by Mark E. Waterbury

Because of Frank's passion for songwriting, his brother suggested that the publishing side of the industry was where he wanted to be. Frank followed the advice, taking a job working in the mail room at EMI/Screengems Publishing. It was not glamorous work by any means, but it allowed Frank to get his foot firmly inside the door. "At the time I didn't even know what a publishing company really did," Frank muses. "I was just there thinking, this is cool, what do we really do here? But my brother said that if I wanted to be in the more creative end of the business, publishing was where I wanted to be." Frank tried to learn as much as he could and was eventually sprung from the mail room, moving up to working in what in the pre-CD era was the tape copy room. This was the company's nerve center, where the song pluggers needed Frank to dupe compilations so they could pitch the music. He had to keep the library constantly updated and as a result he learned the catalogue inside-out. "It got to the point that I knew the catalogue better than the song pluggers. They would come to me for ideas because I was the guy who listened to more music than anybody. It was out of necessity of what I was doing. Working in publishing became more appealing to me at the time, too, because I was working with the people who were working with the writers and the songs in their most basic forms."

Frank's increasing knowledge took him a step further when he was promoted to the assistant to the Vice President of Talent Acquisition, where he basically became a scout actively searching for music. Then an opening came up at Arista Music Publishing for a song plugger, enticing Frank to make the switch so he could get more closely involved with the creativity. He worked for an old school publisher named Billy Meshel who had a reputation for training some of the great song pluggers. Frank's passion for publishing was burgeoning while at Arista, when after two years he was hired by a company called DeJames Music who made a very appealing offer to him. Unfortunately after only three months, the company was sold and Frank was out of a job. As a result, he bounced around for a couple of years with some start-up companies. "It's very difficult for a company without a base of standards to do a start up. You just start signing records, but you don't have that steady base. As a result after a year or two run, most of those companies went bust. It made me think of how I had the situation I was enjoying at Arista that I had left to chase what I thought was a position of more prestige and a bigger salary at DeJames. I will never do that again because I was miserable."

After about three years with the start ups, Frank heard from a friend that the creative director at Peer Music had retired and they had not hired a replacement. The friend had a relationship with Peer's VP Kathy Spamberger, and helped set up an interview for Frank. In 1994, he was hired as the Creative Director, the title later changed to his current title of National Director of Creative Affairs. Peer Music has been around for seventy-five years and is considered one of the largest independent publishing companies in the world. "I was involved right away in trying to get co-writes and pitching songs and help songwriters to find bands. This is very much of a boutique company in the way that it is small enough that it can give the songwriters and bands personal attention, but big enough globally to make things happen." Peer Music has survived well because unlike the previous start ups that Frank had worked for, they have a strong base, and have also in recent years signed prestigious newer musicians including David Foster and Shirley Piken (the latter wrote the song "Bitch" for Meredith Brooks). "It's nice when you have people like Shirley and David who can open doors for you, because Peer is not exactly a household name like Warner/Chappell or EMI. It's great to have that ammo under your belt, and it's very nice to work for a company that believes the ratio of creative people working with songwriters should not be overwhelming. Some people at larger publishers work with thirty writers and I work with five. That's the way it should be so you can service your writers properly."

Frank is very happy just being around songwriters every day, especially when they come in with an unfinished work and ask him for their advice. He also enjoys the excitement when a song that he had something to do with goes on to become popular. Frank has not really given much thought to any avenues of the music profession other than publishing, and offers some solid advice for those who may wish to follow in his footsteps. "The best thing to do is try out an intern program. Even if they don't give you school credit for doing it, it is probably worth it just to get the contacts and get your foot in the door. Ask if you can file CDs or do grunt work a couple days a week, and you can get to know people that way. It's nice if you know the history of songwriting especially in pop songwriting. If you are enthusiastic and aggressive, you can accomplish superior things."

Frank Petrone's advice for musicians: "A lot of publishing companies do not accept unsolicited materials. The songwriting organizations ASCAP and BMI can be a real help, and if there is any way a songwriter can get affiliated with one of them they are very good at getting music to publishers. Once in awhile if I get an e-mail or a call from someone who is being nice and sounds like they are just trying to get something done, I will sometimes take a submission if this person is making an effort. You should also try to get a manager or a publicist on board, because as long as you have that then you are solicited."