2004 King
Mojo Records: The start-up
Fast-forward to 2002... Dick was enjoying life in the slow
lane on Tybee Island, writing songs for Cotton States Music Publishing and had marketed
ocean front and college communities with partner Arthur Schultz, President of
Benchmark/Atlantic Property Development . Dick and Arthur became partners to develop
Arthur's original idea of college student communities and together they opened offices in
seven university towns in the Southeast and Midwest to market the new concept.
College student communities were an instant hit with investors and parents of students due
to available tax strategies of the time. With a staff of thirty salespeople Art and Dick
sold their college communities of 500 student condos and produced sixty-five million
dollars in sales. The process of planning, getting bank financing, acquiring city,
state and university approvals, then sales and construction had taken over two years, it
had been both exhilarating and exhausting, so back at the beach Dick decided to try
retirement again.
On a personal aside; the success of Benchmark/Atlantic's student communities proved to
Dick that his sales and marketing skills applied equally well to other businesses and Dick
was gratified to know that he wasn't just a one-trick-pony.
Family interests obliged Dick to return to his home town of Atlanta in 2004 and after a
few months there doing odds and ends, he was restless and found that not having a full
time project in the works was boring. Dick had always been hooked on some kind of
development process, either promoting new music or new ideas, "it's what gets me out
of bed in the mornings" ... so his search for a new project began in earnest.
Dick, with an open mind and always an interest in music, saw an opportunity developing
when a new generation of music fans sold out several summer fusion-blues festivals that
year. An idea began to form around serving the music niche that attracted thousands of
young fans, but who's music was not being played by corporate radio!
The failure of radio to address a developing niche market was a stark reminder of the
FM-AM takeover in the 1970's, a lesson that was not lost on Dick. Experience tells you
when to look beyond what is the flavor of the week and when it's time start something new.
That time is usually when entrenched corporations pick the low hanging fruit for an easy
dollar today and take their eyes off the long term.
Dick's hobby was developing websites and he'd built dozens of them beginning in the early
1990's. He told friends in the music business about the advancements in online music
delivery and advised them to adopt the technology in their business model. In the 90's the
major record companies had a golden opportunity to incorporate the new technology and if
they'd have taken advantage of the idea maybe they could have retained their distribution
dominance in music.
But, at the crossroads of music and technology, record companies arrogantly believed it
was a preposterous idea that someone working out of a dorm room would ever be in the
position to challenge their power in the music industry... soon an idea who's time had
come, by the name of Napster, proved them so very wrong! Now the corporate music
business is becoming more irrelevant by each passing day and is in financial free-fall,
passed by an online world, much like when cars took over transporting families from the
horse drawn carriage.
Today multi-national corporate record companies and land based radio stations slip into
irrelevance, and as every day passes a new Internet application dismantles their business
model piece by piece, they only echo past glory. If you need more evidence of their death
rattle, listen to the mindless drivel they pass off as music today and play rentlessly on
corporate media.
Music stagnation offers a new challenge, how to bring the best original talents and
interested parties together to benefit people that love real music, blues based, rock and
jam music that's been ignored by corporate radio. After talking it over with musician and
internet savvy friends, the idea of opening an internet based Indy record label that
specializes in contemporary Blues music began and King Mojo Records website was soon
online.
Dick knew to be a successful provider of the music that he and so many others love, the
label would have to be driven by original talent. Looking on the short list of original
blues artists was his friend of thirty-years, guitar gunslinger and blues rock legend Dru
Lombar. Dru was founder and leader of the great Southern Blues Rock band
"Grinderswitch". Dick had worked with the band at Capricorn and Rabbit Records.
Dru and Dick got together in Atlanta the next week for a meeting, Dru signed on with
the new label and the King Mojo Record company start-up was official.
Several emerging blues-rock artists were identified within the few months that followed
and each was asked if they were ready to take a chance on helping develop the new online
idea. After agreements were signed, the first King Mojo artists were showcased in 2004 on
the first virtual release from King Mojo Records, the All Star series.
The new virtual release gained traction immediately on Internet radio and the first album
sampler was free to download and on request hard copies were sent to radio. King Moho
Records Allstars Vol. 1 got over 100,000 hits the first month and nearly 60,000 fan
downloads.
The idea was simple and straightforward... offer great original blues and rock music by
emerging artists, then use the website so fans and radio could sample or download the new
artists music.
Our goal was "find the best new contemporary blues artists, roots rock or fusion and
showcase them to the world." We began promoting our artists on the first King
Mojo series and now our business model has proven so successful that several King Mojo
Records artists have made it onto the national charts.King Mojo Allstars Vol. 1
- King Mojo Allstars Vol. 2
- King Mojo Allstars Vol. 3
~~~o~~~
King Mojo Records
Click
here for free downloads.
Dick
Wooley Associates
~~~o~~~
South Rock
Copyright @ 2004 ~ 2014 |
