Fortune’s Fool
I didn’t get to sleep until 3 AM Saturday because I was riveted by this book. Fred Goodman was telling the story of the implosion of the Warner Music Group.
It seems like ancient history. But fifteen years ago, Bob Morgado and Doug Morris conspired to exclude Bob Krasnow and demote Mo Ostin so they could be all powerful he-men. Give Doug credit, he learned from his mistakes, he’s much lower profile at Universal and the company runs well. But we cannot forget the havoc he wreaked on the other side of the street.
Bob Krasnow’s been forgotten. But even though Clive Calder had the greatest financial victory of all time, Krasnow built the best ever label in the business. Inheriting Elektra/Asylum from Joe Smith, he moved it to the east coast, dropped almost every act and started over, and built a company the likes of which hasn’t been seen since. Elektra operated in a multitude of genres, and was successful with acts as disparate as Metallica, Anita Baker and the Gipsy Kings.
Meanwhile, on the opposite coast, Mo Ostin built the business we all still pine for. At Warner/Reprise, the artist was king. The music came first. It was about careers, about releasing no music before its time. It wasn’t the big bad label telling you to deliver your album for Christmas, Mo held your hand until you ultimately dropped something so significant, it’s still selling today.
But they had to go. Because Steve Ross, the referee, was dead. And Doug Morris, who was running a hits-driven business at Atlantic, was power-hungry.
And then there was a game of musical chairs and not only were the above four personages gone, Morgado, Morris, Krasnow and Ostin, but Danny Goldberg and Morgado’s replacement Michael Fuchs too. All on the public dime, I might add. Time Warner stock was traded on Wall Street. And ultimately frustrated, Dick Parsons blew the record company out for chump change to Edgar Bronfman, Jr. and his financial cohorts.
That’s really what this book is about. Edgar gave Goodman access, and the book reads like it.
You’ll enjoy the history of the family. Well done. But thereafter, it’s all about Edgar rehabilitation. Goodman convinced me Edgar’s not hatable and smarter than people give him credit for, but convince me again why he sold Universal to Vivendi? I get the concept of a far-reaching media conglomerate, but what I don’t understand is why he gave up CONTROL! Study corporate politics, you manipulate the stockholdings to the point where you always maintain control. How else can Sumner Redstone still be pulling off his shenanigans? Never mind the $3 billion in destruction of value, Edgar was chief of Seagram and Universal and he gave both of those up? Sure, there’s some money left, but money isn’t everything, control is. Just ask Barry Diller re his dealings with John Malone.
And thereafter "Fortune’s Fool" devolves into a mash note to the new Warner Music. I almost couldn’t read it. Lyor’s an interesting character. But he’s no Bob Krasnow or Mo Ostin, nobody working for Warner is. And none of them have a clue when it comes to digital. Which is why the major labels are going to get destroyed by a twentysomething with a computer. Their old monopoly of distribution is now gone, they think their money will sustain them. But it won’t, it always comes down to control, as stated above. And there’s always a manager who controls the act before the majors come snooping. A great manager will roll up a bunch of acts and suddenly be the new king. Doubt me? Internet history says otherwise. Facebook ate MySpace. AOL is irrelevant, if not dead. And Jimmy & Doug’s Farmclub could not succeed, because none of these ancient enterprises were a match for a twentysomething with a laptop.
And then Goodman laments free music. The whole epilogue could be trashed. I don’t believe in free music either, but the solution is a better mousetrap. A better way of selling music. A business solution, not a constant denigration of the audience.
So I’m ambivalent as to whether to recommend this book or not. It’s got too little inside dope, it lacks "Hit Men"’s revelations. Then again, I expect it to be the definitive statement on Warner’s destruction in the nineties…he who writes history controls it.
Warner is the most advanced label digitally. But my mother is more computer-savvy than her nearly ninety year old brother, and neither is capable of managing their desktop. You read this book and you see how things come and go. Companies and people. Monoliths that looked indomitable become irrelevant. Ten years ago, Microsoft was a monopolist, today many see it as a joke, it’s certainly lacking in innovation, coasting on its catalog, like a big publishing company. A bigwig at the last iteration of Elektra is now running a summer camp. The music lives on, but that’s it. And frequently, even the artists are dead…Jim Morrison is bigger in death, and so is Jimi Hendrix. Both of them Warner artists, I might add…
But reading this book you’ll be stunned that how it used to be, it no longer is. A record company was a towering paragon of quality, an icon that delivered our cultural food. Now, the company name might be the same, but they’re not selling food, but tchotchkes, and we don’t really need those. Isn’t that the cliche…are we really going to be listening to today’s music ten years from now?
No. Certainly not the major label hits.
Which is why this book misses the mark.
Music will save the music business. Not executives.
