Preparing VICTOR For A Brave New World Pt. 1
By Graham Alexander (Musician, CEO of Victor)
When we formed what would become the backbone of the revival of the modern incarnation of The Victor Company all the way in 2008, it began in earnest out of the field of music production; namely, commercial recording production services. We opened our very first ‘for rent’ commercial recording studio that year, and while I had been touring and performing (and recording) privately for a number of years, this marked the first formal steps into a broader ‘recording business’, which would evolve into the modern day Victor organization. In 2008, we had a narrow goal; we loved the art of recorded sound, and we wanted to be a part of continuing that tradition in Camden County, NJ. Back then, the recording industry was still struggling to find any kind of footing in the newly digital era. Downloads were encroaching on the successor of Emile Berliner, Eldridge Johnson, and Victor’s DISK RECORD (vinyl record) - the optical DISC (CD, digital physical hybrid). The CD was, largely in a death spiral as something magical happened; Streaming was born of Spotify…and virtually overnight, the download system collapsed…and out of the ashes of the death of the CD and Download came the rebirth of the vinyl disk record…just as it was in 1896 when Emile Berliner & Eldridge Johnson partnered to birth the modern music industry out of that little garage in Camden, NJ.
For several years, the ‘vinyl revival’ was almost a music industry trope…a joke. People truly couldn’t believe that this was possible. But by 2010, we at the company not only knew it was possible; but likely…and correct. To understand the ties between the music industry and the tech industry is to fully understand that…consumer behaviors, the music industry itself, and the tech industry on which that platform has ALWAYS travelled….are all inherently linked. They cannot fully be removed from one another and they were not born without one another. Back in 1896, the music part of the broader and new ‘home entertainment’ industry - that is at that time; the music played on a Victor Talking Machine Co. record player at HOME…was born not purely out of love, but out of necessity. Victor banked heavily on making its ‘hardware’ appealing by having the latest and greatest ‘software’…and this THIS concept is what would eventually birth ALL home entertainment that would follow it. The phonograph cylinder of Edison and Columbia was a ‘born to die’ format - marketed not as a home entertainment device, but as a recording and playback device for home dictation. The Victor Company of Camden, NJ understood that their disk record, and record player would need the best ‘software’ (music) if it was going to establish this machine not as a utility…but as a luxury of modern American life in 1900.
Thus, the modern music industry was born. The modern radio, broadcast, computer industry, video gaming industry and more - would be built on this same concept; but it ALL came from that little dog who listened up and heard the sound of ‘His Master’s Voice®’ on that Camden, NJ built record player in the late 1800s. When we entered the recording industry, we couldn’t have done it at a WORSE time; major labels had largely stopped the business of owning their own recording studios - and they certainly stopped renting them to the public. As technology improved, most music companies wisely left recording as a business…and the sector evolved into an independent business model from music industry that serviced those projects; usually with an engineer/producer to combine these roles (and save money). But we didn’t care! We loved music, and so we built that first Victor Studio with whatever little money we had, and we had a great time learning about the industry. One of the things we learned, over time was that our clients - even those with great projects…truly great musicians….really didn’t have the opportunities that the great artists of old had. Were we delusional? maybe they just weren’t that good?? Actually, we learned much more than we’d ever dreamed during this time. We learned that, the music industry as we’d known it (the BIG THREE LABELS), had largely been converting to service businesses…that is…specialized marketing companies for musical projects from usually wealthy clients. What was once a united music industry that had the goal of finding and developing the latest and greatest talent…had become a pay to play, ‘so who’s you’re rich uncle?’ style service business - but with historic music brands. We set out to find a way to build a business for musicians that could afford to develop music we felt…didn’t get a proper shot at developing. We expanded into fields we’d never dreamed of in order to create a vertically integrated system of music industry…everything from the design and manufacturing of the very products on which one LISTENS to music to live music and entertainment experiences like The Victor Vault at Victor Bldg. 19. When we first started manufacturing our Victor ‘Victrola®’ home audio line, and later pressing Victor Records on our own - we couldn’t believe the journey we’d taken in just a few short years. Our investments in our brands, our facilities, our practices, our music, our musicians, our research and development, our continuing engineering education for making better and better home audio products…set us on a path in which we’d grown to our greatest heights by January of 2020.
Poised and funded to expand our operations and further incorporate more and more musicians and new music projects…you can imagine it came as quite a shock to ME at Victor’s offices in Camden, NJ when I heard from our factory component supplier of silicone resistors and boards that; the Chinese Government had ordered a state mandated ‘post holiday’ factory vacation. Now, let me pause for a moment here; back in the 1970s, the famous American electronics company’s all came to the same conclusion; by the end of the 1970s, most electronics wont be made in America. I was fully aware of this in 2011 when we first began this journey. BUT, I was FROM Camden, NJ - the birth place of home audio and home entertainment…we did it once, we’ll do it again! I thought. Of course, its easy to go black or white when talking about this stuff….but the truth is; the largest electronics companies in the world require the collaboration of a global trade system because there are components that are simply NOT made in the USA…and its doubtful they ever will be again. This may be for a number of reasons; 1. MOST electronics are much more electronically complex to design than ever…and thus require much skilled engineering teams on the front end of design and much smaller manufacturing teams on the back end…thus, there are more engineering and design positions available as components have become more integrated, lighter, more point to point for manufacturing; and those workers are often more technically skilled than their manufacturing counterparts (which are also being automated at astonishing rates) don’t want to remain in the physical business of manufacturing for very long…. 2. Some environmental restrictions in the USA means companies are occasionally banned from making some components or utilizing manufacturing methods that don’t follow strict EPA guidelines which other countries either don’t have OR, do but don’t enforce, OR, have but have means of effectively abating environmental problems that stem from such concepts. and 3. increased global competition makes certain components unfeasible in the USA…OR vice versa; unfeasible to manufacture in China. A good example of this would be a hard wood cabinet, a component of a phonograph that, due to shipping rates, cheaper sourcing (immature woods), and more - make such an item an ineffective component to import.
If the global trade deficit were easy to solve, it would have been solved. None the less, The Victor Legacy has always been one of global cooperation; be it with SHELLAC for disk records processed and imported from India since 1900, perfectly aged tone-woods for Victrola® cabinets from South America and East Asia through the 1910s-1970s, our manufacturing goal is in the balancing of creating opportunities for musicians, and American workers - while remaining competitive and high quality. We call our approach to this sector of our business; the ‘Fender-Gibson’ approach…in reference to the musical instrument manufacturers that struck a balance between their American manufacturing heritage and global trade realities following President Nixon’s opening of China to American trade in the late 1960s….ok, PAUSE OVER. As we all know, the ‘state government mandated’ holiday turned out to be the COVID19 Pandemic that was about to absolutely rock the entire world economy. The Victor Company was not only prevented from getting critical components to its factories, but it was also prevented from manufacturing in those factories for many months. It was during this time that we had to think seriously about the future of how Victor would return from what we knew starting March 15th 2020 would be at LEAST a year of disruption; and now we know…it was (and continues to be) more. We moved into action in the fall of that year, reorganizing our manufacturing operations - shuttering a factory in Camden County and opening 2 new facilities for the same in the Camden County Campus. For the first time, we also opened Victor Shenzhen; a manufacturing facility that has the goal of allowing us to diversify our offerings…and serve as a backup facility given the very real possibility of further manufacturing shutdowns in the future. Diversifying our manufacturing practices also allowed us to expand our American engineering team at Radio Corporation Of America Laboratories (Victor’s special team of product, electronics, and software engineers in charge of the design of our products) - and (ideally) assure that the overall company won’t ever face the kinds of deficits and shut downs which led to the furlough of most of our staff for many, many, many, months.
As it turned out, other business sectors of VMI’s changed radically - or were shown to have weaknesses. A good example of this would be the very first business from which I myself entered the Victor business…commercial recording services. Since 2008, we’d been involved in commercial recording services. The rental of Victor Studios was, at one time, a primary income stream to the company and as many other things took precedence we realized several things; 1. Victor Music Group labels had conflicting interests with the operation of a commercial studio rental business - trying to create a benchmark of quality for Victor associated brands was not possible when clients that rented the studios of Victor simply produced whatever product they desired…and continued to market it as having been ‘recorded at Victor’. We realized slowly that, as we grew, this sector of the business could come to hurt the overall brand perception of Victor as a quality music company - if any old ‘tom, dick, and harry’ could record whatever they wanted at Victor Studios. The consumer impression, at that point, would then be that Victor Music Group labels and producers had something to do with that…. (which, of course…wouldn’t be true.) 2. Technology was changing to the point of making commercial studio services unprofitable….and irrelevant to many artists. The best artists in 2021 tend to be able to do at least some level of engineering in relation to their music...even if JUST for demos. High quality music recording equipment is more accessible than ever, and while Victor Music Group will always require Victor Studios to develop its OWN projects with its artists, indy artists that would have rented such a studio as a service from us will be increasingly less skilled as time moves on and the skilled/driven younger musicians of the 21st century learn that production is now PART of their overall craft as a musician….they’ll too be less likely to NEED a recording studio in the early stages of their projects. Overall, its a business that is changing to become very personal to the artist/producer. The era of large commercial recording complexes has come to an end in many ways - but the era of the private producer/engineer studio is booming. There are more people interested in recording than ever…and this cant be forgotten. None the less, closed Victor Studio ‘B’, and moved this facility to Camden, NJ (where…it should have been all along). Victor Studios division now operates within Victor Music Group for the benefit of Victor artists only…and our engineering staff will continue to design some of the best recording studios in the world for clients; but other than that…Victor has officially exited the commercial studio rental business for good. (an important side note, Victor was never IN that business historically - until 1929 when the record industry collapsed and parent company, RCA decided they needed to begin making money off of Victor’s empty studio spaces…RCA/Victor then left that business in 1977 for the exact same reasons cited above).
All in all, a lot has changed - the spirit remains the same; and the operations have long ceased contracting. We are in full blown expansion mode…like we’ve never expanded before, actually. Unfortunately, I can’t quite update you on the NEW stuff…yet…its almost all ready to reveal. Its likely for the best….it is so much new you might have been overwhelmed by it all appearing in THIS article anyways...and that would do none of us any good. So let’s consider this part 1 of a part 2 update from VMI and myself…please keep an eye out for the next one!