Though my last label job was Director of Sales for Arkadia Records from it's inception until November, 1997, most of my experience in the music business has been in Distribution and Retail, at the One Stop and Distributor level.  My specialty was in Black music.i.e. R&B and Rap.  I eventually was instrumental in the signing and marketing of 3rd Bass, a rap group,who had 3 gold albums on DefJam distributed by CBS (now SONY,).  I have been a buyer for Rank Retail, a rackjobber who serviced all East Coast Woolworth's stores, as well as BJ's Wholesale Clubs, Sears, etc. I started out my music career on the retail sales floor at Record World, Wherehouse Records, and King Karol.

I am presently a Business Development  epresentative and industry advisor for Context Integration. We design and build innovative system solutions on the web, mostly for Fortune 1000 and Finance 200 Entertainment, Media, and Financial companies i.e. BMG, Hollywood Stock Exchange, CMJ Music Report, Hearst Media, and Books On Line.

I see the problems of marketing Jazz Music as mirroring those of marketing Rap Music in the early 80's (when MTV was so prejudiced that they would not even play Black artists like Michael Jackson; yes, he was Black back then!).  Woolworth's, Sam Goody's and other chains were not carrying any indie product, even hits like Queen Latifah, and Africa Bambaata on Tommy Boy until they were established on radio.  There were no major Rap radio stations.  Rap was not played on radio, save for the specialty shows, overnight " mix " shows heard after  1PM in most cites.  Does this sound familiar?

Most rap groups sold their product to indie stores and individual chain store managers through onestops.  Promotion often consisted of driving around in jeeps, blasting the music on the car stereo through large speakers mounted in back; or setting up a boom box on a busy corner.  (Okay, this won't work for Jazz artists, but think of the Jazzmobile as a corollary example).

My favorite comment on the scene came from Bill Stephney, one of the prime movers behind Public Enemy at the time. When explaining the music to me and how it was marketed, he said simply, "we are our music", implying that whether or not the mass audience was ready for Rap, it would find it's audience and build upon it due to the passion of the business people, the marketers, the artists, and the fanbase.

Jazz will probably never have the mass market appeal that Rap has achieved. (I would love to be proved wrong on this point!),  However, the example of Rap Music's growth shows that an "underground " music can be marketed creatively and successfully to expand its core audience without necessarily "selling out".

The world is different now, as technology and circumstance have considerably changed the marketplace.  However, music is still music,. The best music moves through the ears and into the heart.  Opening the right ears and the right hearts is and will always be the challenge.