Jo Faloona

Back in the day: Jo Faloona (in pink) with then-BAT client Bryan Adams and the Universal Music Canada crew — photo provided.

Jo Faloona always said when she’s not happy, she’s out. Here she is, 41 years on, and she’s still working in the music business, as marketing director for Vancouver-based management company Bruce Allen Talent (BAT), helmed by its namesake, a legend in the industry, Bruce Allen. But it was not her childhood dream.  She liked music but was not consumed by it. 

Back in high school, Faloona, whose family moved from Ireland to Canada in 1973 when she was 6, was one of only two people in her business class that did not get the job placement she was hoping: at a travel agency. But there was an opening at the alternative radio station, CFNY 102.1 FM, then based in Brampton, Ontario, where she lived.  She was 17. 

“I went there for my placement for the week,” Faloona tells WIMC’s Crushing It. “On the third day, they offered me a part-time receptionist job for the summer, and by the time the summer came, the receptionist was leaving to go to head office. They offered me the job full time and I was like, ‘Well, I don't know what I want to do anyway. So, I'm going to do this.’ And then that was it.”

She was programming assistant from 1984-1985, then Canadian artist development coordinator until 1992.

Faloona then made the leap to a major record label, landing the job of marketing coordinator at Warner Music Canada, managing budgets of some $2.5 million to promote such acts as Madonna, Alanis Morissette, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Faith Hill. She also got to work on a life-changing release, the self-titled debut album by newcomer Michael Bublé, climbing the ladder to marketing manager. She held the same position for a year in 1999 at Universal Music Canada, and then returned to Warner until 2003 when Bruce Allen lured her away to help with Bublé. Among her highest accomplishment is obtaining more than 16 million in worldwide sales for his 2012 Christmas album.

The past 21 years she’s been with Allen, marketing the best in the biz, as they say, a small but mighty roster along the way, namely Bublé, Bryan Adams (until he struck out on his own in 2023 after 44 years), Jann Arden, Martina McBride (until 2010) and Anne Murray (retired 16 years ago but still has spurts of busy, like now, for the just released album of rare recordings, Here You Are). Sandee Bathgate handles the other talent on BAT, Offspring and producer Bob Rock.

Jo Faloona and Anne Murray — photo provided

Jo Faloona and Jann Arden — photo provided

Today, Bublé remains a lot of Faloona’s focus. The global artist with sales over 75 million albums worldwide has his hands in all kinds of projects from coaching on The Voice to the brilliant ads for Pepsi’s Bubly sparkling water to creating his own whiskey, Fraser and Thompson – he’s always doing something outside of singing. 

Jo Faloona and Michael Bublé — photo provided

Working on marketing and brand management, publicity and overall strategy, with a small marketing team — social media coordinator Michelle Larsen (at BAT for over 40 years) and marketing manager Michaela Quinn — Faloona then has to communicate, coordinate and strategize with the record label. 

In this interview with Karen Bliss’ Crushing It column for Women in Music Canada, Faloona chats about what marketing means today, working with the notorious Bruce Allen, why Zoom meetings can be more creative than in-person, the wonderful Michael Bublé, and advice for the next-generation of women in the music industry.

A lot of people get their start by volunteering at a college radio station. Even though you were working at a commercial station, what skills did you learn that enabled you to get hired at a major label?

In my programming job before I left, it was all Canadian development, so when I went to the label, it really wasn't a huge stretch, but I didn't know that. I was a bit intimidated when I started at Warner's, but you're basically working with artists. I already knew how to make a CD because I had been doing that as part of the Canadian talent development. Those modern music discs, the compilations of Canadian acts, those days were amazing with local acts like the Saddletramps, Wild Strawberries and Barenaked Ladies, that era. It was great because I learned how [performing rights organization] SOCAN worked. I learned what information needed to be on a CD. So when I started at Warner, I knew how to do some of this stuff. 

I didn't know I was building my career. I was never that conscious about it.  I wasn't the type of person. If you ask me, “What are you going to do in five years?” I have no idea. Everything I did, and this drove my mother crazy, by the way, was, “Well, I'm happy with this right now.” Everything was about what made me happy. 

Marketing is a word we also know and use, but in a nutshell what does it entail? 

How would you describe marketing? I didn't go to school [for marketing].  I didn't graduate with a marketing degree, but at the end of the day good marketing should result in sales. That's what it's all about.  When you work in the artist business, the artist doesn't think that.  There should be a result.  You don't want to spend $300,000 on a campaign and not sell any records, “but it was fun.” That's not good marketing.

How has marketing changed since the collapse of record retail?

Marketing has changed so much over the years. We're in the most challenging time of it. In the heyday of my career in marketing, there was a lot of money and you could be really proactive. There was lots of retail space to buy. You could run lots of promotions on radio and you could get great results.  Today, it's less proactive; it's more reactive. It's difficult to come up with a strategic plan and strategy. But the benefit of streaming is when there’s pickup from TikTok or TV etc on a song, you can react quickly to build. So, I definitely am a lot more challenged today. Also, in a much different marketing role because I'm not actively making the marketing decisions but providing the marketing direction.  I can only tell Warner how I think they should spend their money, but Warner is going to decide how they're going to spend their money. So, it's a bit of a reverse role. 

It's unusual for a management company to have a dedicated marketing person. Am I right? 

You're right. I say this to Bruce all the time, “You're ahead of your time in so many ways.” 

You see it all the time now, the marketing comes from management and they're helping the record companies. That's definitely on the rise. Bruce worked in a time where it was all radio driven; you made a record, you put songs on the radio and you went on tour and you did that on repeat.  I met Bruce when I was at Warner's, marketing Michael on the first record [2003]. He called me numerous times to go work with him. I was not sure because that was an entire lifestyle change to move to Vancouver, but he kept saying to me, “Kid, I need you here. These people are talking about all this stuff. It’s like a foreign language to me.” 

I could see that although he was active, obviously with Bryan, it was a different style, a different era. Bryan drove a lot of his own branding and marketing. He was a photographer, had a vision. And active with Martina [McBride], a different thing as well.  When I started, it was just coming into the digital era and that was new and national. Bublé was in a whole new world of pure marketing, brand association, all of that.  Ultimately, it was wanting to be a part of Michael's career and the decisions to come. It was early on. Bruce was giving me a great opportunity and I knew that was going to be exciting. I thought, “He is on the rise. This is going to be fun. This is going to be great.”  And it has been.

Michael seems up for anything, whereas Bryan — I know you don’t work with him anymore but did for decades — more reserved and particular about what he says yes to. 

Different eras raised with different ideas. And, really, that's what it is. And different personalities and views on how things should work. Michael came up through the video era, where everything was visual and on TV and it wasn't as radio driven. And, of course, not being a complete radio artist with what he does. 

And, again, it just comes down to personality. When we started managing Jann, she also was ready to build out her brand and she's been a great partner.  I will say both of them have given me amazing freedom to do my job. The trust they put in me for building the brand. Even now, with our little marketing department managing their social media platforms, and, as personal as it is for them, they're just really giving. I think that helps them be successful, allowing people who do what they do well to do it. But that's also unusual for artists [laughs]. 

Jo Faloona and Bruce Allen — photo provided

Tell me about that freedom. Do other staff members at BAT weigh in with marketing ideas?

So, one good thing that came out of COVID was when we were in lockdown, and everybody was at home for months on end, we did twice a week Zoom meetings with our team to keep things moving along. I didn't go back to the boardroom with the staff meeting when we came out of COVID and went back to the office, and the reason I didn't do that was because what I really liked was when we're on Zoom, everyone is equal, everyone's little box is the same size. Now, my people think that's weird; I think it's great. I feel like when you're in the boardroom, and you have a couple of people talking all the time, it's more intimidating for someone to speak up than it is in this environment. People will argue that's not true and that it's more productive in a boardroom. I love being in the office. I would love to work from home twice a week; I do once a week, because I think it is a different dynamic and a different level of productivity. But from a creative standpoint, this has worked.

Now going back to give you an example, this is old-school boardroom, but I remember one day, Nancy Emery, who is our CFO — and I'm using this example, because that's where it comes out of nowhere; this isn't someone on a marketing team — she said, “I've just started watching [lifestyle panel TV talk show] The Social; it's really good; that would be a great show for Jann to be on [as guest co-host]. And then, I happened to run into Lainey [Lu, then co-host of The Social] doing press with Bublé and I said to her, “Hey, I hear the show's going really well. Someone in our office had brought up that Jann should be on it.” She goes, “We want Jann.” And I'm like, “Holy crap, that's amazing.”  And that’s how allowing everyone to have a voice can bring ideas to the table. Then, it becomes our responsibility as marketing people to make it work. 

There is no one artist on Bruce’s roster that isn’t majorly successful. They have a name. Constant opportunities. 

There's so much pride to be a part of this. I love being his co-pilot. When I started, the one thing Bruce knew was I didn't want to be him. I don't want the calls all day long. I don't want to have those conversations. I want to get the work done. I love the work. He's a great manager. He's got great patience with his artists. He's an amazing listener. I'm neither [laughs]. So, it works great for us. 

He cares so much. He prides himself in being a one-on-one manager. It's why we don't have a 40-artist roster because he puts in the time. That's what he takes a lot of pride in and having an office that he can rely on allows him that time. He doesn't have to invest in dotting all the I's and crossing the T's with the rest of us; He can put the time in with the artist. 

Because it's typically the label that does the marketing, what is the key to doing this together?

It's all about the relationship you build. You become a part of the team. There are revolving doors so we deal with a lot of different people when staff turns over.  I find everyone we've worked with over the years have been really respectful of my past experience and I try to stay current. We've always worked well as a team. Michael jokes sometimes that I'm very controlling with his brand. I even think Warners appreciate that. It's really about having a solid team and respecting each other's roles. I try not to overstep and they do the same, but especially being there with Michael more or less from the beginning, I kind of know how he thinks.  I can be sure he's not going to want to do that. It's very efficient in how we do things because of that.

As you know, I’ve been road-tripping to see Bryan since I was 16, 17.  Bruce used to intimidate me when I started in the music industry shortly after that. He’s this towering figure with this big voice. Not sure why I even knew he was a yeller [laughs] but I knew. Years later, when I’d get that phone call from him, it was always to give me info on one of his artists, usually armed with these big sales numbers or to ask what I thought of a show. He's so proud of his artists.  Passionate even today, at 80. He's got a team of women that work for him. What's the reality of who Bruce is and what it’s like working for him? 

I can't reveal all his secrets, but, yeah, when I was first taking the job, I made it really clear to him that I had no tolerance for that kind of behaviour and I wouldn't be yelled that.  I'll be honest with you, I think there's been twice in the 21 years he actually yelled at me about something. It's interesting with Bruce, he's a yeller. Okay, not so much anymore. He's really calmed down [laughs]. He usually is just yelling about something more than he's yelling at someone, which is why he has these amazing loyal relationships because he's never destroyed the people in his life that are important to him. 

He puts a lot of value in our team. He loves that we're an all-female team. He says women think from the right side of their brain, they're more efficient. If he doesn't say that once a week, I'd be shocked. He says it all the time. He does take a lot of pride in all the women in our office and the truth is they're all amazing. We work with an amazing group of women and a group of women working that closely in a small company, for there to be so little drama, it's amazing. It really is. 

He is really kind. He's looked after all of us through the years. He’s been so kind to my family. Even now my niece is older and comes to town, he'll make sure he buys her a drink. He makes sure she comes to the office. Since she was a kid, he used to buy her ice cream, take my parents for dinner. Always asks how my family is.  About 13 years ago when my mom had her stroke, he was like, “Get on a plane today. Get out of here.” Never measures the amount of time. And he's not family first guy; he's business first.  But he really respects my love for my family and how important that is to me. And, If you have respect for people, it's everything. And he does. He's kinder than people think. 

You are a true trailblazer. You've been in the industry over 40 years, before there were women in senior positions to look up to and before the #MeToo and Time’s Up [movements]. Do you have advice for younger women on how to get through a job on a daily basis if the boss is a man, who is no nonsense, harsh, maybe a yeller, maybe doesn't say please or thank you?

Well, first of all, I want to say women do that too, by the way. All women aren’t great supporters of women. So, there's a few layers here. I think the new generation of young women assume they have a place at the table. So there has been a lot of change. I will use my niece [Simone Faloona] for example. She's 26, coming on 27. She has an amazing job. She is the main stylist at Etalk. She's dealing with four [on-air] personalities every day of her life in a very personal role. And we chat because I deal with personalities. We have things we can share and stories we can share. She can be as gentle as she is strong. And that's not just a personality thing; it’s also a new generation of young women. Their starting place was not our starting place.  I couldn’t have done that at her age, with her confidence because women weren’t didn’t feel empowered when I was my 20s.

I still think women shouldn't lose themselves. They should be who they are and be okay with who they are. They shouldn't try to be more like men to do the job better.  I also think, in this changing business, being loyal to yourself is really important. As I said, I always prioritize being happy. As soon as I'm not happy, I'm out. And I've never been ever concerned about being unemployable. Never. Fortunately, I've only had a few jobs, so it's always worked out. I really believe strongly that people work differently now.  I work with so many amazing young women. They’re so much further along at their age than I was.  They have the opportunity and they're givin’ it. I'm hoping that will maintain. 

Jo Faloona and her all-star puppy Maeve — photo provided