Unveiling insights: an exclusive interview with Jeff McClusky.
Exploring the state of live music, A&R, and the influence of TikTok with four decade industry veteran and CEO of JMA Promo, Jeff McClusky.
retrieved from Jeff McClusky & Associates’ official site.
Having witnessed the highs and lows of the recorded music industry as it transitioned from CDs to digital downloads to streaming in the last forty years, there are few people who know more about the music industry than Jeff McClusky. I met him through a UChicago Career Advancement event where he came to speak about his career in music promotion. Born and raised in New York, McClusky began his career in music in the mid 70s working at a major radio station in Boston where he went to college. There, he realized his talents for artist management and marketing, and later began working for Columbia Records as Marketing Director of the Midwest, managing a roster of artists who have since become household names (including Billy Joel; Bruce Springsteen; and Earth, Wind & Fire). In 1982, McClusky started his own company Jeff McClusky and Associates (JMA) based in Chicago, focusing on radio promotion and artist consultation. By the early 2000s, the business had grown to become the primary company in America for radio promotion. Throughout the years, he has worked with world renowned artists such as U2, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, The Weeknd and more.
Extremely personable and passionate about his work, McClusky takes pride in helping young talent get started in the industry. In fact, of all his stellar career accomplishments, he is most proud of the work his company does with festivals such as Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Governor’s Ball, where students get to meet with artists and managers backstage to gain some real industry experience. This year, they plan on adding new schools to the program, including Kennedy King College. “I know that [students] enjoy the experiences of meeting new people and seeing how the industry works, and I enjoy it because I get to learn from them…and we get to challenge each other on what’s cool with new music.” Constantly seeking and open to learning from young people, McClusky still has his pulse on the newest trends and movements in music.
Given his wealth of expertise, I was keen to explore his perspective on current trends in the industry and celebrate his highlights of the year in music.
When asked about current trends in the industry, McClusky was excited to discuss the booming live business. Indeed, Live Nation had the biggest year yet in terms of revenue; the Eras and Renaissance Tours are both sweeping the world by storm. Having a close relationship with U2’s lead vocalist Bono, McClusky attended their performance at the Sphere in Las Vegas, applauding the venue for bringing new innovations to the concert experience. Festivals such as Coachella and Lollapalooza are both as popular as ever, with the latter even planning to add a show in India this year, on top of those in Europe and Latin America.
As these international festivals expand, however, they face the issue of inviting big headliners to play at their show, McClusky notes. “Artists can’t afford to go there unless they have other (show) dates along the way…even though artists from the home country are invited as well, there remains a handful of well-known international stars who can actually pull a crowd of 100,000 people to their show.” Along with the continued success of international festivals, McClusky also anticipates there to be more themed two-day festivals in the future similar to the Innings Festival, along with niche festivals focused on a particular genre. Even though it remains to be seen how festivals will work around attracting big headliners, for now fans can look forward to more shows for them to attend to see their favorite artists.
retrieved from Jeff McClusky & Associates’ official site.
From the music consumption side, collaborations between artists and the merging of genres—pop and hip-hop, pop and latin, pop and country, hip-hop and country—will continue to be trends for the time being, according to McClusky. “The whole collaboration thing started when someone had the bright idea that if Halsey did a song with BTS, that she might attract the streaming audience of BTS and vice vera. Strategically they are to combine audiences for a bigger bang.” Though BTS had previously collaborated with Steve Aoki in 2017 on “Mic Drop” and Nicki Minaj in 2018 on “Idol,” “Boy with Luv” featuring Halsey released in 2019 truly opened the door to the world of collaborations in the pop-sphere. The intermixing of genres came naturally through collaborations, allowing non-pop genres and global music to carve their way into mainstream commercial success through the merging of fanbases. Recent examples that come to mind include last year’s viral hit “Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2” by PinkPantheress featuring Ice Spice, Afrobeat-pop crossover “Calm Down” by Rema and Selena Gomez, as well as the myriad of K-pop songs that included features of western artists these past few years.
The late 2010s also saw the rise of short-form media platforms like TikTok, where one viral video could be potentially career changing for an artist. While McClusky does acknowledge the platform’s ability to propel artists such as The Kid Laroi and Olivia Rodrigo to stardom, he is tentative about how long this type of fame will last. “I think people rise faster in this environment, which does make it a little bit dangerous…like anything in the world, easy come easy go,” McClusky chuckles. Nevertheless, it seems the industry veteran has faith that at the end of the day, “there will be a time when the attention to great singer songwriters will have a bigger day than it is having right now.” He cites the success of Republic Record’s Noah Kahan, who is nominated for Best New Artist at this year’s Grammys, after having played last year at major festivals such as Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and headlining Shaky Knees this year.
Though it has not even been a decade into the era of digital streaming, many people think that record labels seem to be hitting a wall with data-driven A&R. Echoing this sentiment, McClusky laments that the iconic Columbia records seems to be abandoning rock and singer songwriters in favor of Tik Tok music. Meanwhile, he commends Republic Records CEO Monte Lipman for being a “smart guy” and running in both lanes—keeping a space for singer songwriters while using data and analytics to guide their A&R search as well. “His next one is going to be Dylan Gossett,” McClusky adds, giving a shout out to the 24 year old “Coal” singer from Texas. The CEO remarks that, if he was teaching a class, he would tell his students to “be conscious of the fact that a stream is not the same as reaching into your pocket and taking out dollars to buy a ticket…it’s one thing to vote with your wallet as opposed to with a click.”
Unsurprisingly, millions of streams does not translate to millions of ticket sales. “Audiences are rather fickle,” McClusky reminds us, and there is no guarantee that a popular artist has the staying power to be categorized as a true “star.” The definition of what constitutes a “star” is debatable of course, but the long established standard in the industry for what it means to “break an artist” is if the artist can sell out arenas in countries around the world. It takes years of blood, sweat, and tears to reach that level of stardom—a lot of grunt work that may seem to be bypassed by virality when it is, in fact, still necessary.
Focusing on music in 2023, McClusky shares some of his favorite moments and Grammy picks of the year. One major highlight for his company was working with indie supergroup band boygenius, who are nominated for five Grammy Awards, including Album and Record of the Year. McClusky then fondly recalled meeting Billie Eilish’s mom backstage with some university interns before the show Friday night of the festival. Once again, McClusky congratulates the work of his interns and staff on their work with the university festival programs, showing how much he cares about helping young people getting started in the industry. McClusky’s personal Grammy picks are “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus for Record and Song of the Year, boygenius’ the record or Lana Del Rey’s Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd for Album of the Year, and Noah Kahan for Best New Artist.
Some artists that he is looking out for in 2024 include Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS Tour, Harry Styles (who will also be performing at the Sphere), and Ariana Grande, whose seventh studio album Eternal Sunshine will be released in March this year. Looking ahead, it will likely be another great year ahead for the music industry, with more collaborations, more festivals, and more concerts. It remains to be seen what the future path of A&R at record labels will be though (in a sudden turn of events, UMG just recently pulled their entire catalog from TikTok). Perhaps we are turning away from “TikTok artists” already. Whatever the case may be there is still much to be excited about in the coming years ahead for music. Let us all enjoy the ride.
edited by Victor Qian.
images retrieved from Jeff McClusky & Associates’ official site, jmapromo.com.
