The destruction of the Warner Music Group is now complete.<\/p>\n
I guess we can blame Bob Morgado.\u00c2\u00a0 Drunk with unexercised power, he decided
to flex his muscles.\u00c2\u00a0 To upset the delicate balance between east and west,
between Atlantic and Warner Brothers.<\/p>\n
Is that why it worked?\u00c2\u00a0 Because the two companies were so far away from each
other?\u00c2\u00a0 Or was it that they were competitive rivals?<\/p>\n
Elektra had been destroyed after Jac Holzman left.\u00c2\u00a0 Merged with Asylum, Joe
Smith overspent it into oblivion.\u00c2\u00a0 But then Bob Krasnow rebuilt the label, as a
personal fief, only signing the best acts in each genre.\u00c2\u00a0 There were three
powerhouses.\u00c2\u00a0 Run by egotistic, yet competent men with completely different
personalities.\u00c2\u00a0 The quiet Mo, the boisterous take no prisoners Krasnow and the
kiss-ass Doug Morris.\u00c2\u00a0 Mo was a quiet accountant, Krasnow was a terror and Doug
was a cheerleader.\u00c2\u00a0 Although tough, Doug’s employees loved him.\u00c2\u00a0 Atlantic was
jamming records to instant success.\u00c2\u00a0 And armed with this success Doug charmed
Morgado.\u00c2\u00a0 Told him HE, Doug Morris, could run the empire.<\/p>\n
But nobody could run the empire.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s kind of like Iraq.\u00c2\u00a0 There were three
separate countries, it was a delicate balance, pull just one lever, mess with
the formula ever so slightly, and the whole thing went out of whack.<\/p>\n
Which is exactly what happened.<\/p>\n
Mo was right.\u00c2\u00a0 His quarterly numbers were bad, but when his superstars
released their records in the fourth quarter he’d equal Atlantic for the year, he’d
surpass them.\u00c2\u00a0 But Morgado had no long term vision.\u00c2\u00a0 And Mo was old anyway.\u00c2\u00a0
Time to make a change.<\/p>\n
It’s like he never listened to the Kenny Rogers track.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to know
when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em.\u00c2\u00a0 Bob Morgado acted for no good
reason, he took a corporate culture based on autonomy and turned it into a
dictatorship, he gave Doug Morris the reins.\u00c2\u00a0 That was the beginning of the end.<\/p>\n
Soon Kras was gone.\u00c2\u00a0 And without him, there was no label.\u00c2\u00a0 Doug Morris gave
Elektra to his protege Sylvia Rhone, but Sylvia was a marketer, not an A&R
person.\u00c2\u00a0 The reason Krasnow was so successful was he knew a hit.\u00c2\u00a0 Atlantic was
famous for WILLING a hit.\u00c2\u00a0 Krasnow just signed left field shit and it happened.<\/p>\n
And then Mo was gone.\u00c2\u00a0 Lenny too.\u00c2\u00a0 Warner Brothers was their company.\u00c2\u00a0 ALMOST
as much as Elektra was Krasnow’s.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, Atlantic throw it against the
wall get airplay see if it reacts at retail dump it if it doesn’t style was
company-wide.\u00c2\u00a0 From coast to coast.<\/p>\n
Then there were even more changes.<\/p>\n
Doug was fired.\u00c2\u00a0 Danny Goldberg took over.\u00c2\u00a0 Michael Fuchs, with no respect
for the business, not knowing it’s all about ears, let Interscope go, and it was
all over.<\/p>\n
Roger Ames came in, with a completely different style.\u00c2\u00a0 Groomed in England,
Ames was a micro-managing hitmaker.\u00c2\u00a0 But one thing about Ames, he knew the
numbers.\u00c2\u00a0 He knew where every last Warner dollar was.\u00c2\u00a0 He knew how to run the
company.\u00c2\u00a0 The people working there now are…clueless.<\/p>\n
Phil Q. had to go.\u00c2\u00a0 A promo man who’d failed at running his own label under
Richard Branson, he was unable to pick up and run with the Mo & Lenny culture.\u00c2\u00a0
Ames thought that Tom Whalley was an integral player in the Interscope saga,
that he could bring Warner back.\u00c2\u00a0 Tom was better than Phil, but the longer Tom
was in the building it was clear that Interscope was one man and one man
only, Jimmy Iovine.<\/p>\n
Atlantic picked up the slack.\u00c2\u00a0 Jason Flom blew up the building with Matchbox
20 and Kid Rock.<\/p>\n
But then Dick Parsons got rid of the whole kit and caboodle.\u00c2\u00a0 Washing his
hands of a business of declining numbers and no clear exit strategy from its
troubles.<\/p>\n
Right this second Dick is looking like a seer.\u00c2\u00a0 Because no one in the
business wants to turn it around.\u00c2\u00a0 They just want to carp about changing conditions.\u00c2\u00a0 Or spew inanities like the iTunes Music Store and portable subscriptions will save the business.\u00c2\u00a0 Stuff like Edgar Bronfman, Jr. says.<\/p>\n
But give Edgar credit.\u00c2\u00a0 In his world only one thing counts, money.\u00c2\u00a0 And Edgar
won for himself and his co-investors.\u00c2\u00a0 As for the stockholders??<\/p>\n
Edgar committed a quantum blunder.\u00c2\u00a0 He hired the wrong guy.<\/p>\n
Edgar should have stayed with Ames.\u00c2\u00a0 Ames had a plan.\u00c2\u00a0 He wanted to merge
with BMG before Sony did.\u00c2\u00a0 He had a vision of reducing costs.\u00c2\u00a0 After all, it’s a
business.<\/p>\n
But, if not Ames, a man who knew music and money, maybe someone charismatic,
who could create something out of thin air would do, someone like the
aforementioned Jimmy Iovine.<\/p>\n
That would have been the only logical choice.\u00c2\u00a0 Jimmy would have made it work.
Jimmy’s a snake who charms.\u00c2\u00a0 Makes people do what he wants all under the
aegis of credibility.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s HIS story that is the most fascinating in the
business today.<\/p>\n
But, instead, Edgar hired Jimmy’s Universal rival, Lyor Cohen.<\/p>\n
Mr. Cohen is not without talent.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s a martinet who drives his troops.\u00c2\u00a0 But
Lyor comes from the street.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s about will and intimidation.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no
educated savviness.\u00c2\u00a0 And, no understanding of corporate finances.\u00c2\u00a0 At best, Lyor
is a Jimmy of the rap world.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, he built a rock label at IDJ, but then it
faltered, the whole company faltered, Lyor was on his way out when Edgar
rescued him.<\/p>\n
Can you respect Lyor?<\/p>\n
Maybe if you’re an underling.\u00c2\u00a0 But not if you’re Tom Whalley or Jason Flom.\u00c2\u00a0
Hell, you used to be a competitor, the guy put up bad numbers at IDJ, he knows
very little about your area of expertise, white rock, and now you’ve got to
report to HIM?<\/p>\n
Oh, maybe there was a way to do it.\u00c2\u00a0 To make nice.\u00c2\u00a0 But injecting Julie
Greenwald and Kevin Liles into the Atlantic mix was not it.\u00c2\u00a0 Craig Kallman is like
Zelig, he blends in, he survives.\u00c2\u00a0 But Jason, the lifer, he chafed.<\/p>\n
So you squeeze out Jason?\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t this like getting rid of Krasnow and Mo?\u00c2\u00a0
Eliminating elements that made the whole thing WORK?\u00c2\u00a0 What Jason knows Lyor will never know.\u00c2\u00a0 Atlantic has gone from a rock label with some black acts to a
totally black company.\u00c2\u00a0 A hip-hop company.\u00c2\u00a0 Is this good for BUSINESS?<\/p>\n
Jason is no Sylvia Rhone.\u00c2\u00a0 Jason can create a hit out of whole cloth.\u00c2\u00a0 It
starts with the act, but that’s thirty percent at most.\u00c2\u00a0 Then, with a wide web of
contacts, and relentless pursuit, complemented by peerless insight, Jason
puts together a juggernaut of a marketing plan, he gives his acts a shot.<\/p>\n
But Jason’s at Atlantic no more.<\/p>\n
One assumes Jason will end up at Universal.\u00c2\u00a0 If he’s smart anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 Doug
Morris learned his lesson.\u00c2\u00a0 He operates behind the scenes now, wanting no public
glory.\u00c2\u00a0 And he gives his charges full rein, almost like Steve Ross did.\u00c2\u00a0 Then
again, Doug, unlike Steve, knows music and the business.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s there to HELP!\u00c2\u00a0
Not to hinder, not to make trouble.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, Doug Morris is evidence that people
CAN change.<\/p>\n
EMI needs Jason.\u00c2\u00a0 Kick out his old compatriot Matt Serletic, and give him the
presidency of Virgin pronto.<\/p>\n
Then again, will Munns and Levy tell him what to do?<\/p>\n
Jason can’t work at Sony BMG, that’s like being in lockdown.<\/p>\n
If only the music business were like automobile manufacturing.\u00c2\u00a0 Refining
production techniques to deliver quantity at a price.\u00c2\u00a0 But make no mistake, to
succeed in the record game you’ve got to be able to make something from nothing.\u00c2\u00a0
Find a spark and turn it into a fire, a conflagration, on vision and will.\u00c2\u00a0
Lyor can do this, but he’s no longer in the trenches, he’s an overseer.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s
been Peter Principled up the food chain.\u00c2\u00a0 Of the people with a track record of
being able to do this only three are left.\u00c2\u00a0 Jimmy, Jason and Clive.\u00c2\u00a0 Clive’s
old, he’s not going to live forever.\u00c2\u00a0 Jimmy’s a baby boomer, he’s got some time
left.\u00c2\u00a0 Jason’s the youngest of the bunch.\u00c2\u00a0 You get rid of Jason?\u00c2\u00a0 That just
shows you’re into power and games rather than the bottom line.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t kick
out your number one provider.<\/p>\n
Then again, Jason doesn’t fit in with the new regime.<\/p>\n
Then again, neither does Tony Brummel.\u00c2\u00a0 Tony’s insane, one of the most
difficult people to work with in the business.\u00c2\u00a0 But he constantly finds hit acts.\u00c2\u00a0
No, he finds acts that he turns into hits.\u00c2\u00a0 If it were easy, there’d be a ton
of Brummels out there.\u00c2\u00a0 I only know of one.<\/p>\n
But Tony’s not in the league of Jason.<\/p>\n
So, the ten year power struggle continues.\u00c2\u00a0 A great company, the GREATEST in
the music field, continues its downward spiral.\u00c2\u00a0 Will they just merge it with
EMI already and be done with it?\u00c2\u00a0 Bring Ames back?\u00c2\u00a0 Bring music lovers back?\u00c2\u00a0
Let people who know the bottom line but are not RULED by the bottom line do
their thing?<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The destruction of the Warner Music Group is now complete. I guess we can blame Bob Morgado.\u00c2\u00a0 Drunk with unexercised power, he decided to flex his muscles.\u00c2\u00a0 To upset the delicate balance between east and west, between Atlantic and Warner Brothers. Is that why it worked?\u00c2\u00a0 Because the two companies were so far away from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s96vPs-jason","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}