If Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom were really smart, this is where he would be today: a beach somewhere with no extradition treaty. Who keeps their clothes on at the beach anyway?

Yesterday Digital Music News ran a post titled “What Really Killed MegaUpload? MegaBox, That’s What…” promulgating a conspiracy theory essentially claiming that Kim Dotcom’s new music platform so intimidated the record industry that they conspired with the government to shut down a foreign entity, Megaupload, in order to save its own ass. The post stated that Megabox was “being positioned as a major stab at major labels, particularly MegaUpload nemesis Universal Music Group.  ‘They don’t understand that the rip-off days are over,’ Kim Dotcom told Torrentfreak.  ‘Artists are more educated than ever about how they are getting ripped off and how the big labels only look after themselves’.”

The truth, according to a highly placed source who asked to remain anonymous, is that Megabox was most likely not even a dream when this investigation began. Anyone who took the time to actually read the indictment would see that the government clearly states “On or about June 24, 2010, members of the Mega Conspiracy were informed, pursuant to a criminal search warrant from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, that thirty-nine infringing copies of copyrighted motion pictures were present on their leased servers at Carpathia Hosting, a hosting company headquartered in the Eastern District of Virginia.  A member of the Mega Conspiracy informed several of his co-conspirators at that time that he located the named files using internal searches of their systems.  As of November 18, 2011, more than a year later, thirty-six of the thirty-nine infringing motion pictures were still being stored on the servers controlled by the Mega Conspiracy.”

There it is in black and white. The investigation was about movies and began years ago. So it stands to reason that former senator and current MPAA head Chris Dodd must have been in the Justice Department’s grill about initiating the investigation in the first place, except that Dodd didn’t start at the MPAA until March of 2011. The government subpoena was served nearly nine months prior to Dodd’s appointment and it becomes clear that the investigation had gone on for at least a year prior to the issuing of the subpoena. In light of the government’s investigation, this Megabox “conspiracy theory”  is starting to look more like Paul is dead or the moon landing was faked. Besides, DMN makes the leap of logic that the record industry is smart enough to conspire about anything! They couldn’t agree on where to have lunch let alone figure out how pull off a bust of this magnitude. Come on…we’re talking about record guys here!

Additionally, according to one of my sources, the recording industry knew nothing because “the Justice Department is extremely tight-lipped about its investigations. There’s no way they would discuss it with us. Are you kidding me?”

So how was the US government able to shut down a foreign registered company? Because these idiots kept infringing files on servers in the US, the domain is registered with a US registrar, they used Paypal to transmit monetary rewards to users in the US who uploaded the most popular movies, music, games, books and software, and they were in clear violation of Grokster while doing it!

To further negate this conspiracy theory, the indictment provides excerpts from email communications amongst the Megaupload Conspiracy that reveals various strategies on dealing with the investigation, including moving the company and going legit. “On or about November 1, 2010, (note—this is five months after the criminal search warrant served on Dotcom as noted above) ECHTERNACH forwarded an e-mail from a Universal Music Group (“UMG”) executive to DOTCOM and ORTMANN, which discussed requirements that UMG would require of Megaupload before they could discuss licensing for MegaBox. Included in the list of requirements was “proactive fingerprint filtering to ensure that there is no infringing music content hosted on its service; proactive text filtering for pre-release titles that may not appear in fingerprint databases at an early stage; terminate the accounts of users that repeatedly infringe copyright; limit the number of possible downloads from each file; process right holder take down notices faster and more efficiently”, the indictment reads. In other words, Dotcom’s archenemy Universal Music was willing to talk terms with Megaupload, and speaking from experience, I think UMG was being pretty damned decent. Had I been in Dotcom’s shoes, I would have jumped on that offer. Clearly UMG’s goal is to convert bad actors into legitimate players. More evidence that UMG digital chief  Rob Wells is the most progressive label guy in the business. (note to Lucian Grainge: don’t be a schmuck.Give this guy whatever he wants!)

One has to wonder why Dotcom and company didn’t just pick up their marbles and split once they learned they were under investigation. I sure would have. After all, they had taken in around $175 million in cash, according to the indictment, and could have easily shut down and moved to a nice beach somewhere with no extradition treaty with the US and lived like kings. But Dotcom decided to double-down instead. He just figured that he could tell the US government to fuck off, and anybody who has ever had to deal with the IRS knows that doesn’t work.

To me this is simply a case of a guy having too much money to think straight.

© 2012, Wayne Rosso. All rights reserved.

Get your motor runnin'. Head out on the highway. Lookin' for adventure and whatever comes our way

While everyone at 550 Madison Ave. eagerly awaits the exit of Rick Rubin, speculation has risen that the barefoot producer’s next stop will be Universal Music. Uni owns Def Jam Records, co-founded by Rubin and Russell Simmons, and could conceivably be the last stop for the Hagrid look-a-like who went from the pre-UMG Def Jam to a label deal with Sony for his American Records. From there he took his label to Warner Music which eventually “sold” him back to Sony. The first time around at Sony Don Ienner at least got the Dixie Chicks out of him. This time Columbia Records co-chairman Steve Barnett (Barnett is one of three co-chairman at Columbia along with Rubin and Rob Stringer) got Adele out of him. Or did he?

It’s been reported here and in the mainstream media that Barnett and Rubin have been feuding over who should get the credit for Adele. Sony, of course, denies it and claims that all is perfectly zen between the two. (Barnett has gone so far as to deny his credit grab for Adele here.) This, of course, is patently false. Barnett was sick of Rubin way before Adele released her first album, 19, back in 2008. Insiders claim that Rubin really botched his first attempt at recording Adele’s 21, but XL Records in the UK (Adele’s realrecord label) was able to salvage four tracks for the album.

Two of three Columbia Records chairmen: Steve Barnett (L) and Rick Rubin (R). Has Barnett cast a spell on Rick?

Rubin’s Sony contract is reportedly set to expire in February and he has been rumored to be shopping a new deal, but since EMI is in the process of being absorbed by Universal Music, his options are limited. The rumors have Rubin resuming his relationship with former Warner Music president Tom Whalley, now a Uni employee. However sources very familiar with the situation tend to disagree. According to one highly placed source, ” (UMG CEO) Lucian Grainge is way too smart to fall for the American Records deal. Rick is too tainted after the Sony debacle. Lucian plays his cards very close to the vest but I would be shocked if he went down that path.” Why? Well, according to a source, when Grainge made his mega-deal with David Foster, the star producer was prohibited from working on outside projects as he has done in the past. Foster is exclusive to Universal. As everyone knows by now, exclusivity is not part of Rubin’s lexicon. He’s famously produced more hits and revenue for Warner Music than he has for Sony during his 5 year tenure as co-chairman of Columbia Records. Ergo the end run credit grab for Adele. So that leaves Rick with only one option: his old pal Lyor Cohen, the Moe Green of also-ran Warner Music. Maybe Thomas Wolfe was wrong when he said you can’t go home again.

For their part, Barnett and old chum Rob “Fredo” Stringer seem to have staked their future with Simon Cowell. According to The Guardian’s Helienne Lindvall,  ”In the UK it appears Sony has put all its eggs in The X Factor basket (Simon Cowell’s Syco label is a Sony imprint and is partnered with the talent show), possibly arguing the number of votes an act gets is ample enough consumer research to make a signing a sure bet. It can also leave you stuck with a roster of old contestants no one is interested in.” Throw in reality tv star and part-time Epic Records chairman L.A. Reid,  whose X-Factor ratings fell far short of  expectations, and Sony Music becomes a talent show waste receptacle.  Glee’s ratings have been slipping significantly and the bloom may very well be off the rose. Maybe septuagenarian Sony Music CEO Doug Morris will summon up the ghost of Ted Mack.

So Steve, Doug, Fredo–who’s the next tv star to partner with Sony Music? Donald Trump?

© 2012, Wayne Rosso. All rights reserved.

How to rewrite history with one little press release

The news that NARAS is honoring Steve Jobs with a Trustee Award has been picked up by media outlets worldwide. In making the announcement, the Academy said, “As former CEO and co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs helped create products and technology that transformed the way we consume music, TV, movies, and books. A creative visionary, Jobs’ innovations such as the iPod and its counterpart, the online iTunes store, revolutionized the industry and how music was distributed and purchased. In 2002 Apple Computer Inc. was a recipient of a Technical GRAMMY Award for contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field. The company continues to lead the way with new technology and in-demand products such as the iPhone and iPad.”

All true, but disingenuous at best. I find it to be just another cynical public relations stunt by an industry seeped in hypocrisy.

Let’s look at the facts. Does anyone remember how Steve Jobs had to drag the labels into iTunes kicking and screaming? Prior to iTunes, Sony Music septuagenarian CEO Doug Morris, then CEO of Universal Music, called iPods “repositories for stolen music”. He later went to war with Jobs, enlisting Sony and Warner’s help, whining that the industry had been “rolled like a bunch of puppies” with the iTunes terms. They complained about the $.99 price point. They complained that Jobs had too much control. Artists and managers started to line up behind Morris’ ill-fated jihad. Irving Azoff (Eagles, Journey, Christina Aguilera, and others) told Businessweek ”Doug is doing the right thing taking on Steve Jobs. The artists are behind him.”

As the digital age has matured, labels have bent over backward to protect their iTunes revenues while simultaneously chafing under the strong arm of Apple. They called Jobs “pigheaded” and Machiavellian. Once the industry woke up to Apple’s business model, they cried like babies over not getting a cut of iPod sales. Genius Doug Morris got everyone together to teach Jobs a lesson and start their own digital initiative, Total Music (not exactly a household brand name today). They hated Steve Jobs.

Sure Steve Jobs was a genius. I read the book. I’m a big Apple fan and have been for many years. But Jobs didn’t invent anything. Digital music services existed before iTunes. So did MP3 players. Jobs’ talent was in making these, and other, products so much better. He didn’t invent the mobile phone but the iPhone is now the gold standard. Same with computers, tablets and soon TV’s.

Several years ago Apple was awarded a technical Grammy, and it was certainly deserved. Apple computers and software have become integral components in the recording process. The Trustees Award is given to those who have significant contributions to the field of recording in areas other than performance. So did Steve Jobs produce, engineer,compose or arrange music like his co-honorees Dave Bartholomew and Rudy Van Gelder?

If the Academy wanted to honor the actual pioneers of digital music they’d be giving an award to Michael Robertson or Diamond, the manufacturers of the first portable mp3 player. The industry chose to sue them at the time. Michael Robertson was the guy who popularized the MP3 format and was even the first to launch music in the cloud. But Michael isn’t dead yet and the industry enjoys suing him too much to give him credit for anything.

The NARAS press release was picked up everywhere and got lots of play. The lead in every story was about Steve Jobs getting a “special Grammy”. A special honor for the guy that every label hated. An award for the guy who held the industry in a stranglehold for years. A man they  all cursed and whined about. So do you think that this is just a big publicity gimmick?

Now that Steve Jobs is gone, they seem to have changed their tune.

© 2011, Wayne Rosso. All rights reserved.

Back to the future? With the new app from legendary AIR Studios your iPad can now play vinyl! Pretty cool.

The resurgence of vinyl records has been a small but growing bright spot for the music industry in the last few years. Whoever thought that kids would be schlepping around crates of LP’s in the 21st century, decades after the onslaught of the CD? The old analog sound has gained so many new devotees that Universal went so far as to create it’s own online store, Groovetown, devoted to vinyl. Many independent online retailers like MusicDirect, MusicStack, Buy Vinyl Records, Vintage Vinyl, even Best Buy and Amazon have started merchandising new and used vinyl LP’s. Mom and pop record shops across the country have seen as much as 30% of their business come from new and used vinyl. To paraphrase Mark Twain, history doesn’t repeat itself but it rhymes.

Digital sound has been criticized as being cold and antiseptic, but now studio engineers from the legendary AIR Studios, founded by Sir George Martin, have found a way to take digital sound back to the future. With the help of UK app developer Bappz, AIR Studios has created AirVinyl, an iPad app that recreates the warm, harmonious depth of sound that is found on vinyl records for digital media files when played through the iPad. The app is also AirPlay enabled and will soon include its own clever feature – AirStreem, which also allows users to stream music from their Mac to AirVinyl over wi-fi. It’s available today at the iTunes App store for a limited time for $.99.

The AirVinyl app is an exciting new twist for digital music afficionados and audiophiles, but it could also serve as a platform for even bigger projects like an Air Studios digital record label. AirVinyl could also be easily integrated with new streaming music services like Spotify to bring the analog listening experience to the cloud, Facebook, or even the FLAC store that is part of UMG’s Groovetown.

The app goes on sale Monday morning and is fun, creative and beautifully crafted. Plus the sound is amazing. You’ll think that you’re back in your room at home sneaking a joint and listening to Hendrix blast on your stereo before your parents come home and bum you out. Bappz, the creators of the wildly popular London Tube Map app, did a terrific job by lovingly recreating the physical act of LP listening. Bappz was founded by former record producer Paul Myers, a high profile London internet entrepreneur who created Britain’s first free ISP, X-Stream, and Wippit, once the biggest UK-based MP3 online music and movies store. Myers has just the right experience and sensibilities that Air needed to bring an invisible under-the-hood technology to life in AirVinyl and it really shows.

Users can select their music from Crates, browsing by flicking through the covers. Playlists are accessed as Mixtapes, using the familiar analog interface of the cassette deck, but fortunately without recreating that nasty cassette sound. This app is REALLY cool and supposedly will be available soon for iPhone. More skins and features will be added soon. My guess is that they’ll eventually put out an Android version but I’d love to see a desktop version that would essentially turn your computer into a virtual analog turntable.

I know you’re not used to me saying nice things, and I certainly rarely review stuff, but it is Christmas time and I’m feeling it. But not for long, I’m sure.

Get AirVinyl at http://bappz.com/airvinyl

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/airvinyl/id482570332 for the UK

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/airvinyl/id482570332 for the US.

© 2011, Wayne Rosso. All rights reserved.

It's bonus time!!!!

When Lucian Grainge pulled the rug out from under Sony Music and Warner Music last month with the surprise acquisition of EMI, it left both companies sucking for any leftover oxygen. Warner was counting on picking up EMI at distress prices in order to benefit from economies of scale and provide growth opportunities for the future. Sony and its septuagenarian CEO Doug Morris were blindsided and destined to be the perennial Number Two. Warner Music, continuing to rack up huge losses, is a very distant third with 18.6% of the US market and is a virtual non-entity.

Now sources say that Warner is in serious discussions with Sony Music for a distribution deal, leaving the former major label as little more than a big production company. Even though Warner has a huge hit with Michael Bublé’s Christmas album, that’s really it. Sources say that the upcoming Warner release schedule is as barren as the Mojave Desert and with nothing in the pipeline and only one big holiday seller, the company will eventually be forced to make a lot of cuts. In fact, according to another source, “They’ll [WMG] have to just keep cutting and cutting until finally they just won’t be able to do the job any longer”.  Right now it looks as though the company may have a very hard time being competitive.

Sony, of course, will do anything they can to pump themselves up. You just know that the Sony brass is going crazy over the fact that Lucian Grainge has suddenly come out of nowhere to become the undisputed King of the World in what is now a two-horse race. Sony execs may think that cutting a distribution deal with Warner may give them bragging rights to the extra market share when in reality it’s nothing more than scrapping around for crumbs. Every little bit helps, I suppose.

We can discuss the pros and cons of a Sony/WMG distribution deal and Warner’s future after having doubled their losses last quarter, but to what end?  The more important question is “How will all of this effect Lyor’s bonus?”

© 2011, Wayne Rosso. All rights reserved.

Remember what happened to Moe Greene?

Today Hits Magazine reported that former Sony North America chairman Don Ienner has been added to Lucian Grainge’s executive stable at Universal Music in the form of a consultancy. The item goes on to speculate that Donnie along with Jason Flom and Tom Whalley, “both of whom are currently operating within Monte Lipman’s Universal Republic”, could possibly play a role in the “retooled” EMI.

Grainge has been locked in meetings for the last couple of weeks obviously figuring out just what he wants to do with EMI. Everyone knows that UMG will have to divest itself of some assets–in France, for instance, the combined UMG/EMI would control something like 60% of the market and EU regulators are likely to frown upon that. My sources tell me that the also-ran WMG  and Lyor Cohen–the Moe Greene of the music business–are doing everything they can to blow up the UMG/EMI deal. I really don’t think that Grainge has anything to worry about since he’s infinitely smarter than any Warner knucklehead and is just as tough as Lyor. In fact, he just may be the prodigal third Kray twin.

Who knows what Grainge is planning for EMI, but I find the Ienner association interesting. I know that I’ve been pretty rough on Donnie in the past, but I have to confess that he was successful at Sony. I don’t necessarily mean to diss Roger Faxon, but the betting is that he will go with EMI Music Publishing. He served his purpose as CEO of the music group by bringing stability to the company and tidying it up for sale (like I always said, he reminds me of Mitt Romney). But when I think about it, Don Ienner is just the kind of record guy that could revitalize EMI. He’s had some recent success with Hot Chelle Rae and I would imagine that he’s learned a lot from his unceremonious departure from Sony and is a different type of executive. He definitely has an energy and enthusiasm for the business and a genuine love of music that  EMI could certainly benefit from. Ienner, like Lucian, is very competitive, and together I’m sure that they would delight in kicking some septuagenarian ass.

The worm keeps turning.

© 2011, Wayne Rosso. All rights reserved.

 

The iPod: A license to print money

(Or How Doug Morris Gave Away The Record Industry)

Walter Isaacson’s terrific biography of Steve Jobs is full of interesting little gems. Of interest to most of my readers is, of course, the section dealing with iTunes and Jobs’ negotiations with the record industry.

As Isaacson describes it, Jobs launched a massive charm assault to win over the heads of the major labels. He started with Roger Ames, then of Warner Music, and quickly moved on to Doug Morris, then CEO of Universal Music. The two execs quickly fell under Jobs’ spell, impressed with the iTunes end to end solution.

After dazzling these two knuckleheads, Jobs ran into a road bump in the person of Andy Lack, then the new CEO of Sony Music. Andy learned from the great Jack Welch who taught him “not to fall in love”. Andy is a smart, affable, good humored guy, but Jobs thought he “could be a dick”. And why is that? Because Andy saw through Jobs’ modus operandi and realized, unlike Morris and Ames, that by licensing their music to Apple, they would drive the sale of millions of iPods which in turn would drive the sales of millions of Macs. And that’s exactly what happened. Like Gillette with razor blades and Hewlett Packard with printer ink, the music industry’s content would sell a whole bunch of hardware. While the other guys had stars in their eyes, Andy connected the dots and pushed Jobs for a royalty on the sale of each iPod.

I remember during that time I was talking to a very high level executive at one of those labels (still in the same position today, in fact) who told me there was “no way I am going to let Andy Lack be the savior of the record industry”. Jobs, Morris and Ames made sure of that. Morris and Ames refused to go along with Lack’s strategy to get a royalty from ipod sales and thus isolated him in the industry. As a result, Morris and Ames gave Steve Jobs and Apple the keys to the shop and there’s been no turning back. Apple, in effect, controls the music industry today.

A couple of years later Morris woke up from his coma, demanded and got a one dollar royalty from Microsoft for the sale of every Zune music player. Good call, Doug. You were right on top of that one. He probably made Universal Music an extra $276 on that deal.

The music industry hates outsiders, and they considered Andy Lack an outsider just like Eric Nicoli, Jim Fifield, Elio Leoni- Sceti and Guy Hands. But unlike those guys, Andy was a genuine media mogul. He may not have come from the music industry but he is very savvy and understood how major media companies run and the value of their content. I remember when Andy was catching a lot of grief about giving Bruce Springsteen a big check for re-signing with Sony, especially from the BMG half of Sony BMG. He said “If they’re pissed off about how much I’m giving Springsteen to stay here, how pissed do you think they’ll be if he signs with Universal instead?” Good point. Springsteen renewed with Sony and it’s not been talked about since.

Andy Lack is a decent man. He was always fair and honest in his dealings with me and I always appreciated that. He never went back on his word. Steve Jobs didn’t like the fact that Lack was doing what was right for Sony and the music industry. If Doug Morris had been smart enough to take Andy Lack seriously the record industry would not be in the anemic state that it’s in today. The Steve Jobs book proves that Andy Lack was right all along.

So what happens? Andy Lack now heads new media for Bloomberg and Sony ends up hiring bedazzled septuagenarian Doug Morris in Andy’s old job. These guys will never learn. No wonder Lucien Grainge is thrilled he’s at Sony.

© 2011, Wayne Rosso. All rights reserved.

Doug or Lucien--who's on top?

Rod Stewart kicked off a two-year run last night at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the latest addition to the hotel’s pantheon of resident hitmakers that includes Celine Dion, Elton John and Bette Midler. Fortunately Rod the Mod will not be performing any of the Clive Davis saccharin-coated crap from the American Songbook series. “I tried mixing them in, but I’ve decided to instead go with more of my bigger hits, as well as some obscure Rod Stewart stuff,” the singer says. Evidently the standards tend to “slow the show down”, according to Stewart’s manager, Arnold Stiefel. So instead happy concertgoers will be treated with a more caffeinated show featuring hits like Broken Arrow, The Killing of Georgie (Part I and II), Every Picture Tells A Story, Maggie May, Reason To Believe, Tonight’s the Night and Infatuation.

This indicates a departure for Stewart in more ways than one. The singer has left his label of the last decade, Sony Music’s RCA/J Records (and former industry heavyweight, octogenarian Clive Davis), and has signed a new recording contract with none other than the competition—Lucien Grainge and Universal Music. Coincidentally Universal owns Mercury Records where Rod had his first solo successes.

"Bye, bye, Clive."

The competition between the two labels, actually the two CEO’s, is expected to become very heated. Insiders tell me that the music business is “now all about Lucien and Doug. If Doug offers an act $1 million to sign, Lucien will offer the act $2 million, and vice versa.” However others feel differently. One manager told me that he thinks that “neither one of them would act so irrationally and fiscally irresponsible to the detriment of the company, especially given the current economic climate.” The manager went on to say, “But that doesn’t mean there won’t be competition. You can bet they’ll be at it like a couple of feral cats.” He went on to postulate that Grainge would probably come out on top in the long run because (septuagenarian Sony CEO) “Doug Morris, for better or worse, already has his legacy written. Lucien has not, so he has something to prove.”

This follows the executive rotation that has gone down since both men took over their new jobs—Barry Weiss to Universal, L.A. Reid and Mel Lewinter (and others, eventually) to Sony. I had written previously that Jive COO Ivan Gavin would most likely be heading to Universal and that may be happening sooner than later. Gavin had agreed to be moved over to Epic Records to work for L.A. Reid. But yesterday Reid decided that he didn’t want Ivan around. According to one label insider, “Ivan is very difficult, to put it mildly. He’s not exactly beloved around the building and L.A. decided that he just didn’t need the aggravation.”

Another thing L.A. Reid didn’t need from Gavin was financial oversight. Always known as a profligate spender both on himself and the label-Reid, refused to fly commercial for years, always demanding private jets. This, of course, is all part of his legendary multi-million dollar personal T&E expense accounts. According to one label veteran, Reid “has not been successful at his last two record company jobs. Sure, he’s had hits, but at what cost? When he was at LaFace (a joint venture with Arista Records) his spending could be hidden, especially since Clive is quite the spender too. And at Island-Def Jam, Doug didn’t care about finances and the company was so big that they could sweep the losses under the rug. At Island-Def Jam, L.A. went through his entire overall annual budget by June every year and the staff had to scramble to get their holiday sales budgets together. It was a nightmare.”

Of course I would be remiss if while discussing any comings and goings at Sony Music I failed to mention the latest Beyoncé album, 4, Columbia’s most important summer release. It has been out in the marketplace for two full months now and has sold a total of 679,000 units. Not bad…if you’re Randy Newman. By comparison, Beyoncé’s first album, Dangerously In Love, sold roughly 3.3 million. Her next album, B’Day, did around 3 million units followed by 5 million copies of I Am…Sasha Fierce. Does anybody see a trend here?

© 2011, Wayne Rosso. All rights reserved.

According to Page Six of the New York Post, Rhone will be answering to Epic Records Group Chairman and CEO L.A. Reid , who the Post sites a source saying “She doesn’t get along with… at all”.

My sources take it a step further. “This time it only took Doug 2 weeks to make a boneheaded move. At least this time Sylvia won’t have another legacy label to destroy like she did with Elektra and Motown”. Ouch.

Morris has a compulsion for hiring people from his past. This is Doug’s third week on the job (actually his first week since for the first two he was on vacation) and he’s already hired L.A. Reid, Nick Gatfield, Mel Lewinter, and now Sylvia Rhone. Who’s next? Jerry Greenberg? Dave Glew, Reen Nalley? In fact, he’s rumored to be bringing his longtime parking valet, Paul Cooper, to Sony from Universal.

It certainly looks like Morris is continuing a great Sony tradition: nepotism. One thing is for sure though. Rob “Fredo” Stringer must be thrilled today because he doesn’t look like the dumbest guy in the building—at least for now.

© 2011, Wayne Rosso. All rights reserved.