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A new company dedicated to levelling the playing field for musos. from their earliest industry entry point has just launched in Sydney. Perfect Pitch is a marketing consultancy with a difference… all its clients are musicians and it offers its professional services at ‘Indie’ rates.
Frequently coined as unforgiving, brutal and demoralising, the Music Industry is too often a graveyard for those who ‘might-have-been.’ Talent should be everything, but usually isn’t enough as young musicians start on a path through the industry that prematurely reaches a dead-end.
The guys at Perfect Pitch aim to arm bands and singers who have the talent, with the marketing and promotional materials needed to give them a professional look and feel right from the start. They see this as a young artist’s best possible chance of realising his or her potential.
Brainchild of former agent, booker, band manager, music journo and record company publicist, David Keogh, Perfect Pitch brings to bear all the precepts on which professional marketing is based and applies them to musicians - just as any good marketing consultancy would normally do to their clients’ brands, products or services - and it does so at a non-commercial rate.
Says Keogh: “We’re not agents or a management company… our intention is to simply provide professional quality marketing services at an affordable fee, with absolute integrity and a keen understanding of the needs of our unique clients - Australia's young singers, songwriters, musicians and performers.
“When I was first in the industry over 20 years ago, Sydney and Melbourne were the hubs of a thriving live music scene. Sensing that the Oz industry in general was about to boom again (after a decade of clubbing to recorded music) I launched Perfect Pitch in the belief that, “if I'd known then what I know now about marketing, the band I managed in the 80s would have been huge”.
Keogh is the partner in a direct and database marketing firm called Vida, of which Perfect Pitch is an offshoot. They devise and implement strategies for name clients like National Geographic Channel, but Keogh sees his involvement in Perfect Pitch as “giving something back” to an industry that’s been good to him, while indulging his passion for music and therefore enjoying himself at work.
“Isn’t that what everyone wants… a job that makes you look forward to coming to work every day?” he says. Perfect Pitch can create entire marketing strategies for a band, or just write, design and produce the essentials – from websites to press kits, CD slicks and bios. They also handle photography, PR and publicity, produce fanzines and manage distribution lists. But so far their clients haven’t been those they first envisaged.
“We’ve had a few artists referred to us who don’t exactly fit the profile I had in mind when we launched the business”, says Keogh again. “For example there’s Eddie Wakes, a very cool and incredibly gifted Afro-American singer/songwriter who’s performed with the likes of B.B. King, Al Jareau, Linda Ronstadt and David Benoit. He’s played The Miss Universe Pageant and The Superbowl in front of TV audiences of millions, but he came to Sydney as a cast member of The Lion King, fell in love with the place and wants to stay. How could we say no to helping this guy?
“Then there’s Bang Shang a Lang… a great party band that includes some of the guys I used to get work for years ago, as well as Murray ‘the Red Wiggle’ Cook when he’s not wearing his skivvy. They started playing pubs again just to have fun, but are now back writing new songs and looking to record. There is one new artist who fits the Perfect Pitch vision and I think she’s sensational… Kristen is in her early 20s, stunningly attractive, great voice, writes all her own material and is a very sensual performer. She could be anything. Her first LP will be released early next year.”
Perfect Pitch has also fielded calls from some of the amazing young bands currently pouring forth from W.A., seeking assistance with upcoming tours of the East Coast. It seems that a business that almost began as a hobby (albeit with positive intentions) could soon become much busier.
Dave Keogh’s 19 year old muso. son Brent is also a Perfect Pitch staffer, and along with Daniel Stevenson and Lorraine Sumners give the organisation a quality mix of youth and experience. Artists wanting to contact Perfect Pitch can call (02) 9976 8496 or visit the website at www.perfectpitch.com.au
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