Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy of Classic Album Sundays: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A Founder

Sometimes when I’m feeling stressed out and overworked, I remind myself that I created this mess and that I actually love it. Remember why you created something, the passion that fueled it and feel blessed you have the opportunity and the skills to follow your dream.

As part of our interview series called “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A Founder”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy.

DJ, broadcaster and journalist Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy is the woman behind the worldwide listening event series Classic Album Sundays. Protégé of music cultural icon David Mancuso and New York’s Loft Parties, Colleen’s storied career has placed her amongst the world’s most respected selectors and high-fidelity audio experts. She currently hosts two Worldwide FM shows ‘Balearic Breakfast’ and ‘Cosmodelica’. With live events on hold due to covid-19, Colleen has moved CAS online with the launch of a Patreon album-club and a free digital series called ‘My Classic Album’ funded by Arts Council England.

Hi Colleen, thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us the story about what brought you to founding your business?

Music has been my vocation for my entire life and I have worked in many different aspects; as a DJ, radio presenter, producer, in record shops, running a record label and as a journalist. I’m also a passionate vinyl record collector and an audiophile as I was turned onto the joys of hi-fidelity sound by my mentor, David Mancuso, who founded the now legendary Loft Party in New York City in 1970.

I started Classic Album Sundays as I wanted to challenge how we listen to music in the 21st century. I was concerned about how people were ‘consuming’ music (a phrase I dislike) as it seemed people weren’t actively ‘listening’ anymore. When I was a teenager, I was a DJ on our 10-watt high school radio station and worked in a record shop. I was completely obsessed with music. My friends would come over and we would sit around and devote time listening to entire albums. In 2010 music was dominated by the mp3 and the iPod shuffle and people seemed more distracted than ever when listening to music. Our sense of hearing was taken for granted and the album format was no longer revered. The focus shifted to downloading singles and making playlists — which of course I’ve done, from compiling old-school mixtapes to the compilations I’m working on now. But an album is a complete body of work with songs in a certain sequence; a personal and artistic statement that should receive at least one entire listen from beginning to end. And as the mp3 only presents a fraction of the full sonic spectrum of the song, I wanted to offer a more holistic and complete listening experience that would allow music fans to hear what the artist initially intended.

I learnt about high-end audiophile sound at David’s Loft parties and our London Lucky Cloud Loft parties. My partners and I invested in a sound system that was close to what David had in New York: Koetsu moving coil cartridges, Mark Levinson electronics and Klipschorn loudspeakers, some of which was stored at my house. I began listening to my record collection on this amazing sound system in a whole new way, hearing new sonic details that opened up a new emotional spectrum. On Sundays, we had friends over and whilst my husband cooked dinner, I invited our guests to choose an album from my 10,000-strong record collection and we would just sit and listen. I noticed how our friends were profoundly experiencing the music, sometimes even being brought to tears. This got me thinking about pulling together the various facets my vocation and creating an album club unlike any other. I had interviewed many artists, had extensively written about music so I had the skills to tell the stories behind the album and was in possession of world-class audio equipment, had experience hosting events, so I just needed a venue. Whilst with my daughter at the playground, I saw some friends who owned a few pubs and mentioned my idea to them. They loved it and three weeks later, in October 2010, I was hosting the first official Classic Album Sundays event at The Hanbury Arms, with no preconceived notion as to what would happen.

Can you tell us a story about any hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

The sexism was difficult. Because of my career in record shops and as a DJ, I had to get used to often being the only woman in what was largely a ‘boy’s club’, but I then found the audio world could be even more inhospitable to women. I experienced challenges about my knowledge of music and audio, but happily there was also a lot of support including Hi-Fi Plus magazine naming me ‘hi-fi’s modern-day wonder woman’.

Other than sexism, plagiarism has been a recurring problem. It is a compliment when others are inspired by Classic Album Sundays, but robbing the wording of our mission statement, and sometimes even ripping off the name Classic Album Sundays, without giving any credit or entirely claiming the idea as their own is not a compliment. I do not own the concept of playing an album and talking about it in public, but when people lift my language and use it to promote their own watered-down version, I feel that reflects badly upon Classic Album Sundays as our intimate events and our dedication to listening is in another league.

When I started CAS I was forging a new path. There was not an existing business model or blueprint as no one else had made a business by starting a monthly audiophile album club. People told me “you’re never going to be able to make a business doing that.” There was also a limited practicality of working with true audiophile sound as you cannot host an event at a 500-capacity club as sonically it just wouldn’t work. A few people told me, “I’ve thought of doing that”, but the fact is they didn’t do it. Anyone can ‘think about’ doing something but every entrepreneur knows it is dreams put into action that matters.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were hard?

My passion for musical curation and education has always driven me. Whether it’s working in a record shop, DJing, running Classic Album Sundays, making music or hosting radio shows, those are the two elements that encompass all of my work. I feel blessed to have been able to make a living through making and playing the music I love.

So, how are things going today? How did grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

Classic Album Sundays is now celebrating its 10-year anniversary and I’m thrilled that both artists and listeners have responded so positively — otherwise we would not be here today. People are drawn in by their favourite album and come along for a session, and then realize they love the experience and suddenly they are coming along to sessions for albums unknown to them, furthering their own musical exploration and experiencing music in a profound way. And that’s really the ultimate test as if nobody cared, Classic Album Sundays would not have survived. It’s the most popular album event series of its kind as we have licensed satellites that host their own sessions in the United States, Europe, Australia and Asia.

At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a point in which I thought I would have to close down as all of our events were being cancelled, one after the other. I didn’t see how we would be able go on. But I took a deep breath, accepted the challenge and took everything online. We have a huge library of content, a treasure trove of podcasts, artist interview videos, playlists and album blogs we offered to those isolating. We started a series of free album story streams presented by our hosts around the world and this really resonated with our followers and also brought in a new audience. We have had nearly 1 million views of videos uploaded on our Facebook and YouTube in the past year. We also took our events online and host a monthly Album Club meeting, a Classic Album Pub Quiz and a Safe & Sound hi-fi webinar each month for our Patreon members. It has been a real joy to meet people from around the world at our virtual meet-ups — some attend as far away as Australia — this is one of the positives of hosting online events. Some of our members have said our events have been their lifeline during the pandemic — especially for those that live alone. We have also been working on a lot of content — podcasts and radio shows with partners like Worldwide FM and distribution platform PRX, and are continuing our Behind the Counter video series with Record Store Day UK and Bowers & Wilkins spotlighting independent record shops. And with funding from Arts Council England we have created a series of free-to-view videos streams called ‘My Classic Album’ in which musicians talk about their favourite classic album or one of their own. It has been wonderful to have received a grant that has allowed us to also support the musicians and young presenters involved. So, we have adapted to the online environment very well although I do look forward to getting back into a room with our incredible sound system and listening to an album with other like-minded music fans.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting out? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

In my naivety, I had no idea that Classic Album Sundays was going to take off and I missed a key opportunity. The BBC got in touch after my first Classic Album Sundays session asking if they could come along to film a session for BBC Online and I was delighted. Then David Sillito, the BBC Arts Editor, asked to come along, as well. They filmed and as he was leaving, Sillito told me “you need to trademark this as its going out on BBC Breakfast.” I did trademark it, but my biggest mistake — which I kick myself about to this day — was having no landing page, website or social media platform when our story broke on BBC television. People couldn’t find it. There was so much interest and nowhere to direct people.

My phone did not stop ringing that week, every newspaper, music magazine, The Sun, The Telegraph, NME — everyone wanted to write about it. It was crazy, but I had no call to action, — no Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr account. That was my biggest mistake. We could have had a huge number of followers from that media flurry alone, however we did eventually get there. However, it was started as a labour of love project driven by passion — I just thought it had to be done.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

We go deeper into the album than any other platform with more tender loving care and attention to detail. We often feature the artists or producers involved with the album, as well. There are no smoke and mirrors, we provide the best sound system we can possibly offer, the best pressing of the album we can source — it is not a cynical commercial venture. For example, one of our competitors is clearly purely commercially driven and it is obvious that no one is pouring their heart into the experience. Their approach seems to be: ‘press play on the digital file in a cinema’.

We also showcase a wide array of music and that is something that is very important to me, as well as having an open-door policy. As a woman who has worked in the world of music and audio since the 80’s, I usually have had to put in more than my male counterparts. There have been some occasions in which I have been excluded, so I try to ensure we don’t do that to others. Our appeal is wide. People may hear the CAS name and assume it is centred upon classic rock, but we feature all kinds of music. If a record has impact and has stood the test of time, then it’s a ‘classic album’ — and if you’re a fan of that album I hope you will be a fan of Classic Album Sundays.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

Extensively comparing oneself to others is not a good thing. I have often wondered, “where do I fit in?” as I felt like an outsider. But then I realised outsiders often have the more left-field, inspired ideas. It may seem oversimplified, but the best advice is to realise you are unique and have your own thing distinct from everyone else and to let that guide you.

I’m never going to be the big famous DJ that has 100,000 followers — but I didn’t want to be. I did have huge opportunities at certain points of my career and was managed by the right people at the right time and could have taken that path. But I would have been doing things I didn’t want to do, playing music I didn’t want to play, playing in clubs I didn’t even want to be in. So I had to really whittle it down to ‘Who are you? What are you good at? Why do people enjoy what you do? What do you love to do?’

I used to keep Classic Album Sundays and my DJ/radio presenter Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy vocation separate and distinct. Now I realise this interplay is what makes both my radio/DJ career and Classic Album Sundays unique.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

I met David Mancuso when I was in my early 20s and he was in his late 40s. At that time the Loft Parties were at the beginning of a temporary decline and attendance was dropping and he lost his loft space which was also his home. He was one of my mentors, and I was also of helping him, whether it was filling in for him as a musical host, putting on fundraising parties in his new loft space, or co-producing The Loft music compilations so he had a revenue stream. We faithfully supported one another. I had already been a DJ for a few years, but he taught me about audio and how to hold a party (or any kind of event) and most importantly, how to build a community. He was very proud of me when I started Classic Album Sundays. He loved the whole concept and it was he who suggested that when the album finished playing no other music should be played afterward, as the listeners l should leave with the album as an earworm and have time to fully digest the experience.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I have been told by many of our followers and especially our Patreon members that Classic Album Sundays has been one of the things that as helped them get through 2020/2021. There are two things we offer that have been incredibly healing for a lot of people: music and community. Music has many healing characteristics both mentally and physically. But the sense of community is also hugely therapeutic in these times of isolation. Back in March 2020 when the UK first locked down, we began offering album presentation and artist interview watch parties for free on our Facebook and YouTube channels. It was fun and interactive and inspired me to take that even further through starting a Patreon subscription offering. Since May, we have hosted online events in the form of virtual meet-ups giving me the chance to get to know our Patreon members from around the world. It has been a lifeline for some of our them, perhaps because they live alone, are shy, or are women who were previously uncomfortable in inhabiting what used to be thought of as male-dominated spaces. Being inclusive has made a huge difference as we have all different ages joining in from their 20s to their 60s from all over the world. We aim to lift people’s spirits, educate them about music, offer an emotional musical experience and give them a sense of belonging to a community.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my company” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

1. Have a landing page, or a website and social media platform at the ready when you launch! Don’t make the same mistake I did — if you’re going to be on major news platforms, you must have a way for viewers to then find you.
2. Once they find you, you should have a call to action. I am a bit shy about asking for things but as an entrepreneur you cannot be. I now ask people to sign up to our newsletter, join our community, subscribe as a Patreon member. The worst that can happen is they say ‘no’. Get over it.
3. If your idea is a success do not be upset if people copy you. It is a compliment and I had to get over that. Your competition can also draw a new audience into the ‘market’ you created. But recognize the difference between healthy competition and plagiarism. If people give credit where credit is due, which I endeavor to do myself, then all is well.
4. Content, content, content. When you do an interview with somebody notable, capture it whether it’s on audio or film. I can’t tell you how many interviews at events I have conducted that have just slid into the ether — Tony Visconti, Badly Drawn Boy, Nile Rodgers…I still kick myself.
5. Sometimes when I’m feeling stressed out and overworked, I remind myself that I created this mess and that I actually love it. Remember why you created something, the passion that fueled it and feel blessed you have the opportunity and the skills to follow your dream.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I propose a movement in which we all listen to one album every day, all the way through without speaking or multitasking and perhaps most controversially, with our phones turned off. I think the world would be a happier place. Taking one hour to disengage from social media, conversation and, in effect, meditate with a guided musical journey can be incredibly healing and can transform you both physically and emotionally.