Listen now: https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/119024/the-bob-pritchard-show-november-26th-2019
SHOW TITLE: Streaming has transformed the music business
My guest Bob Leone first broke into the music industry in 1976 as the principal songwriter and keyboardist for the RCA recording group, Flame, whose producer was the legendary Jimmy Iovine who produced albums for John Lennon, Lady GaGa, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, U2, among other international superstar acts.
Bob has been critiquing songs professionally for more than 35 years. He conducted weekly song critique sessions for the Songwriters Guild of America (SGA), where he served as National Projects Director from 1981 to 1988.
In 1989, he created and organized a highly successful songwriting workshop program. Over 3,100 songwriters participated in 259 workshops, including Stefani Germanotta (Lady GaGa) and Lizzy Grant (Lana Del Rey).
In 1990, Bob created the Songwriters Hall of Fame Songwriter Showcase program and between November 1990 and October 2006, he produced and hosted 59 of these critically-acclaimed standing-room-only events. As many as 150 to 200 CD submissions were reviewed by Bob for each quarterly showcase. From these he chose eight artists or bands, each of which performed two original songs.
Many of those featured at Bob’s events were offered publishing, production and record deals as a result of their appearances. Many had their songs placed on film and TV soundtracks. Every genre of music was represented at these events, including pop, rock, R&B, rap, country, soul, hip hop and dance. Performances ranged from artists accompanying themselves on a solo instrument to full bands with backup singers and dancers.
More than 500 artists, some of whom traveled to New York from countries outside of the U.S., including the U.K., participated in this unique program. Many who were unknowns at the time of their performances are now international stars. Stefani Germanotta (Lady GaGa), Lizzy Grant (Lana Del Rey), John Stevens (John Legend) and Rachel Platten (“Fight Song”) were among them.