When Tom Becci joined Concord in the newly-created role of CEO of Concord Label Group last August, he arrived with a background split between the record labels — first as a label executive in New York, then later in Nashville, ultimately as COO of Universal Music Nashville — and management, where he had spent the prior seven years at Red Light under Coran Capshaw. That gave him a view into both sides of the artist equation. “I have an understanding of what an artist needs from their standpoint, and an understanding of what a label can deliver for that artist,” Becci tells Billboard, in his first interview since taking the top job across Concord’s global recorded-music operation. “And putting them together, I think, really is what I bring to the table for the label group.”
Becci’s role in the past nine months has been one of learning and shaping, as the collection of labels and artists under his purview have reached new heights. Concord’s frontline portfolio includes Rounder Records, Concord Jazz, Fantasy Records, Fearless Records and the Kidz Bop franchise, as well as joint ventures in Loma Vista with Tom Whalley; Easy Eye Sound with Dan Auerbach; and PULSE Records with PULSE Music Group; while its catalog holdings include legendary labels like Stax, Fania, Prestige and Telarc, among others.
It’s a lineup that already had plenty going for it: during his tenure, Killer Mike swept the rap category at the Grammys in February with his Loma Vista release Michael; Fantasy’s Allison Russell won the Grammy for best American roots performance for “Eve Was Black”; HBO announced a documentary on Stax Records called Stax: Soulsville U.S.A., which premiered in May; and Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby,” released via PULSE/ISO Supremacy, exploded out of the gate to reach No. 2 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Global 200, to name a few successes.
Amid that run, Becci began to restructure parts of the label group, naming Stephanie Hudacek as the new president of Rounder Records; promoting Joe Dent and Jill Weindorf into executive vp roles overseeing operations and marketing, respectively, across the whole group; and bringing in Brad Clark to oversee a combined data analysis and streaming team, hoping to provide key, real-time insights for each of the artist campaigns that the teams are running. He’s also introduced what he calls a “portfolio approach” to catalog and frontline marketing, with each lifting the other — even if Concord doesn’t own one of their frontline artist’s catalogs, or if it owns the catalog but doesn’t have the artist signed to a frontline, as with Creed and its viral Super Bowl commercial for Paramount Plus.
Now, as Becci continues to shape Concord into a global player for all types of artists, he’s constantly looking for ways to set the company apart in an increasingly-crowded ecosystem.
“Concord sits somewhere between the major labels and the other independents and distributors,” he says. “We deliver for our artists — there’s one center of the picture and the artist belongs in it. That’s a philosophy that I want everyone to believe and feel and have the passion for. And we provide the resources to really make a difference in the musical landscape.”
Billboard: When you first started at Concord, what did you come in wanting to do?
Tom Becci: When Concord hired me, we wanted to really focus even more on the frontline business that is in place. We have a boutique label approach, but a really large infrastructure that supports each label, so there’s a unique contact point with the artist and their vision and what they want to do. And now we’re continuing to build out the team to deliver for those artists and their vision. Concord has this global footprint with direct presences in all the major markets in the world. So what I want to do is develop a frontline business with that boutique approach that delivers for artists globally.
How have you begun to restructure the company, and each label individually, to achieve that?
One of the first positions I hired, which we just recently announced, was Stephanie Hudacek, who comes from a phenomenal background of being an entrepreneur but also worked as a sound engineer and in management, so she brings that approach — not unlike mine — into Rounder Records and its presence in Nashville. Jill Weindorf, who is a 17-year veteran at Concord, promoting her into this executive vp of marketing role to really solidify these global marketing efforts to deliver for each label. Joe Dent, one of the best operators I’ve been around, promoting him and giving him responsibility over all the operations of Concord and delivering the information and resources that we all need to do our jobs. Recently, Brad Clark, who I’ve known for many years, we brought him in to oversee data analysis and streaming; they were run separately, but in today’s marketplace, having them under one leadership is really important, using what we do in data analysis and what we do in the frontline streaming world. And having them in lockstep in terms of release planning and strategy was really critical to me.
You mentioned your focus on frontline. Several of your frontline labels have had significant success lately. What do each of them bring to your portfolio, and what sets them apart?
Loma Vista, a joint venture with Tom Whalley and run by his son Ryan Whalley — bringing Killer Mike to the table and sweeping the rap categories at the Grammys is, for Concord, a huge moment in that genre, where we never had the opportunity to do those things. Ryan talked to me when I first started in September about his goals to really deliver nominations, and maybe one win, and I supported him in that vision with resources, and the results were unbelievable.
On the other side of the table, there’s Tommy Richman at PULSE — it’s the No. 1 global song. It just landed at No. 3 on the U.K. charts, which is a first ever for a Concord song. So that’s a specific vision in terms of the R&B/hip-hop music sensibilities to Concord, which builds on what Loma’s done with Killer Mike. So it’s become more of a core competency of what Concord does, and I’m proud to say we’re delivering for both those artists.
What Andy Serrao’s done at Fearless and developing that as a brand for those types of artists like Pierce the Veil, the Pretty Reckless, Wage War and on and on — there’s nowhere like it in the business, and we’re able to deliver for him as well with services. Rounder, it’s a 54-year-old legacy label in the folk/Americana/bluegrass arena, and I think there’s more for that label to do now. I think Stephanie is going to curate a roster that rivals any label in Nashville, and any in the business.
We have Easy Eye, our venture with Dan Auerbach, and we have this band Hermanos Gutierrez, which is an amazing talent; I just saw them at the Ryman last week and that was an incredible show, in terms of what they can deliver on that front. At Fantasy Records, we’ve taken an incredible A&R legend in Mark Williams and another legend in the marketing arena, Margi Cheske, and put them together as a formidable frontline duo that can deliver on both new and developing artists, and bands like Offspring and Seether and Nathaniel Rateliff and take Allison Russell to the next level. They were swimming in the same pond, and I think together they’re going to own the pond.
Where do you want to see Concord lean into, genre-wise? Further into R&B/hip-hop, or deeper into Nashville, or somewhere else?
Well, both. I think leaning into singer/songwriter and country-adjacent or alt-country, folk, Americana — genres are much more fluid today than they were when they were based on radio playlists. There’s much more fluidity now. But I do think Rounder has the ability, being based here in Nashville, to really make a statement in the singer/songwriter, alt-country, Americana genres. PULSE is already making an impact in pop contemporary music. Loma is a very eclectic label — we have the Ghost theatrical movie coming out, which is growing by the moment, and you put it with Killer Mike and Denzel Curry, that’s a highly-curated and really special roster. And I believe that what we can do with Fantasy and Concord is be not about a specific genre, but about being where you can find and develop phenomenal talent and bring it to the world.
In recent months, several label groups and companies have combined their frontline and catalog operations to streamline them better. What’s your approach to marketing your catalog and boosting sales and streams there?
This is a process that’s evolved since I’ve gotten here with the catalog, and it’s really about taking a portfolio approach, not unlike from the financial world where you have marketing experts and teams responsible for delivering for a group of artists, whether it’s a reissue, whether it’s on Spotify. But they’re in tune with each artist within their portfolio. Even if it’s a band that’s not on a Concord frontline label, but they’re going out on tour, that [our teams are] reaching out to the manager and saying, “Hey, we’ve got your catalog, let’s do things together, what are your plans for the tour?” So it’s more of a portfolio approach than managing the catalog top-down. Each pod is responsible for 25, 30 artists in that portfolio.
When we have a frontline artist and we also have their catalog, we put them together, and the frontline team, with the catalog expertise, manages the catalog so the artist knows that we’re in lockstep. Catalog and frontline can help boost each other; they go together in terms of marketing. When you have the catalog, you have the ability to warm the plate for the new meal, and that’s what I’ve seen be really successful, especially in the streaming world. And then we have an artist like Creed, where the Texas Rangers adopted “Higher” as their World Series song and it translated into a phenomenal sync in a Super Bowl commercial, then there’s a reissue of Human Clay in the summer, and the streaming growth is exponential — that’s the power of what we can do in marketing a catalog in combination with the artist. We don’t have their new record, but we’re working with them on their new release by energizing the catalog, and vice versa.
You guys also have the HBO documentary on Stax. What are you doing around that with the Stax catalog?
We’re looking at different elements of the catalog and how we can tie it into the attention brought to the Stax catalog by the documentary, and I think it’s a story that everyone is going to really love. It just gives us the ability to reignite some of these artists and re-familiarize people with these artists that they love, or they will love.
How do you guys differentiate yourselves from the majors, or even large distributors, when approaching a deal?
We take a very boutique approach. Each label has their A&R staff and their core marketing staff, and it’s small, it’s intimate, they can ask the artist, “Where do you want to go?” And then I’ve created a team in the middle that can deliver on that question, with Jill Weindorf leading the marketing efforts, Brad Clark leading the streaming and data efforts, Karen Kloack on the sync side. And we have a global reach. If you’re signed to Concord, you have a global company. You have people in the U.K. that all know and work your record. In the major world, they have different labels in different territories that your record works through. Our labels have a global footprint for each artist.
How are label deals changing — and is it getting more competitive?
Label deals have evolved dramatically from when I started to now. Data analysis identifies artists much earlier. So someone sitting in Nebraska can be identified as a burgeoning artist because of the data and what is happening on their socials and streams. So in that sense, it’s become very competitive, yes, because once it hits the data metrics everybody knows about it. So you have to approach it from, “Why are we special compared to the other record labels?” And what positions us differently is that small label approach and personalization to the artist, and then the global resource and passionate footprint that we can bring to a team, which I believe is unmatched.
You mentioned Tommy Richman. What lessons can you take from a song that just exploded out of the gate like that?
We saw a spark that weekend. Over the weekend I was firing off emails to our team, like, “We need to mobilize.” It was released on the Friday, and I was in Berlin with our head of the European team, and all we did Monday was talk about what we could do in the different marketplaces. We had data to tell us it was starting in English-speaking territories and moving outward to Germany, France and the Nordics. We were able to move very, very fast — we’re nimble, we’re quick and we’re reactive — and I think that’s the lesson we’ve all learned across the team: when you have something, you mobilize, you focus, you put your energies into taking a spark and turning it into a bonfire — and a No. 1 global hit.
How difficult is it to break new artists these days?
It’s always been difficult, because it’s always about finding talent that’s special, that has something to say that people want to hear. What is challenging today is just grabbing attention, because there are so many ways to get people’s attention — a television set, a game, things like that. But I also think there are more ways to do it than there ever were. We used to have a funnel called terrestrial radio; now we have terrestrial radio, satellite radio, social media platforms, YouTube. There are more ways to present music. But you have to still grab attention. You saw it with Tommy Richman — he grabbed attention, and people want to be part of that. It’s not harder or easier, it’s just different now.
What challenges do you see in the future?
Finding, signing and developing talent is a challenge. It’s been a challenge since I started in the music business in New York City, and it’s a challenge today. AI presents a challenge; the legislation passed in Tennessee, the ELVIS Act, is a way of protecting the creator and original works and require a license to use someone’s creative works, and I’m an advocate for the artist, the songwriter, the creator. If we’re just really diligent, AI is going to be a part of our world, but it’ll be a good and licensed part of it.
I’m really looking forward to this Tommy Richman record, which we’re trying to nail down the release of. There’s a Lindsey Stirling record, an Offspring project, a Seether record, a Nathaniel Rateliff record, looking forward to this Ghost soundtrack, the Killer Mike project, taking Hermanos Gutierrez to the next level. I love working with artists and being a part of them realizing their vision and their dreams.
