Backstage Spotlight™
December 2003 Talent Agent Scott Pang
Scott Pang has worked in the music industry for 24
years and has been an agent at both ICM and William Morris. Artists he’s worked with
over the years include Rod Stewart, Barry Manilow, Diane Reeves, David Lee Roth, and many
others. Scott Pang was also the director of touring for the Ice Capades and Harlem
Globetrotters. Currently he is an agent at ICM.
MBADC: You mentioned satellite radio. For our readers who might
not understand the impact, can you give a brief overview of its impact on touring?
SP: I think satellite radio has brought the awareness of acts to the general
public--the name of the act, and the name of the song. Because it’s listed right on
the dashboard. It’s very, very advantageous to an act when [people] can see who sings
that song. And it really helps when you tour, because people will come out. There are a
lot of times that people love a song, but they don’t know who is playing that song.
And a lot of times they’ll call the radio station to ask, and the radio station will
tell them, but the radio station is dependent upon spins, and spins relate back to
Soundscan. People look at Soundscan as in indicator when it’s [actually] sort of a
small indicator. Record sales have nothing to do with ticket sales, and there is no
correlation between the two. You have to be really cognizant of that fact; you can’t
really go out and say, "OK because we sell a lot of albums we’re going to do a
lot of tickets here…" What are the odds that people who went out and bought the
album and then studied that act are fans of them?
So that’s one of the effects of satellite radio, is that it gives people that
information. So your fanbase is greater. And also it gives a chance to acts that
don’t necessarily have current product out, or some of the older acts; they can get
on the radio in the different formats that satellite radio is offering. [In] adult
contemporary; they may have three or four different stations that are A/C. So somebody
like an Al Jarreau is not just limited to jazz stations…It’s excellent for him,
and it’s excellent for his touring.
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