RECORD COMPANY
Promotion: Vice President Of Promotion • National Promotion Manager
JOB DESCRIPTION
The promotion department develops and executes radio promotion campaigns. Lori Holder-Anderson is responsible for obtaining radio airplay in all pop formats, which includes Top Forty, Hot AC, and Modern AC. She manages and directs the field staff to ensure that the promotional campaign is implemented.
PREREQUISITES
To succeed, you should have strong verbal communication skills, be focused and self-motivated, and possess a high level of personal integrity.
A DAY IN THE LIFE
CAREER TIPS
“Volunteer for things. There are so many people that become concerned that it's not their job or they aren't being paid to do it. I think that you will be a more valuable employee, the more you know and the wider your experiences.”
“I caution people to think long and hard about taking this type of job. Make sure you know what you're getting into. How demanding, how consuming it is. Your boyfriend will leave you. Your cat will run away. Your plants will die. You won't have a personal life. Not everyone can deal with the fact that it is an incredibly consuming thing, especially for the first two years. The amount of rejection and frustration is staggering.”
“Read as much as you can about the record business: about sales, about promotion, about marketing. Whether it's a trade magazine or on-line source, just read and try to absorb as much information as you can, no matter how much you think you already know. Once you start doing promotion, the first two years are an extraordinary learning curve. The more you can prepare yourself for that, the better.”
Monday is generally the longest day for Lori Holder-Anderson, beginning at 6 a.m. when she checks the Monitor charts and the daily and weekly Broadcast Data Service (BDS) reports. She forwards it to her field staff and gives chart information to label staff. In the morning, she talks with the radio consultants and independent promoters to exchange chart information, assess the status of target stations, and plan strategy. Throughout the day, she advises the field staff and independent promoters as radio stations add, drop, increase, or decrease record rotations. She talks with the sales and marketing departments to discuss production issues related to upcoming singles promotions, receives sales and account reports, and exchanges other significant information. In between, she telephones radio stations, reads a variety of trade magazines, sifts through and disseminates incoming information that could affect airplay, and approves expenses, travel, and vacation requests from the field staff. At the end of the day, she resolves any advertising needs.
POINTERS FOR THE JOB SEARCH
“I've hired lots of people over the years that came through intern programs who were willing to work for free because they wanted to learn.”
LORI HOLDER-ANDERSON, VICE PRESIDENT OF PROMOTION, WIND-UP RECORDS
Planning to be a doctor, Lori Holder-Anderson needed a job in her senior year of high school and found one at a Portland, Oregon Top Forty AM radio station. Willing to work weekends and the after midnight shift, she fell in love with the work, getting involved in compiling charts and calling record stores. Her interest and willingness to work brought increased opportunity to learn many aspects of the business.
Following a year at Stanford University, Holder-Anderson found she missed radio work, so she moved back to Portland to continue her studies and work part time at the radio station. Over the next four years her career moved at remarkable speed. She relocated to Seattle to accept an assistant's position at the WEA branch office. She returned to radio as music director of a Seattle rock radio station for a year, then moved to Los Angeles to become associate Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) editor at R&R magazine. Holder-Anderson decided she wanted to work for a record label and took a local promotion job at ABC Records for several months before landing a position at Epic Records in 1978.
After nine years at Epic, Holder-Anderson decided it was time to return to the Northwest. She took a job with A&M Records in 1987 doing local promotion in Seattle, and after a year convinced her boss to create the position of national field director for her. She continued to work from Seattle, and during the next ten years, she was made vice president of promotions operations, and then vice president of pop promotion.
In 1998, Holder-Anderson left A&M to form a promotion consulting company, acting as de facto head of pop promotions for Wind-up Records, Squint Entertainment, and Restless Records. She also helped amazon.com with the opening of its online music store. In 1999, she signed on full time at Wind-up Records as vice president of promotions. www.winduprecords.com
THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT THIS JOB:
“Dealing with people who continually reset the bar you have to reach in order for them to take you seriously; who continually change the rules of engagement, if you will, when it comes to their participation in your record.”
THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS JOB:
“Helping guide and direct a group of people to accomplish things that they never imagined they would accomplish. I love to take a really tough record and just go for it. The most fun is a real challenge, where the odds are against you and people think it can't be pulled off and you prove that they're wrong.”
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