The greatest record company in the history of the music business was Warner/Reprise. Don’t confuse today’s enterprise with yesteryear’s. And as great as Ahmet Ertegun was, Atlantic was no match for its west coast counterpart. Warner/Reprise had SOUL! Let me take you back, to an era when music drove the culture, when young ‘uns were […]

Sticks and stones may break your bones But words can break your heart So I’m driving to Capitol thinking about who’s in my rearview mirror. Not literally, although traffic was squirrely, with the Vine exit closed, but figuratively, as in Hale Milgrim, Gary Gersh, Andy Slater, Roy Lott… Decades have gone by and what once […]

Broke the mold. It posited that there was unheralded talent that the usual suspects, the major labels and their A&R teams, were unjustly ignoring, and that by scooping up singers the public could decide who was best and a star could be born. It worked. And everybody making music the old way HATED IT! That’s […]

The song remains the same. Clueless old farts make deals for legacy companies that are vastly overpriced, believing brands have meaning in the fast-moving internet world. That’s right, while Microsoft buys Nokia, Facebook purchases Instagram and WhatsApp. Because Mark Zuckerberg actually uses the internet and whoever really made the decision at Microsoft does not. And […]