I didn’t get to sleep until 3 AM Saturday because I was riveted by this book.\u00c2\u00a0 Fred Goodman was telling the story of the implosion of the Warner Music Group.<\/p>\n
It seems like ancient history.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 Give Doug credit, he learned from his mistakes, he’s much lower profile at Universal and the company runs well.\u00c2\u00a0 But we cannot forget the havoc he wreaked on the other side of the street.<\/p>\n
Bob Krasnow’s been forgotten.\u00c2\u00a0 But even though Clive Calder had the greatest financial victory of all time, Krasnow built the best ever label in the business.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 Elektra operated in a multitude of genres, and was successful with acts as disparate as Metallica, Anita Baker and the Gipsy Kings.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, on the opposite coast, Mo Ostin built the business we all still pine for.\u00c2\u00a0 At Warner\/Reprise, the artist was king.\u00c2\u00a0 The music came first.\u00c2\u00a0 It was about careers, about releasing no music before its time.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
But they had to go.\u00c2\u00a0 Because Steve Ross, the referee, was dead.\u00c2\u00a0 And Doug Morris, who was running a hits-driven business at Atlantic, was power-hungry.<\/p>\n
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.\u00c2\u00a0 All on the public dime, I might add.\u00c2\u00a0 Time Warner stock was traded on Wall Street.\u00c2\u00a0 And ultimately frustrated, Dick Parsons blew the record company out for chump change to Edgar Bronfman, Jr. and his financial cohorts.<\/p>\n
That’s really what this book is about.\u00c2\u00a0 Edgar gave Goodman access, and the book reads like it.<\/p>\n
You’ll enjoy the history of the family.\u00c2\u00a0 Well done.\u00c2\u00a0 But thereafter, it’s all about Edgar rehabilitation.\u00c2\u00a0 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?\u00c2\u00a0 I get the concept of a far-reaching media conglomerate, but what I don’t understand is why he gave up CONTROL!\u00c2\u00a0 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?\u00c2\u00a0 Never mind the $3 billion in destruction of value, Edgar was chief of Seagram and Universal and he gave both of those up?\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, there’s some money left, but money isn’t everything, control is.\u00c2\u00a0 Just ask Barry Diller re his dealings with John Malone.<\/p>\n