This page is dedicated to the people that put forth the laborious effort, resulting in the site:
It's my way of saying thanks for the opportunity, and giving recognition to those without whom, none of this Music Archive would be possible. This list is by no means an order of importance or heirarchy within the Company. These people listed are the folks that helped me learn the 'net', graphics, html, you name it. They taught me everything I know about P.C,'s and the related software. Sometimes, I even think that they are cool people.
Now on to the folks:
Without the Vision and Motivation of Kent Keifer, this site would not be. Kent is a musician himself. His unique business approach is pleasantly, dis-similiar to the means that the 'Major labels' have chosen to operate. From the Royalties paid to artists' to the price per songs, Kent has made this business a Win-Win-Win Situation. The consumer pays less for music, the artists' make more than the traditional royalties paid, and the Company still makes a profit. This approach is one of the main reasons that I believe this company will be successful.
When I was brought aboard to do A & R, Kevin Nelson was the person that called me and gave me an initial run down on 'how things work'. Unfortunately, he didn't have the patience and support to stick it out. He no longer works for N.E.W., but he is not forgotten.
There are also two other people that were instrumental in the initial stages of forming the network and structure, however I wasn't around then and don't know their names. Fortunately though, when they cut out, there were people as or even more qualified to handle their position. Dave Walton came aboard as the Webmaster. Daves skills are truly masterful. When ever I introduce him to someone, I always seem to sneak in the phrase "and this is Dave, one of the two brainiacs here. The other brainiac is Curt Zirzow. Curt came aboard right out of a computer-oriented school, and has been instrumental as well in the forming of the innovative technology that made the DOWNLOADABLE MUSIC SYSTEM a reality. From my understanding, it was Curt that forged through the final wall that made the technology possible. The two brainiacs are a perfect complement to each other, and for the most part, are a significant reason the Kents' vision became a reality. Dave Walton and Curt Zirzow are what you would call 'THE' cutting edge, when it comes to creating and forming new systems, strings, databases, internal software programs, etc.. Can't say enough about these two, because they took a chance ( as we all did ) with this venture. Everyone here has, though these two guys saw the vision and the creative challenge and jumped in with both feet. They could easily be making $60,000.00 a year, but they were able to see this is a challenge and possiblity of earning the same or more.
Another reason Nordic is progressing so rapidly, is the dedication and persistance of Dan Barrett, Scott Bergwin, Jamie (Jay Jay) Locelle (Laquita) Charles Hodgkins and Adam Lawson.
Dan is the man. He's the Internet Marketing / Publicity guru that has taken over for Kevin Nelson. Dan was here already when Kevin left, but when the company was in one of those familiar first year crunches, Dan stepped up. Dan and Adam are responsible for training the interns, researching the market, and all of the various aspects of Marketing / Publicity. They too are innovators in their own right, becasue this internet is still somewhat in its' infancy. It's quite possible that the methods created by Dan, Adam, Kent and Curt, will be taught and/or used on a broad scale in the future of the internet.
Scott Bergwin is the man of many hats. His dedication to a wide spectrum of 'things that have to get done' at N.E.W. is invaluable. Scott is a musician also and is known as a walking store house of information. Just check out his web site called the scottzone
Scotty and Adam are the Graphics gurus, as well as 'html' and search engine
registration, which is an art within itself.The youngest member of the staff is Jamie. He is also a drummer and metal head. Jamie is the main data entry person here and is responsible for approximately 85 percent of the songs that are available for download. The data entry process entails listening to each song for possible problems, encoding the information into the data base (that Curt created) and converting the songs into MP3 format, as well as creating the short and long samples that are available for preivew. Jamie also does all of the Artists' logos, album covers and final touches to the pages before they go up on the site. Quite alot of responsibility for a young man not even 21 yet, but he is more than capable. Jamie works with Charles Hodgkins to put the biographies together, and when everything seens to be in place Jamie puts the Artist up on the site.
Charles is the linguist of the group. He is also the A & R supervisor. He has a unique ability to word contracts, documents, info letters and bio's. Charles has significantly surpassed all of the A & R persons, when it comes to signing acts to the Nordic Records Label.
Lochelle is Kents' girlfriend. Yet, she isn't here just to look good. She also knows the internet very well and is instrumental in our link campaign and internet marketing. She is the only female staff, so she catches alot of 'crap' and keeps the boys in line. The unspoken mother figure. Value: Priceless. Great smile too.
I didn't use a paragraph talking about Adam because he too is a man of many hats. You see his name mentioned with graphics, internet publicity / marketing and database creation. He is an extraordinary talent in the field of marketing. He also sees the need to create databases (formation of incoming data and arranging this data in a standard form/database for easier useage and tracking.)
I'm hoping I didn't leave anyone out. Well these are the folks behind the screen here at Nordic Entertainment Worldwide. A truly innovative team. A very knoweldgeable group of folks. And believe it or not, they are likeable folks.
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