Nashville Scene: Aristomedia At 25

In a 1986 interview with Billboard, Jeff Walker presciently predicted that the new business models for labels would include taking a piece of their artists' publishing, booking and merchandise income to offset declining record sales.

Nineteen years later, that model is becoming commonplace, and Walker is keeping his eyes peeled for the next trend.

Last month, Walker celebrated the 25th anniversary of his Music Row company, AristoMedia, which has weathered and thrived through the ups and downs of the Nashville music business.

Walker—an Australian who is as well-known for his puns as for his cheery nature—launched the company in 1980 as a public relations firm based in the attic of his home. It has evolved into a multifaceted organization with four distinctly named divisions employing a staff of 16.

AristoMedia still handles press and publicity, as well as videoclip marketing. The Marco Promotions division handles independent record promotion to radio and country dance clubs. Jeff Walker & Associates is the firm's special events and advertising arm. And the Goodland Group focuses on music publishing and videoclip duplication.

Walker says the company offers nearly all of the services of a small label with the exception of an A&R department. The benefit of that kind of "lateral diversification," as he calls it, "enables us to look at the big picture of an artist's career. We can go to their management with a comprehensive plan."

Meanwhile, Walker is not through building the company. "I have some ideas of other things I'd like to do as we grow," he says. New media and international are areas he is targeting. "There's loads of potential in both."

Walker and his team were pioneers of video promotion dating back to the medium's earliest days, and he sees much more opportunity in that area.

"We're definitely excited about the potential," he says. "With all the visual opportunities created by the Internet and the DualDisc, we're going to see a real strong growth."

The company's newest product line is a series of video compilation discs that are serviced not only to video outlets, but to music supervisors for film and TV projects and TV talk show talent bookers.

On the record-promotion side, Walker says the company takes a marketing approach. "What we do is called 'pro-licity,' a combination of promotion and publicity," he says. "It's not just calling up [radio] and getting the add. I'm very much into artist development."

Walker says the biggest changes he has seen in the industry in the last 25 years are the growth of technology and massive consolidation. Typically, he sees opportunities even in the latter and predicts that the country music industry "will go the way of the Hollywood studios where there are a lot more distribution opportunities," particularly for labels with "the independent spirit." ••••