Sentinel Exclusive: Exclusive Interview with Big Jon Platt
Sentinel; Los Angeles, Calif. › August 21, 2009
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Summary
(BJ) The publishing game used to be different before I got into it. I used to call it "watching the charts". They would watch a song come out and see how successful it would be. If the song was successful they would go try to sign the publishing on it. I took a different approach. I just went on things just from the passion of it and do I love it and what I felt I could do to contribute to that person's career. So I wasn't waiting for it to climb up the charts, I would sign it because I loved it. Like when I signed [Jay-Z], "Reasonable Doubt" had came out not to long before and it was selling ok, it wasn't blowing through the roof, but I saw the vision and I was just like this dude is incredible. I mean, did I think he would be the number one rapper in the world, the number one hip hop artist in the world, and one of the most influential people in the world? I can't tell you I saw that. All I saw was an amazing talent and at the end of the day, that's what you have to go off of. You go off the music, the person, and their drive . and you need a little bit of luck sprinkled in and then everything lines up. Every now and then all the planets will line up and that's what happened with it. But to really answer your question, what separates me, I think it's trust at the end of the day. It's a business where it's easy not to trust. You have to know where you come from to know where you're going. And I'm a true believer of that because I know that from our people. You know in the '40s, '50s, and '60s, even the '70s, we were getting taken advantage of for our song writing royalties and I promised myself I would never contribute to that. I always wanted to do fair business with people. I've seen this business change people and I've always said to myself and continue to say everyday I don't want the business to change me I want to change the business.
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Sentinel Exclusive: Exclusive Interview with Big Jon Platt
"BIG" JON PLATT is big in every sense of the word. He is the executive vice president/head of Urban, Creative, West Coast, for EMI Music Publishing. To state it plain and simple, Big Jon is arguably the most influential urban music publisher in the world and without a doubt one of the most important music executives in the industry. Oh, and did I forget to mention he stands at 6'8.
Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kanye West, Usher, Pharrell Williams (Neptunes), Young Jeezy, Snoop Dogg, Fabolous, Omarion, and the Yin Yang Twins a...See the full content of this document
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