What are a label’s most important assets, its copyrights or its employees?<\/p>\n
Fascinating question.<\/p>\n
In Wednesday’s "Wall Street Journal" there was an article delineating the fact that those companies which laid off the most people ended up having the worst future.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless, of course, the basic economics of their sphere changed.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, no matter how many people Smith Corona had hired, typewriters wouldn’t have triumphed.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, someone at the company might have come up with a reasonable computer!<\/p>\n
EMI is toast because of the brain drain.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not even sure who works there anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Almost no one I know.\u00c2\u00a0 They keep bringing in people from the outside who know the financial bottom line, but nothing about the club that used to exist in the Village.\u00c2\u00a0 And without knowledge of an industry’s history, you’re screwed.<\/p>\n
So, if you squeeze out the people, you might as well just trade on your copyrights.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, you don’t possess the relationships to get your music heard.\u00c2\u00a0 You need bodies who know the gatekeepers, how to navigate the waters.\u00c2\u00a0 And experienced people only want to sign with experienced people, given the choice.\u00c2\u00a0 And even if the manager might be a newbie, the lawyer usually is not.<\/p>\n
In other words, it’s hard to compete with Universal.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got the best talent.\u00c2\u00a0 The company was an also-ran until Edgar Bronfman, Jr. brought over Doug Morris, who brought over all his Warner talent, starting with Jimmy and his Interscope team.\u00c2\u00a0 And I don’t want to give these people a free pass, but if you’re playing the old game, they’re the winners.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, the whole industry is not nurturing young ‘uns.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s hard to believe oldsters know everything about what young people are doing.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, I was having dinner at a friend’s house on Saturday night and his six year old didn’t bother watching TV, he surfed the Net watching YouTube videos for hours.\u00c2\u00a0 I learned more watching him than at any lunch at the Palm.<\/p>\n
Warner’s got a pretty good team.\u00c2\u00a0 They know so much of the past is history.\u00c2\u00a0 But too many Sony employees are gone, the team that remains is Clive and Rob Stringer and..?\u00c2\u00a0 They’re ripe for merger.\u00c2\u00a0 Or decimation.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, Simon Cowell brought them Susan Boyle, but you cannot survive on events alone.\u00c2\u00a0 And I doubt Ms. Boyle will be moving tonnage in two years, never mind one.<\/p>\n
Apple famously doubled down on innovation during the dot com crash.\u00c2\u00a0 The music industry reacted to Napster by firing people. Keeping its high paid employees, the music at labels had more to do with chairs than what you hear out of speakers.\u00c2\u00a0 The skill wasn’t how to break a record, but how to keep your job!<\/p>\n
You can’t break an act alone.\u00c2\u00a0 Cannot be done.\u00c2\u00a0 You need a team.<\/p>\n
And today that team tends to be the manager and the agent.\u00c2\u00a0 The label is so often an also-ran.\u00c2\u00a0 Tour support?\u00c2\u00a0 The label’s not even buying tickets to the gig!<\/p>\n
All this cost-cutting has killed the labels.\u00c2\u00a0 They should have been hiring people,\u00c2\u00a0 not firing them.\u00c2\u00a0 Presidents should have gone to incentive deals, with minimum salaries.\u00c2\u00a0 Unity should have been the priority.\u00c2\u00a0 Lean and mean?\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got scrawny and angry.<\/p>\n
Experienced people are your future.<\/p>\n
And you’ve got to develop new business talent.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what the CBS college rep program was all about.\u00c2\u00a0 Now you hire interns to do your mailing on the hope they’ll get a job.\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, if they’re working for you, they’re probably worthless.\u00c2\u00a0 Anybody who’ll make a difference is now working alone.\u00c2\u00a0 Watch out.\u00c2\u00a0 The old edifices are vulnerable.<\/p>\n
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