THE TENNESSEAN

May 2, 2004

(excerpt from) Executive Q&A: Bill Velez

SESAC leader lauds Compendia in recent article

By Deborah W. Fisher
 

"How many times did I see albums getting produced for a couple of hundred thousand dollars, and just laying in the can, never getting out? Sooner or later, that's got to catch up with you. The Internet may have acted as a catalyst, but I think that was going to happen regardless. I think the chickens came home to roost.

There's this label in town, Compendia. They kind of do what we do: They go out and sign a Joan Osborne or a Robert Palmer -- people who really aren't prized by the major labels at this moment in their careers but still sell records and have a profit margin.

It's not about having a gigantic No. 1 song; it's about making a profit, even if it's a smaller deal. Somehow the record labels got away from that, and everything had to be this big, jazzy deal. I think the independents are  . . . going to lead them back to that (smaller, profitable) model."

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