Interview with Diane van Horn of Atlantic Records
Music Video Press: Today is October 19th. I am in New York City at 1290 Avenue of the Americas with Diane van Horn. Diane, how long have you been involved with promoting music videos?
Diane van Horn: 457 years (laughs). Let’s see I have been doing music video promotion for approximately 13 years now and I started doing local video promotion at Geffen Records. That was in 1992. I went from Geffen Records to EMI Records back in 1996. That’s when I got involved with more of the national promotion, dealing with the national channels like MTV and BET. From there I went to Elektra Records, where I worked for about eight and a half years, then Elektra and Atlantic merged and now here we are, Atlantic Records, 2005.
MVP: So you have got a lot of experience and a lot of perspective on how the music video landscape has changed over the last 13 years.
DV: I think that I can lend a certain perspective to that. Yes.
MVP: Would you agree that recently things have really started to change with the internet?
DV: Absolutely. And I don’t think it is just the music video thing that has changed. Obviously record companies initially did not take the internet as seriously as they should have, and as a result we now find ourselves in not the best of circumstances. On the video side, initially getting a video played on the web was not necessarily viewed as an important part of getting exposure for an artist and that has definitely changed over the last couple of years. In a lot of instances we will create music videos specifically to show on the internet and even launch videos on the web. Whether it is a video premiere on a website like YahooMusic.com or on MTV.com or BET.com or getting exposure on some of the internet video channels like Mania TV!, the web has become extremely important. I have to give props to Stefan Goldby (Head of Programming at Mania TV), who has created a great thing. We have been doing a lot of interviews and artist features with them. They really have created something special. That has been a major change within the last couple years.
MVP: Would you agree that now more then ever that an artist, established or just starting out, needs a music video?
DV: Yes, I do think that music videos have become more important in recent years because of all these alternate sources of exposure, mainly the Internet. I believe it can be argued that in the last two and a half years it’s become more important for an artist to have a music video. It does not have to be a $500,000 music video. Even the major labels rarely spend that kind of money anymore. However, I think the visual component of an artist is so important and not necessarily because of MTV or other national channels. I think that any kind of visual exposure, whether it is a music video or some sort of EPK, something along those lines is necessary at this particular moment in time.
MVP: Would you like to elaborate on this thought; does a spin on Refused TV in LA or on JBTV in Chicago still have impact?
DV: It is so hard to quantify and it has always been hard to quantify. More often than not the artists I am dealing with are getting exposure from a variety of sources, whether it is radio play, local press, street marketing, etc. What ever it might be, I think it is easier to gauge when you are looking at a band or an artist when the video play is the only thing happening in the market and you can look and see if a spin in Boston for example effected sales that week. I remember when I first started out working at Geffen only doing local video promotion, I would do these little reports to try and correlate local video play and sales and it was always hard. You are talking about one spin, once a week at best in most cases. So I do not think you can look at it as: is one spin on a video channel going to effect sales? I think it is just a part of the whole process of building and developing an artist and their image. It takes time. Local video exposure is a very big part of developing an artist over the long term. We are always looking for that quick fix answer and a lot of times it is not that simple. I think a spin on a video channel coupled with getting the artist in the marketplace and getting interviews done is all important and is all a part of the whole process of getting bands and artists to a higher level.
MVP: How is it different to get a video shown on one of the national networks when it is one of your major artists like Ryan Cabrera or when it is a newer band like The Click 5? How do you approach it differently?
DV: When you are introducing a new band to a video channel it is so hard to go about it a specific way because every project is different. It depends on the genre of music and what materials we have available. In regards to MTV in recent years, there are so many platforms to MTV now and you do not go with an artist like James Blunt to MTV directly and say we want this on TRL tomorrow. You start in other areas, whether it be MTVU or MTV.com, or MTV News with their fabulous “You Hear it First” program, which we have had a lot of success with and has sort of become the entry point to MTV with many new artists. When you are talking about Click 5 or Ryan Cabrera, which is obviously very mainstream pop and very appealing to MTV and the TRL audience, you would start approaching MTV on a Click 5 a lot sooner than on a Death Cab for Cutie or even on a rap artist like Saigon. There is no template, you have to go on a case by case basis.
MVP: How exciting was it this week when you learned that Death Cab for Cutie had been added to MTV?
DV: Very exciting. The most important thing about Death Cab is obviously that this is a band that was very hesitant about signing to a major label and I bet that every major label in the business wanted this band. We ended up getting them. It has been an interesting process for us and for them as well because we both had the same goal of increasing their awareness and exposure while maintaining their integrity. The band made a beautiful album that is as pure a Death Cab record as all their other releases, even though it is released on Atlantic Records. They have made a video for “Soul Meets Body” that is beautiful and totally different than what you would normally see on MTV. They are a true testament to a band that has really stayed true to themselves and true to their music and has gotten bigger and bigger just by word of mouth and just by being so real. I think it is really fulfilling just to see MTV pick them up. If you look at MTV’s play lists in recent months, they are starting to get more adventurous with the artists they are playing. They have definitely put a lot more rock back on the channel. So I just think the time was right for MTV as well because they had some success and have started to embrace some of these rock bands in recent months. So hopefully it is a sign of more things to come, getting back to the diversity and having the channel take some more chances on some bands that may not necessarily be the perfect TRL fit. I still don’t ever expect to see Death Cab for Cutie on TRL, but I could be wrong!
MVP: How are you all reacting to videos being available on your cell phone and the video iPod?
DV: Yes, since the merger, we as a music group have been very aggressive with any sort of mobile technology. Starting first and foremost with ring tones, we have been extremely aggressive with ring tones. That has become a very reliable income source for us, so if video follows suit which it seems like it will we will act on it. Anyway we can generate additional revenue at this point is an important thing to pursue. We have an entire department dedicated to multimedia and mobile technology, like dealing with iTunes and dealing with all the cell phone companies. We do a lot of work with Jamster on the ring tone side. I am excited about it. This is another reason why it is important to make music videos for artists.
MVP: You have talked to many of the regional programmers since they had their feathers ruffled by the UMG group to demand fees; any advice to those regional programmers? In many cases these are just folks who love music. Any advice to them on fighting the good fight?
DV: I know it must be very disheartening to these individuals, I don’t know what Universal’s stance is on the whole situation, I can’t comment on it. And frankly I don’t know what Warner Brothers Music Group is going to do in that regard in the future. I think you are right in saying that a lot of people are music enthusiasts and are producing local video shows because they love the music. I would definitely tell any local programmer to keep fighting the fight. There is always going to be material out there. If you cannot afford the fees charged by Universal, then look to some independant artists and labels to get your content from. Major label artists usually have more exposure on the national channels so this is a great opportunity for some of these small indie bands and labels. So focus on those artists. There is certainly no shortage of amazing bands and artists out there. They just need a shot.
MVP: Ok, last thought. Tell us about some of the cool videos you guys have coming up and if there are some videos that the programmers reading this interview might want to really give a second look.
DV: Ok, promote my music. I would say one of the most amazing artists and albums that this record label has at this moment is James Blunt. If anyone is not familiar with James, he is massive overseas. The guy has literally sold over 5 million albums overseas. He is, going back to what I said about Death Cab, a true, real artist and very sincere. When you see him perform, you can hear a pin drop in the room, he is so captivatingjust because the music is so simple. We have a video for his song called “You’re Beautiful”, that is just gorgeous. I am personally very excited about that project. We have got a band called The Darkness, kind of hard to forget. They are shooting a video for their first single off their new album which comes out on November 29th. I’m sure it will be outrageous and as big an ode to 70’s rock as the last album was. Lot’s of use of cow bell on the first single which you've got to love.
MVP: Were people surprised here that that music came back in such a big way?
DV: It is hard for me to say because when The Darkness was really big it was before Elektra and Atlantic merged. I can tell you from being at Elektra Records and watching what Atlantic did with The Darkness was pretty amazing. The bottom line is, as crazy and catchy as they are, they are great musicians. They can really fucking play. If they were a bunch of clowns and couldn’t play, they would not be where they are today. We have a lot of urban releases and Hip-Hop and R&B videos coming out. We have this kid Trey Songz, who is amazingly talented and one of the nicest kids in the world. He writes his own material, is a great singer, and great performer. I think he is one of those people we are going to be talking about for many years to come. He is the whole package. On the hip hop side we have this guy Saigon, which a lot of people are familiar with. Extremely intelligent and incredible life experiences that he talks about in his music. And I must mention Little Brother, a group of guys from North Carolina bringing hip hop back to what it was. It is not glorifying all the booty and the guns and the bling. They are just an amazing group. Those are just a few highlights - I could talk for 14 hours on all of our releases... Shinedown, POD, a new Jet album. I have no doubt that they will make an amazing record.
MVP: Well they were with you at Elektra.
DV: Yes they were. Oh - and we are going to have a Juvenile record early next year and I love the Sean Paul. I think he made an amazing album and we are about to launch his second video, he is shooting it this Saturday. I think that's it!