Fiona Bloom - Music Entrepreneur, Master-of-All (Musical) Trades

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“I was born into the music industry,” says Fiona Bloom. In retrospect, she really had no choice. Music was always part of her DNA. 

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Coming up in London, her father worked as rock n’roll accountant and, as is befitting of a future musical entrepreneur, even Bloom’s childhood home was set near music royal- ty, across the street from the legendary Abbey Road Studios. 

 

At the age of 4, Bloom already set her aspirations on becoming a world-renowned pi- anist. Laser focused on musicianship, Bloom worked her way up, gaining acceptance into the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London and later earned full scholar- ships to at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and the University of Maryland. 

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Internationally, she has lectured around the globe. A natural tastemaker and “playlist curator,” long before the days of blog “Top 10s” and Spotify, Bloom was sharing her “Top 50 Artists to See at SXSW” (as well as CMJ and Canadian Music Week) and would often catch major label A & R reps with her printed out lists in tow at the conferences. A connoisseur in voice overs, something father honed in her radio days, she even per- formed for three hours alongside Chris Rock during the 1999 MTV Awards. Aside from helping to groom and expose hundreds of artists and helping produce thousands of events throughout her career, Bloom has also worked with numerous clients, including SXSW, CMJ, the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Billboard Conference—even voted by Billboard Biz as the top Characters to follow in the Music Industry. 

 

Going back to her beginnings, everything was simpatico when Bloom was around music. Her inception into the “music business” can be rooted back in the early ’90s, when she started moonlighting in the publicity world, launching the PR firm Roche & Bloom with friend Michelle Roche, and worked with regional artists like the Indigo Girls, Drivin’ and Cryin,’ Follow For Now, Five Eight, and Michelle Malone. Leaving her previous musician endeavors behind, by the time Bloom completed her studies in Speech Communications and Broadcast Journalism at Georgia State Universi- ty, she was already enraptured in the world of Hip-Hop. Landing gigs at WSTR 94.1 and WRFG 89.3 FM, she quickly became a popular radio personality with one of the most successful rap radio shows in Atlanta. Specializing in Hip-Hop, she was often tasked with pulling together playlists and seeking out artists that were the next big thing. 

 

Then, New York City happened. Bloom moved and never looked back. After a chance meeting with Glassnote Records founder Daniel Glass—then president of Chrysalis EMI—she picked up and moved to New York. Following a few lengthy inter- views up and down the record label chain, on January 3, 1994, Bloom officially jumped the radio ship and finally entered the record business. Upon joining EMI, her world came full circle as the first campaign she worked on was Gang Starr, who she first con- nected with during her radio days, and worked with Digable Planets, Shara Nelson, Soul Sonics, and British R & B group Eternal. It was her first foray into the record world, but soon Bloom parted ways with EMI and joined Zero Hour Records as director of PR, working under Ray McKenzie. Immediately after joining, Bloom was unstoppable getting artist features in Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, US, and The New York Times. Somehow, the gig that Bloom admittedly says she talked her way into, made her the hottest publicist in town. Every major label wanted to her. 

 

By 1996, after Zero Hour entered a deal with Rising Tide, and Bloom was given the helm of the Hip-Hop label 3-2-1, a subsidiary of Zero Hour. With a heavy budget, Bloom for marketing, with her first signing was Blackalicious, and Bloom was tasked with discov- ering artists that no one had ever heard of before, and 3-2-1 immediately took off. In 1998, working on a project called Connected, a compilation Bloom pieced together fea- turing label artists and Bloom’s choice picks—and showcasing her innate A & R ear— with Ultramagnetic MCs with Kool Keith, Blackalicious, and Freestyle Fellowship. Unfortunately with 3-2-1’s success, Zero Hour was falling behind. Just as 3-2-1’s signed artists were about to release new albums and Bloom was moments away from signing new artists like Minneapolis Hip-Hop duo Atmosphere, the plug was pulled in June 1999, leaving her devastated. 

 

As April of 2000 rolled around, the stress of the closing 3-2-1/Zero left Bloom coping with a medical condition that took her out of commission for four months, right at the cusp of a new venture, Sub-Verse Records, with Big Jus and investor Peter Lupoff. Once she recovered, Fiona Bloom was in full force. As the label’s co-owner and presi- dent, Bloom was signing artists like MF Doom re-releasing his debut Operation: Doomsday, effortlessly landing placement in Spin, Rolling Stone, NY Times, Enter- tainment Weekly and all the major Hip-Hop magazines for their roster of artists... Bloom was back in her element. Located in the heart of New York’s TriBeca neighborhood, Sub-Verse’s prime locale— and 100,000 square feet of space, often rented out to digital companies. On the up and up, Bloom’s time with Sub-Verse would sadly came to an end following 9-11. The office’s close proximity to attack, a frozen industry, and the trauma left Bloom unmotivated to continue. Following her resignation, Bloom continued continued working the promo- tional company she had launched on the side, Subversive School, a branding component of Sub-Verse. 

 

She never really left music—even when she did, often joking “I’ll leave it when I die.”
 Soon, Booker was added to her resume. In 2004, Bloom joined New York’s Joe’s Pub as it’s Programming and Late Night Booker. There she worked with Global Fest founder Bill Bragin and soon developed a late night series, which showcased new artists like Jasmine Elliot and SpankRock with an inaugural show featuring the one and only Missy Elliot. Following a run-in with Steve Gottlieb at a Midem conference in France, Bloom would soon find herself back at a record company as director of International Marketing at TVT Records. Already set with Nine Inch Nails, Sevendust, KMFDM, Guided By Voices, and dozens of other artists on its evolving roster, Bloom worked with “newcomer" Pit- bull, as well as her former “DJ” Lil Jon and other artists through 2006. 

 

Fast forward to 2007. After more than two decades working the trenches of the music world, it was time for Bloom to go into business for herself, and The Bloom Effect was born. 

Bloom launched her full-service boutique agency, specializing in entertainment market- ing and branding that has produced and promoted more than 2,000 special events for artists, authors, fashion labels and other lifestyle brands and worked with more than 300 artists since its inception. The Bloom Effect offers consulting, A & R and manage- ment advice and its roster of clients past and present includes the Blues Travelers, Sim- ple Minds, Raul Midón, The Waterboys, Gangstagrass, Hollis Brown, Tower of Power, Bruce Sudano, The Zombies, and many more. 

Throughout all her ups and downs in the music industry, Fiona Bloom is happy just where she is. 

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Every beginning, and abrupt end, was a lesson learned in the business that she loves... the business she was born into.