out in those early days and that basically saved us. I moved very slowly and did only what I felt like doing. Nothing sold really well, although in retrospect the new Guy Haines album we did sold a thousand copies, which was amazing back then, and After The Ball sold close to that, and then Emily and Alice had to actually go into a repressing as did Simply Sondheim. We were treading water but we had 0 returns. What was sold was sold and was never coming back. Dealers who took our albums took our albums, period. I even sold to Tower in New York on consignment and that worked okay for a short while but they were too slow in paying and I stopped it immediately. I kept saying that Tower was in deep trouble and no one believed me – and then there was no more Tower. I said that Virgin would be gone in a couple of years and on one believed that either – and then Virgin was gone in a couple of years. And now, unless an album gets into Target or that kind of store, there is no brick and mortar market anymore. I knew it was going to be the Internet when I started Fynsworth Alley (Fynsworth was my Internet posting name, for those wondering where it came from), and the Internet it was – all those people who laughed at us and thought we were crazy are all desperately trying to use the Internet now. And what was once my insane idea has been taken by others – forego conventional distribution so that there are no returns. They laughed in 2005, and in 2010 they’re all doing the same thing. And that, I suppose, is being ahead of the curve.

Well, that was long, wasn’t it? Don’t I have notes to write? Yesterday was rather a day. I got up early after having very peculiar dreams – not bad peculiar but peculiar nonetheless. I answered e-mails, put gas in the motor car, and then went to my engineer’s home environment to do some minor tweaking to the Carrie mixes. Those only took thirty minutes and then he began to upload them to our iDisk, after which the mastering guy would begin to assemble the new mixes into our previously done assembly. I then picked up one lonesome package and no mail, came home and changed and then moseyed on over to cousin Dodo and Marvin’s to pay my respects for my Aunt Lil. There were only a few people there when I arrived – a lot of kids, and I spent most of my time with Dodo’s daughter Lori, who’s a great gal with a great husband and great kids. It was nice to see Dodo and Marvin again – it had been five or six years, I think. There was a huge spread of food, but knowing I’d be eating later I didn’t partake of even a morsel, save for a handful of almonds and one count them one chocolate covered raisin. After about ninety minutes I headed home for a rehearsal with The Singer and John Boswell. Today was just to sing through everything in the tentative order I’d come up with. Doing that, certain things became instantly apparent and we cut a couple of songs, rearranged some others and I think we’re closer now. The three medleys have to be created now, which is the only way I’ll know which will go where (we have the slots, but the slots are designed to accommodate whichever medley will fit best).

After the rehearsal, The Singer and I went to Marie Callender’s, where I ate a bacon cheeseburger, a small salad, and a piece of pie. Right now, I feel like I’m going to burst.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’ve got to get up early and work with the helper.

Today should be a fairly easy day. The helper will do some shipping and organizing on the computer, after which I’ll go to the Bank of Bur to see Jason Graae’s first run-through of what is going to be a new act – I’m looking forward to it very much. After that, the rest of the day and evening are mine all mine and I shall hopefully pick up a package or three and then relax and watch motion pictures on Blu and Ray or other formats.

Tomorrow is, of course, Thanksgiving, and I, for one, will give thanks for all the blessings that have come my way. I will also be having dinner with Barry Pearl and his ever-lovin’ Cindy, which I’m also looking forward to.

Friday is our first Gardenia rehearsal – it’s an early one and then I’ll have the rest of the day and evening free. Saturday I’ll have dinner with Lanny Meyers, our musical director – I’m thinking Genghis Cohen. Sunday I may lunch with dear reader Jeanne if all works out. Then next week is mostly attending to the Gardenia show.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, ship items, see a run-through of a new act, pick up packages, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I try to always stay ahead of the curve.

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