Are you a young singer/songwriter? Maybe looking to get into the music industry? In this episode of Thinkin’ & Drinkin’ Bart talks with Andrew Fromm, they chat about music streaming and how it is changing the songwriting industry. Andrew also dives into his business, Fromm Consulting LLC., where he advises on the buying and selling of publishing catalogs.
Meet Andrew
Andrew Fromm is a successful songwriter living in the Nashville area who has written songs for the Backstreet Boys, Marc Anthony, Westlife, Kristine W, OPM, 2Gether, Soluna, Nobody's Angel, Judith Lefeber, Christian Bautista, Nikki Webster, C21, Hiromi Go and many others.
After appearing on the final season of Ed McMahon's Star Search where he played the original song "I Need You Tonight", his song landed on the Backstreet Boys 1999 release, "Millennium" which sold approximately 25 million albums worldwide (13 million RIAA certified in the USA) with 5 Grammy nominations. He also added the song "Spanish Eyes" to that album which he co-wrote with his songwriter cousin, Sandy Linzer. (from Wikipedia)
What Bart has to say
Back when my wife was working in publishing at Big Loud, I attended one of their annual Christmas parties, where I was introduced to Andrew Fromm. I thought he was a great guy and enjoyed talking with him. A few months later, I ran into him at my local Starbucks and he was starting to find investors for a new burger joint called Stout Burger. Andrew is not only a hit songwriter, but he helps writers to make the most of their money. Whether it be investing in a new business venture or helping them monetize an old publishing catalog. I thought he’d be very interesting to have on the podcast to show young writers that you need to make sure to invest and save for when the royalty checks aren’t as large. And in case you’re wondering, yes, he helped us get invested in Stout Burger in Nashville and Palm Springs, CA.
In this episode, you’ll hear
Andrew’s career as a songwriter working with some of the top names in the Pop industry
His transition from songwriting into advising on the buy and selling of song catalogs
After a long day at work one evening Andrew decided to go watch a friend perform at a pop club, Honeysuckles, in New York City. Knowing he was going to a pop club in the 1990’s he dressed the part. While watching the performance someone came up and asked if he could rap. Andrew responded that he couldn’t rap but he could sing so the guy asked him to sing on the spot, Andrew did. Once he was done he was handed a business card and invited to try out for a show called Star Search. Little did Andrew know that moment would be life-changing for him. While on the show Andrew sang an original song he had written and lost to the girl that would go on to win the whole show. After the show, he would find himself doing open mic night in New York City for the same casting director, Patrick Allen, that had invited him to be on Star Search. A few years down the road Andrew found himself at a party for a friend, Samatha Cole, who had just signed a publishing deal with Universal Records. Being one of the first to sign with Universal several of the big record executives were in attendance that night. While at her party Andrew got up on the piano and started to sing the song he had been signing at open mic nights for the last few years, his original song named Heaven In Your Eyes. Not long after singing Dave McPherson from Jive Records came up to him and told him he thought the song was perfect for the Backstreet Boys. At the time they were very popular in Europe and looking to make the move to the US charts. The song Andrew sang that night became his first cut making it on the Backstreet Boys “Millennium” album renamed to “I Need You Tonight”. Zomba records offered him his first deal. Not long after receiving the deal with Zomba he came to Nashville. While golfing one weekend he received the call from Jive to say that “Spanish Eyes”, a song he co-wrote with his cousin Sandy Linzer, would also make it on the Millennium album. This would be his big break into songwriting and he would go on to work with some of the top names in the Pop industry like Marc Anthony, Smash Mouth, NSYNC, Westlife, Selena Gomez, and Jessie McCartney to name a few. In this episode, Bart and Andrew chat about the differences in the industry currently as everything is moving toward streaming services versus buying records. This changes everything for the middle-class songwriters. Because of this, the number of songwriters has decreased greatly due to the very low priced royalties being paid off of streaming. Andrew gives a glimpse into the differences in writing a pop song, which is more melody focused, and a country song, which is more focused on story-telling. Andrew realized his strengths and weaknesses and chose to stick with writing pop music. Bart and Andrew dive into Andrew’s current business, Fromm Consulting LLC., where Andrew advises on the buying and selling of publishing catalogs. Andrew gives a lot of insight into the benefits as an artist of selling catalogs as well as why companies and investors are interested in purchasing the catalogs. Andrew takes a lot of pride in providing his clients with the full scope of getting them in front of everyone that is interested in buying the catalog versus just a select few. If you have enjoyed this episode give us a follow on social media and if you are in Nashville or Palm Springs go give Stout Burger a try!
Links to Connect: