Jeffrey Gaccione starts second act with 16 Minutes Entertainment

ALBANY — After finding success in the financial world for nearly 20 years, former Albany resident Jeffrey Gaccione is achieving a new kind of professional and personal satisfaction thanks to his recent decision to follow his lifelong dream of working in the music business.

That dream was fully realized in 2012 when Gaccione, himself a musician who played with various garage bands and friends while growing up in Albany, decided he wanted to work in the industry full-time and founded 16 Minutes Entertainment with partners Greg Archilla and Ilya Toshinsky.

According to Gaccione, his experience in the business world, Archilla’s 20-plus years as a producer and sound engineer, and the relationships and understanding Toshinsky has developed as one of the most sought-after session musicians in Nashville provided the perfect combination for the trio to found 16 Minutes, which is dedicated to developing and nurturing rising artists.

“The best way to describe it is that 16 Minutes is a talent incubator,” said Gaccione. “In today’s world, major labels don’t put much into developing new artists. For them, it’s just a numbers game. We saw a void there. There’s not a lot of early-stage artist development.”

Essentially, 16 Minutes Entertainment handles all aspects of guiding the careers of artists who have the potential to make it big but have not yet established a clear career path, in part because their focus has been on their music.

Gaccione said the team at 16 Minutes will take an emerging talent and put that artist on a long-term career trajectory by handling all aspects of the artist’s career, such as recording, touring, marketing, publishing, promotion and social media fan build-up.

“We help them with everything,” Gaccione said. “And the goal is to up-sell them to a major label.”

Gaccione said the company is currently, and successfully, employing its strategy with up-and-coming country musician Ben Bradford, whom the company has been working with for the past couple of years.

Bradford first came to the attention of the music industry when, on a whim, he entered the Texaco Country Music Showdown and was chosen as a Top 10 regional finalist. He eventually won the competition.

That win led Bradford, who was originally going to pursue a baseball career, to Nashville where he has made a name for himself opening for Colt Ford, Chris Young, Florida Georgia Line, Grace Potter and others.

With the help of 16 Minutes Entertainment, Bradford is putting the finishing touches on his debut EP, which will be released later this fall. The budding artist recently released his new single, “Just a Little Bit,” along with the accompanying video, which was filmed by another artist with Albany connections, Stokes Nielson.

16 Minutes is also helping Bradford navigate his way through an extensive tour of the Southeast, where he has developed enormous buzz and a devoted following.

“We’re working really hard to get Ben performing in a lot of different venues,” said Gaccione. “He’s really popular in colleges, and the goal is to be playing in front of a lot of fans on a regular basis. The new single is out, too, and I hope we can get that up the charts.”

In addition to working with Bradford, Gaccione said he’s always on the lookout for additional talent 16 Minutes Entertainment can nurture. Thanks to his Georgia roots, he’s also working hard to find Georgia-bred artists.

“I really want to find the next big thing,” Gaccione said. “That really excites me. There are so many talented artists out there that deserve to be heard. My goal really is to find a great Georgia-based artist. I feel this connection to this state. Nashville sees the kind of talent that is coming out of Georgia.”

But while Gaccione says he sees plenty of talented artists, he believes that in today’s music industry just being a good songwriter or a good performer isn’t enough.

“There’s so much talent out there,” Gaccione said. “The talent’s kind of the easy part. Finding someone who’s got drive is the hardest part. They’ve got to be willing to put in the dirty work. They’ve got to really want it, and they have to be willing to work hard.”

In fact, it was seeing the hard work that artists, producers and sound engineers put into their craft firsthand that really got Gaccione interested in pursuing his current career.

Back in 2000, having relocated to Georgia, Gaccione had an opportunity to moonlight at a recording studio in Avondale Estates, where he had a life-changing experience while working with acclaimed alternative rock band Sister Hazel, who were recording “Fortress,” the follow-up to their platinum-selling “Somewhere More Familiar.”

“I had bought some recording gear and was fiddling around with it,” said Gaccione. “One of the guys I bought gear from asked if I wanted to do an internship basically. I ended up doing a lot of different stuff like helping the engineers and the producers and setting up. I got to really watch the process of creating and how the business part works. It was an awesome experience. And I became friends with a lot of these guys.”

Gaccione stayed connected to the music business and eventually met music consultant Don Perry, who had more than 30 years of experience in the industry. The two developed a friendship, and Perry was instrumental in helping Gaccione decide what direction to take when developing the business model for his new venture.

Finally, in 2012 Gaccione took the leap, leaving his financial services career behind to work for himself and pursue 16 Minutes full time.

“I had a great career in the financial services industry,” he said. “It gave me great stability and some general business experience that I’m still using. The music never really left me, though. I have always been around music and wanted to be a part of it. I’ve been feeling this pull. I couldn’t turn that voice off in my head. I knew I wanted to be involved in music in some shape or form.”

And while 16 Minutes certainly gives Gaccione a chance to be involved in many aspects of the music business from a talent development standpoint, so does Gaccione’s other venture as a partner in Loud and Proud Records, an independent rock label that was founded in 2007 by Tom Lipsky.

According to Gaccione, Loud and Proud specializes in putting out new products from established musicians who want a closer relationship with a record label.

During its history, Loud and Proud has worked with a diverse group of artists including actor/musician Jonathan Jackson, southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd, platinum alternative rock band Flyleaf, Grammy-winning rock group Blues Traveler, renowned jam band The String Cheese Incident and hard rock supergroup The Winery Dogs.

Additionally, the label has worked with famed pop artist Rick Springfield, who holds a special place in Gaccione’s heart.

“When I was a kid, the first concert I went to was Rick Springfield, with maybe Lover Boy opening at the Albany Civic Center,” said Gaccione. “And now we just put out his last album.”

Being able to relive those early days in Albany, where he learned how to play piano and guitar, and being creative on a daily basis are what make his new endeavors so exciting.

And Gaccione takes a certain pride in knowing that he has chosen a career path that is rewarding and fulfilling on a personal level, something he hopes will rub off on his children.

“I love doing what I’m doing,” he said. “It’s good for me, and it’s good for those around me. I want my children to have a father who loves what he does.”

To learn more about 16 Minutes Entertainment and Bradford, visit 16minutesentertainment.com. To learn more about Loud and Proud Records, visit loudandproudrecords.com.