New artists hope to land record deals at conference

Angie Wagner

Friday, May 21, 1999 | 9:11 a.m.

LAS VEGAS - By the time Ashton Allen and his fellow bandmates pay their monthly RV payments, give a cut to their managers and then divide what's left between seven people, the 20-somethings aren't exactly rolling in the dough.

"The costs are real high," Allen, 22, said Thursday. "It's just enough for us to get by."

He's the bass player for "Big Sky," a pop-rock group from Gainesville, Fla., on the verge of making it big. They've opened for matchbox 20 and 'N Sync, but still bring home small paychecks.

The members of "Big Sky" and more than 170 other bands hope rubbing elbows with music executives at the Emerging Artists and Talent in Music, or EAT'M, conference will help them land a record deal.

"It's a great chance to meet people in the industry," Allen said. "Big Sky" performs Friday night at the Desert Inn hotel-casino.

Groups that have spent more than enough time playing in dingy bars and at small events are looking to emerge from obscurity, and EAT'M could be their big break. At least nine groups or artists were signed last year during the conference.

Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun told the up-and-coming artists how he started his record label 51 years ago and didn't expect it to last long.

"I thought I would make records for two or three years," he said during a conference luncheon. "I never imagined that I'd be willing to make a living doing something I love doing."

Ertegun encouraged the crowd to remember the music pioneers who paved the way for today's music - Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

"American music in this century has become the music of the world," he said.

Ertegun spoke of signing singer Jewel to a contract when she was known as just a "young folk singer."

Jewel won an American Music Award in 1997 when she was 22.

"It didn't happen overnight. When you really know that the talent is there, you stay with it," Ertegun said.