(TV) Companion Article: More on Hit Song Science/ How to 'Create' a Hi t

["Casey, Leo J" <CaseyL@VOLPE.DOT.GOV>]

To market to market 
Elcodrive hopes its business savvy will help snare a record deal 
By Joan Anderman, Globe Staff, 5/9/2003 
Once upon a time aspiring rock bands made demo tapes and sent them 
to record labels in the hopes that a well-placed executive would like 
their songs and sign them to a contract. When the Boston pop-rock 
group Elcodrive began looking for a major label deal in March, their 
packages included several additional items: a six-page marketing plan 
that details the band's promotional programs for radio, retail, 
and touring. A report conducted by Polyphonic HMI, a new company 
that uses advanced software to predict the hit potential of songs. The 
results from two national songwriting competitions. Figures from 
Soundscan and Broadcast Data Systems, services that track, respectively, 
CD sales and radio play. 

In today's depressed music economy, A&R execs - the men and women 
who scout and sign new artists to labels - are looking for more than great music. 
Amid mounting pressure to minimize risk and maximize return on investments, 
major labels are looking for acts that have already developed fan bases, 
demonstrated broad appeal, and written marketable songs. The now-quaint
 model of promising young artists being nurtured over the course of several 
albums has been largely replaced with corporate-style performance expectations. 
Bands must be seasoned and salable - and have the numbers to prove it. 

''We're signing fewer artists, and even when people are excited about a buzz band, 
there's a lot of second-guessing,'' says Leigh Lust, senior director of A&R at 
Elektra Records. ''I'm still looking for music that excites me, but there is, as always, 
a big push to find bands that sell. These days I do think the research departments 
are being leaned on more to analyze a band's local numbers.'' 

Attracting attention from major labels requires an increasingly business-oriented 
savvy and drive, and Elcodrive - which competes in the WBCN Rumble tonight 
at the Middle East - seems remarkably suited to the task. They're reliable, 
self-sufficient, hard-working, and polite. They take great pride in being able to 
set up their stage gear in 10 minutes and sound check in 15. The four of them, 
all in their late 20s, practice their live set five nights a week no matter what 
and swear they never get tired of it. Musically, they know exactly who they are, 
what they want, and - they hope - how to get it. 

''We're not knocking anybody out with our ability to create a new genre of music,'' 
says Elcodrive's lead singer, Mike Golarz. ''We're just writing catchy songs with 
catchy melodies, the type of stuff that sticks with me when I hear it on the radio. 
That's why a major label deal is very important. We're not an underground band 
with a cult following; this is a commercial product for normal people. We need a 
label to put money behind us to get the radio play, the opening slot on a big tour, 
the big promotions push. That's what it takes.'' 

Elcodrive is the exception to the rule in Boston, a heavily indie-rock town whose 
defining aesthetic favors hipster-driven credibility over unabashed commercialism. 
A recent review in the Noise, the city's prominent rock 'zine, accused the band of 
suffering from matchbox twenty syndrome. It was clearly intended as an insult, 
predicated on the notion that there's something disgraceful about being a big-selling pop band. 

''Why is it in every business in the world when you strive to make money it's cool, 
except if you're an artist?'' says guitarist Mike Courcy, who lives in his parents' 
basement in Taunton and works a day job as a cook in a diner. ''Someday I'd 
like a family, a house, security. Maybe some dental insurance.'' 
Elcodrive formed a year and a half ago, the brainchild of local producer Scott 
Riebling, who had worked separately with the bands Something Ira (Golarz was 
their frontman) and Bob's Day Off (of which guitarist Courcy, bassist Tom Smith, 
and drummer Bill Bassett are former members). Riebling arranged a meeting, the 
players clicked, and a self-produced demo won them a deal with the Boston label XOFF. 
An infusion of cash and recording equipment from XOFF president Scott Benson
 - a music fan who founded the label in 1999 after a lucrative run as an Internet 
entrepreneur - allowed Elcodrive to spend nearly 10 months crafting the slick, 
no-frills anthems and radio-friendly singalongs on ''Somewhere Between 
Now and Then,'' which XOFF released in February. 

Recently, the Elcodrive single ''Tonight'' placed second out of 7,000 entries 
in the Pop/Top 40 category of the International Songwriting Competition. 
At the band's first label showcase in New York last month, representatives 
from Atlantic, Virgin, RCA, and Elektra showed up. Elcodrive's manager, Josh Kampel, 
has fielded calls from still more record companies interested in bringing 
the band back to New York for additional showcases - in part, Kampel
believes, because of the Hit Song Science Album Report that was sent to key 
label figures. 

Hit Song Science is music analysis software created by Barcelona-based Polyphonic 
HMI. HSS predicts the hit potential of a song using mathematical data that compares
 the song to an archive of every Top 30 hit from the Billboard and UK Official charts 
during the past five years. The service, which runs $3,000 per album, is now being used 
by all five major record companies, says Mike McCready, CEO of Polyphonic HMI. 
When XOFF's Benson submitted Elcodrive's album for analysis, the results showed six 
of the 11 tracks were potential hit singles. ''One label sent 50 unsigned band 
demos and wanted us to point out what might be interesting for them to listen to,'' 
says McCready, who notes that HSS doesn't account for the impact of lyrics and 
a slew of other factors that figure in a song's appeal. ''If the labels were making 
huge profits instead of losing money right now, they might not need our help. 
We are definitely enjoying the timing. Elcodrive's six potential hits, while not unseen, 
is uncommon. A report like theirs should at least get the album listened to by the 
right people as opposed to winding up in a pile.'' 

Kampel, who has managed the band for six months, is cautiously optimistic. 
No label has moved past the casual-interest stage to a full-blown courtship. 
''People are into the songs,'' he says, ''but would rather see it develop on its 
own. They don't want to spend the money. Everything is in place. We just 
secured a deal with a national booking agent. Our plan now? Continue 
building the Elcodrive story for the labels.'' 
This story ran on page C1 of the Boston Globe on 5/9/2003. 
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