The job market ain’t so great these days, as everyone knows, but high-priced top notch talent is always in demand. Just look at Sony Music and you sure do see the high-priced part of the equation. However a chief executive who is a consummate deal-maker, a financial wizard and technological visonary is always hard...
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In an attempt to re-write history, the music industry is honoring a man they all reviled.
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Lucian Grainge and Universal Music's surprise acquisition of EMI Music big-footed the competition. Now Warner Music, desperate to stay alive after posting huge losses, is in talks with Sony for a distribution deal. The once prestigious super hip label is now an embarrassing shadow of its former self, the caretakers having sullied a legacy...
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Lucian Grainge has made a very smart move by bringing Don Ienner into the tent. What could it mean for the "new " EMI?
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Thanks to my sources inside Warner Music, I have exclusively obtained a copy of Edgar Bronfman, Jr.’s latest memo to the company: Dear Colleagues: As Warner Music Group begins its next chapter, well-positioned for some truly exciting and unprecedented opportunities, I am writing you today to inform you of my decision to leave the...
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(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...
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Industry sources tell me that Sean Parker is working furiously behind the scenes with Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies to put together a winning bid for EMI. According to insiders, Parker really wants this to happen. The main competition seems to be Junior Bronfman, who’s new duties at Warner Music seem to consist solely of trying...
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When Warner Music announced that Junior Bronfman was getting kicked upstairs and being replaced as CEO by sexagenarian Stephen Cooper, a turnaround specialist and long-time Blavatnik associate, could mark the beginning of the end for Junior as well as the entry of yet another non-music industry guy in a top position. The reports have...
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The dog days are here and it’s tough to concentrate on much of anything, really. I’ve been hanging out on the beach reading and observing events around the recent debt ceiling debate. It occurred to me that there are an unusual number of similarities between the music industry and my favorite moronic movement, the...
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