{"id":3742,"date":"2011-01-31T10:51:39","date_gmt":"2011-01-31T18:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=3742"},"modified":"2011-01-31T10:51:39","modified_gmt":"2011-01-31T18:51:39","slug":"the-guardian-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2011\/01\/31\/the-guardian-article\/","title":{"rendered":"The Guardian Article"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Sony backs Doug Morris to show music industry he’s a long-player<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Who gives a shit what some nobody in the U.K has to say about the most legendary recording executive still working in the business.\u00c2\u00a0 The biz is a closed club built on relationships and the opinion of an interloper is irrelevant.<\/p>\n

Then again, it’s interlopers who decimated the cash cow.\u00c2\u00a0 Call it Shawn Fanning.\u00c2\u00a0 He didn’t ask anybody’s permission.\u00c2\u00a0 He just took the music.\u00c2\u00a0 In an era when executives still had their e-mail printed out, when not only were they not tech-savvy, but they didn’t realize they’d abused both their customers and their clientele and given a chance for revenge, they’d both take it.<\/p>\n

It’s not only the customers, stealing willy-nilly and now listening on\u00c2\u00a0 YouTube, the world’s number one music service, but the acts. There isn’t a superstar who’ll sign with a major label unless the terms are so heinous the label won’t make any money anyway. Then, still…\u00c2\u00a0 Until the business model of the labels is to give most of the profits to the acts, at least half, the exodus will sustain. It’s like plantation owners trying to keep slaves in an era of emancipation.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, some people might stick around for food and shelter, but most will say huh? \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the recording contract is worse than slavery.\u00c2\u00a0 They kick you out while you’re still alive but keep almost all of the future profits, well at least those from recording.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you make a new deal, working for your owner is not enough, they want a percentage of your fun in the little off time you’ve got, they’re charging you to have sex and fun in the contract known as the 360 deal.<\/p>\n

Doug Morris has proven he can sign hit acts and market them in the old school way.\u00c2\u00a0 A necessary talent for future success.\u00c2\u00a0 But is it the only one?<\/p>\n

Insiders know Doug’s skill is not developing talent.\u00c2\u00a0 History will record that Doug’s innovative paradigm was research.\u00c2\u00a0 Tracking records at radio and retail and latching on to developing acts.\u00c2\u00a0 He signed 2 Live Crew, not Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen.\u00c2\u00a0 That was John Hammond, and Doug Morris is no John Hammond, not a person who can see a diamond in the rough and polish it for mass consumption.<\/p>\n

And now radio and retail mean less than ever before.\u00c2\u00a0 Is there anybody who thinks indie stores and terrestrial radio are going to make a comeback?\u00c2\u00a0 So the question is, what is the new game and will Morris be good at it?<\/p>\n

Based on the last ten years, one has to say no.\u00c2\u00a0 From Jimmy and Doug’s Farm Club to Pressplay Morris has missed the mark.\u00c2\u00a0 As for Vevo…good in theory, but check the balance sheet, it’s a disaster, with profits far in the distance if on the horizon at all.<\/p>\n

As Jason Epstein said in "The New York Review Of Books":<\/p>\n

\n
\n"Technological change is discontinuous.\u00c2\u00a0 The monks in their scriptoria did not invent the printing press, horse breeders did not invent the motorcar, and the music industry did not invent the iPod or launch iTunes."<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In other words, if you’re looking to Mr. Morris and the labels to invent the future, you’re sorely mistaken.\u00c2\u00a0 Change comes from the outside.<\/p>\n

Does this game even work?\u00c2\u00a0 Everyone knows the money’s on the road.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe recording revenues will never be the major piece of the pie again.\u00c2\u00a0 And whose side do you really want to be on?\u00c2\u00a0 Despite protestations by the execs, the labels and the acts have an adversarial relationship.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, Jimmy Iovine’s got a lot more loyalty to Doug than any artist.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to find someone in bed with the artists, who they trust, it’s Irving Azoff.\u00c2\u00a0 What did Don Henley so famously say?\u00c2\u00a0 "He may be Satan, but he’s OUR Satan."?\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t hear any acts testifying about Morris this way.\u00c2\u00a0 And Irving is the most powerful person in the business, not Doug.\u00c2\u00a0 Doug missed this complete sea change.\u00c2\u00a0 As did Rob Stringer and Sony Music.\u00c2\u00a0 As did Sony itself.\u00c2\u00a0 Its profits and power eclipsed by Apple.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s Apple that overcharges for a premium product that the public can’t get enough of.\u00c2\u00a0 That used to be Sony’s turf.<\/p>\n

Back when Sony innovated.\u00c2\u00a0 Brought out new products that lasted for a decade or more.\u00c2\u00a0 Unlike Doug, who gave us Chumbawamba.<\/p>\n

Sony has got two choices.\u00c2\u00a0 Either ramp down new music development and become a licensing house or blow the place up and start over.\u00c2\u00a0 Because continuing to do it the old way ensures economic marginalization.\u00c2\u00a0 Breaking acts the old way just isn’t cost effective, especially when you overpay the execs.\u00c2\u00a0 Newbies share the wealth with their charges.\u00c2\u00a0 They only make it when the act does.\u00c2\u00a0 Like managers.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s see Doug work for a $1 and stock, like Steve Jobs.<\/p>\n

Don’t make me laugh.<\/p>\n

The old model has been destroyed.<\/p>\n

Who will invent the new model?<\/p>\n

Unclear.<\/p>\n

Doug is 72.\u00c2\u00a0 Irving’s 63.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not going to be around forever.\u00c2\u00a0 Those who rule in the future won’t win on intimidation as much as loyalty, trust and honesty and a knowledge of the landscape.<\/p>\n

If you’re in it to get rich quick, you should develop a game for Facebook.\u00c2\u00a0 Music is now long term.\u00c2\u00a0 The rewards, if they exist, will be evidenced years down the line.\u00c2\u00a0 When Doug will be too old.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s Mo who was in it for the long haul, not Doug.<\/p>\n

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Sony backs Doug Morris to show music industry he’s a long-player Who gives a shit what some nobody in the U.K has to say about the most legendary recording executive still working in the business.\u00c2\u00a0 The biz is a closed club built on relationships and the opinion of an interloper is irrelevant. Then again, it’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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-3742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Ym","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3743,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742\/revisions\/3743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}