In his two decades in the music business, Martin Kierszenbaum has become one of the top A&R execs in the industry, while also being a successful record producer and songwriter. As an executive, Kierszenbaum (who is based in Los Angeles) currently holds three top positions: Chairman of Cherrytree Records (distributed by Interscope Records), President of A&R, Pop/Rock at Interscope, and Head of International for Interscope-Geffen-A&M.

DK: You are also known for your work (co-writing, producing, A&R) with Lady Gaga. How did you hook up with her?

Kierszenbaum: Vincent Herbert (Streamline Records) who signed Lady Gaga, brought her into my office and she and I hit if off. We talked about Prince (and creating tracks in this style). She said "let's write some songs together," so we wrote four songs for The Fame album including the title cut.

Full interview here - http://www.songwriteruniv...um-123.htm

I can definitely see how Prince was an inspiration for how they launched Gaga as an artist. Straight up catchy pop songs with killer choruses mixed with a visually striking, semi-theatrical performance persona.

I think any pop artist worth their salt should be looking to Prince for inspiration. We know that BIeber is (He's mentioned it in interviews, his band has jammed on Purple Rain), we know that Rihanna is (the only two cover songs in her set for her last tour were "Darling Nikki" and "The Glamorous Life") and we see that Gaga is as well. Obviously pop artists being inspired by our boy is nothing new, but it's just nice to see it continue regardless of what anyone thinks of these artists and their music. This helps keep Prince relevant to a younger crowd. He should be utilising the momentum of the new generation speaking openly about him for a new, kickass major release.

I mean shit. Imagine Prince does a deal with a major for a new album with a big marketing push and a new video launch on YouTube. Even if just those three artists alone tweeted about it with a link to the video on YouTube it would instantly trend on Twitter. Those three artists have a combined Twitter follower count of 50 million people. If a new Prince song trended it'd reach a large portion of the 350 million people on Twitter, not to mention a chunk of the 845 million people on Facebook.

It strikes me that this potential for instant virality simply wasn't there the last time that Prince worked with a major and had their marketing muscle to push a release. When Planet Earth came out, Twitter was in it's infancy and Facebook still played second fiddle to MySpace with a mere fraction of the users it has now. Lotusflow3r and 20TEN had limited releases...... with a killer pop album (which we all know he can do, especially with the amount of time it's now been since he last released an album) I think Prince could easily have another multi-platinum album. Planet Earth sold over 300k in the US with very little promotion.

I think Prince has been biding his time, getting all the pieces of the puzzle in place and when the time comes, a new album will be stellar and make serious impact.

Militant,

Thanks; it's a nice soundbite.

A useful business model would be to, as you say, leverage the established upcoming artists' reach via social media and release a specifically tailored, stripped down, BUT, GENIUS pop Prince record (9 songs, no grand artistic statement).

AND, then, use the financing from such sales, sponsorship deals, property investimens and concerts, to create serious, conceptually creative, and GENIUS works of art for both himself, musical afficianados, and, of course, his hardcore audience.

love,

Spirit

Militant said:

I think any pop artist worth their salt should be looking to Prince for inspiration. We know that BIeber is (He's mentioned it in interviews, his band has jammed on Purple Rain).

He does Not only shits his own songs, but also the songs of others? God, what have we done?

Who doesnt want Prince to Be His/Her Inspiration? I mean, The man is a Genious!!

A friend of Mine is obsessed With lady gaga, And he once told everybody that She Inspired Her Piano Solos In Prince's Ones During the Lovesexy Tour Even tought That My friend had No idea Who Prince Was til he met me

Militant said:

We know that BIeber is (He's mentioned it in interviews, his band has jammed on Purple Rain)

Oh well, if Justin Bieber likes him, this Prince guy MUST be good.

NouveauDance said:

Militant said:

We know that BIeber is (He's mentioned it in interviews, his band has jammed on Purple Rain)

Oh well, if Justin Bieber likes him, this Prince guy MUST be good.

That's exactly what his fans would say!

Militant said:

NouveauDance said:

Oh well, if Justin Bieber likes him, this Prince guy MUST be good.

That's exactly what his fans would say!

Well then, since Justin is such a high authority, its all settled.

mzsadii said:

Militant said:

That's exactly what his fans would say!

Well then, since Justin is such a high authority, its all settled.

"No, there is another (Justin)". - Yoda

I'm not sure if anyone knew this but, Gaga thanked Prince as well in "The Fame"(her debut album) booklet.

Of course Gaga is inspired by Prince. She inspired by so many artists...

Based on this article alone I see why Prince is laying low.

ufoclub said:

mzsadii said:

Well then, since Justin is such a high authority, its all settled.

"No, there is another (Justin)". - Yoda

Besides thanking Prince in her album liner notes, she's mentioned his name a few times in interviews.