July 30--Longtime Chicago-based music booking agent Tom Windish has joined forces with Paradigm, one of the biggest talent agencies in North America.
The partnership announced this week puts Windish's roster of independent acts under the umbrella of an international corporation that represents hundreds of artists in music, movies and TV, among other endeavors.
Windish, who has 23 bands or artists playing Lollapalooza this weekend in Grant Park, has expanded his business in 11 years to an independent powerhouse with 85 employees and 800 artists, include Lorde, the xx and OutKast's Big Boi. He specializes in discovering relatively unknown bands and helping them find a bigger audience. In an era when touring plays a far bigger role in the music industry amid declining sales of recorded music, Windish in recent years has consistently been named as a member of Billboard magazine's "Power 100" of difference-makers.
Yet his agency's rapid growth, with offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Toronto, also created a need to look outside his self-contained operation for resources, Windish said.
"People have been coming after me for five years (for partnerships), and about two years ago I was thinking I should do something because a lot of our bands have grown into a much larger space in a short amount of time," he said in an interview. "I felt like we were in uncharted territory quite a bit. We had a lot more artists doing a Las Vegas residency or selling 10,000 tickets or playing second from the top at a festival. I think we did a very good job, but thought it would be nice to do this with people who have been doing it 20 years longer than us and pick their brains" on everything from artist contracts to venues and promoters.
Paradigm Talent Agency launched its music division 13 years ago by hiring longtime indie promoter Chip Hooper, an agent who began his career in Chicago in the '80s. Since hiring Hooper, Paradigm has added cutting-edge indie agencies Little Big Man, AM Only, London-based CODA and now Windish. Hooper said those companies are defined by their entrepreneurial, self-made spirit and their personal character.
"A lot of our partners wanted to do this (Windish deal) a long time ago, but I wanted to vet it out," Hooper said. "You want to work with good people who are ethical and hard-working. We didn't do this to be involved with some band, though Tom has some phenomenal ones. It's about the people, who are motivated to grow and learn."
The relationship with Paradigm, whose clients include such mainstream acts as Coldplay, the Dave Matthews Band and Black Eyed Peas, won't alter the Windish Agency's approach to signing new artists operating more on potential and promise than from an established commercial base, Windish said.
"One of the things we're best at is artist development, spotting things early, and getting involved in things early," he said. "I wouldn't say (because of this deal) we can now just jump in and book big bands. It (the partnership) makes us more competitive, stronger, and overall we can do a better job. Yesterday we announced the partnership and that night I went and watched a band, Boxed In, at the Mercury Lounge (in New York) with 50 people. I loved it. I still enjoy that element of the business. I stood there dancing and feeling elated. I still want to work with bands like that. A lot of our bands started that way. I remember seeing bands like Alt J and the xx with 100 people at some of their early shows. This deal makes us stronger and able to do better work, but it doesn't change the way we operate."
greg@gregkot.com