Andy Mrusko discusses his career in the music industry with MMBS

The music industry changed a lot between the mid 1970s through the 1980s a former record store buyer and manager said. 

        Andy Mrusko, the Assistant Director of Marketing for the Stamp Student Union, spent 17 years in the industry. On Thursday, March 29, he spoke to a group of students about his experiences in the field in an event that was hosted by the Maryland Music Business Society.

Mrusko entered the industry in 1973 after graduating from then Towson State College.  He first worked at Record and Tape Collectors.  He described how he made 68 dollars a week and worked close to 48 hours a week, all without any benefits.

"It's a young person's job," Mrusko said. 

Mrusko described some of the unique strategies that the store employed to get a leg up on the competition.  For one promotion the store held, "The Rowan Brothers performed an impromptu concert right in the store."

He also described a unique story about driving to Philadelphia so that they could get the new Genesis album right off the boat from England and get it in their store days before their competition.

                In 1974, Mrusko moved to Recordmasters as a manager, and eventually became a buyer for the six-store chain. 

            It was here that Mrusko got an even more in-depth look at the competition in the field, as well as the opportunity to rub elbows with the likes of David Crosby and Graham Nash and Daryl Hall and John Oates. 

            As a buyer, Mrusko also noted that payola was a big part of the business.  He also said that while you sold what was popular, buyers always tried to push particular bands they liked.

            In 1984, Mrusko moved to campus, where he became the manager and buyer of the Record Co-Op which was located in Stamp.

            "I thought it would be more diverse, but it actually turned out to be less so.  People could come in the store, and I knew what they were looking for," said Mrusko. 

            "You would initially have high sales when a new album came out, but over the week, you could see sales drop because you had so many repeat customers," he added. 

            Mrusko saw that the industry was changing, so he phased out LPs and instead stocked CDs. 

            "We were able to have twice the amount of stock this way," Mrusko said. 

It was at the Record Co-Op that Mrusko did the promotions that eventually landed him his current position when the record store closed down in 1989.

In 1985, he got the Red Hot Chili Peppers to play at RJ Bentley's, but the event was shutdown 30 minutes in due to the band's drunken anger and cursing.

Mrusko also had the band Living Colour perform in the atrium of the student union, which did not even fill up because the bands hit song "Cult of Personality" had yet to be released.  He also hosted a listening party that he said "had a three hour line," for when The Beatles catalog was released to CD for the first time. 

Mrusko said that he's not sure what the industry looks like these days because, "I'm not tech savy."

"I think it's cool that he was influencing what kids were listening to in the area," said Ian Reichardt, a sophomore computer science major. 

"He has a lot of experience and was very informative and provided a great historical perspective," said Scott Smith, a junior finance and operations management major.

"The only downside is that he doesn't know a whole bunch about the current outlook, but we have speakers almost every week, so we get some of that normally," said Smith.