“Warner Music, if you don’t know, was once run by people like Mo Ostin, Lenny Waronker and Tommy Lipuma. They produced everyone from the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne to James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat, Joni Mitchell, George Benson and so on. It was a staggering achievement. And that doesn’t even include divisions like Atlantic Records or Elektra Records,” Roger Friedman reports for Fox News. “Got the picture?”
“In the two years since Edgar Bronfman Jr. bought the company from Time Warner, Warner Music has been destroyed. It’s gone. There’s nothing there,” Friedman reports.
“This week, they announced they were firing 400 people, 70 of whom were said to be from the WEA sales force. In the last quarter, WMG says it lost $27 million, compared to $7 million in the same quarter last year. Mind you, three months ago they announced a 75 percent drop in profits,” Friedman reports.
“It’s very sad. This week they also announced that instead of developing artists, making hits happen or pretending to be a music company, WMG has hired two guys to make videos. They called them Den of Thieves. They also hired a guy from JetBlue airlines to maximize the Warner catalog online. While Sony BMG and Universal at least try to release new acts, market them, sell them, get them played on the radio, WMG is giving up,” Friedman reports.
“We hear every day that downloading has ruined the music business. I say that is ridiculous. Laziness and greed have destroyed the industry from within. Warner Music has been turned into a venture capital pawn. It doesn’t matter if they don’t release anything; they will just lay off 400 people to show a profit. The people don’t matter and neither does the music,” Friedman reports.
Friedman writes, “Here’s a suggestion: Why not just give up and change the name to Warner Management Group or Warner Miscellaneous Group? Because the music is dead there, and so is the hallowed legacy.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Archie” for the heads up.]
Perhaps Warner is susceptible during the ongoing negotiations with Apple regarding the iTunes Store and Steve Jobs’ quest for DRM-free music? As always, we advocate eliminating the Middlebronfman.
BustingTheSkullsOfIdiots-“There are a few reasons to sign with a major record label — better production and better promotion are two.”
Don’t agree at all. What an individual can do today with a good sound card, mic, and computer is amazing. That being said though, a good ear and production knowledge really helps. Also, better promotion? … the labels have been spweing CRAP for years! I don’t care how much you promote… good music gets word of mouth … best promotion you can get. Plus the labels are OVER promoting… why would I buy a Nickelcrap album when I hear it 20 times a day on every radio/video station? Bye Bye Music Executhieves.
Buster: It’s a reference to a line from Vizzini in The Princess Bride. Funny movie.
“My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.”
Hey guys, so illegal downloads have nothing to do with declining music sales? Really?
Inconceivable! was a hook line from the princess bride…
The irony of people correcting his use is…well… inconceivable!.
Read here how free publishing works and why.
http://www.baen.com/library/
Baen Books is now making available — for free — a number of its titles in electronic format. We’re calling it the Baen Free Library. Anyone who wishes can read these titles online — no conditions, no strings attached. (Later we may ask for an extremely simple, name & email only, registration. ) Or, if you prefer, you can download the books in one of several formats. Again, with no conditions or strings attached. (URLs to sites which offer the readers for these format are also listed. )
Why are we doing this? Well, for two reasons.
The first is what you might call a “matter of principle.” This all started as a byproduct of an online “virtual brawl” I got into with a number of people, some of them professional SF authors, over the issue of online piracy of copyrighted works and what to do about it.
There was a school of thought, which seemed to be picking up steam, that the way to handle the problem was with handcuffs and brass knucks. Enforcement! Regulation! New regulations! Tighter regulations! All out for the campaign against piracy! No quarter! Build more prisons! Harsher sentences!
Alles in ordnung!
I, ah, disagreed. Rather vociferously and belligerently, in fact. And I can be a vociferous and belligerent fellow. My own opinion, summarized briefly, is as follows:
1. Online piracy — while it is definitely illegal and immoral — is, as a practical problem, nothing more than (at most) a nuisance. We’re talking brats stealing chewing gum, here, not the Barbary Pirates.
2. Losses any author suffers from piracy are almost certainly offset by the additional publicity which, in practice, any kind of free copies of a book usually engender. Whatever the moral difference, which certainly exists, the practical effect of online piracy is no different from that of any existing method by which readers may obtain books for free or at reduced cost: public libraries, friends borrowing and loaning each other books, used book stores, promotional copies, etc.
3. Any cure which relies on tighter regulation of the market — especially the kind of extreme measures being advocated by some people — is far worse than the disease. As a widespread phenomenon rather than a nuisance, piracy occurs when artificial restrictions in the market jack up prices beyond what people think are reasonable. The “regulation-enforcement-more regulation” strategy is a bottomless pit which continually recreates (on a larger scale) the problem it supposedly solves. And that commercial effect is often compounded by the more general damage done to social and political freedom.
To @buster (and all): Thanks. Your explanation was so much better than mine.
My, aren’t we testy
Perhaps I hadn’t see your reply when I posted?
PS you explanation wasn’t that good. It was more than just A line, it was a hook line repeated several time with great comedic effect.
Maybe we’re seeing the evolution of music from a distributor centric system to something more independent.
If music is “discovered” locally by live gigs and globally through the net, then I believe that music of higher quality and more diversity can be produced. Let the listener’s decide what is hot and what is not. Not ratings or distributors pushing the latest teenybopper single.
It would be cool if iTunes and Apple could forment this development
Guys guys guys….see the movie again
Inigo Montoya says that I do not think that word means etc… in the movie to the little guy after the poisoning.
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There was a movie?
Remember folks – The Popular Culture/Music Business is only about 100-150 years old (didn’t even exist before that – if you wanted entertainment, you did it yourself or participated in/watched Live Performances). And they’ve shot themselves in the foot on numerous occasions.
Most notable examples – look these up to get the History – are the invention of Radio/Phonograph Records, the BMI/ASCAP bru-ha-ha of the 1940’s, and the ‘unforeseen’ rise of MTV in 1980’s.
iTunes and the Internet are just the latest vehicles in what’s probably a never ending cycle involving new technology and the whimsical attention span of 14 year old girls.
Thank You
BC Kelly
Tallahassee Fla
DogGone:
“If music is “discovered” locally by live gigs and globally through the net, then I believe that music of higher quality and more diversity can be produced.”
This is the system which gave us Santana, The Doors, Hendrix, and most of all, Joplin. Do you see that kind of talent being promoted by the music companies today? Britney Spears? Snoop? They’ve got to be a the biggest jokes ever!!!! Where are the musicians? Where are the song writers? Where are the rivetingly real performances of those years that made the record industry what it once was? Most bands these days can’t perform live outside a studio. Rythm guitar, amplified and run through a mixing board is still rythm guitar, and all the professional choreography in the world doesn’t improve insipid lyrics and lack of singing talent.
And they wonder why they can’t sell music.
Sad… Warner Bros used to be the most wonderful label that was proud to have great bands like Little Feat, Doobie Brothers, Van Halen on its roster.
As head of A&R at Warner/Reprise Records, Lenny Waronker was almost prescient in his ability to sign new acts that turned out to be the next great artists. His involvement with Arlo Guthrie, Rickie Lee Jones, Randy Newman, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Curtis Mayfield, Little Feat, the Doobies and Elvis Costello, to name just a few, helped shape the sound of the 70s.
Of course, that was a lifetime ago and Warner Bros hasn’t been *that* label for decades. But it’s sad to see the dinosaur Bronfman driving the stake through the heart of what used to be a mecca and a destination for real musical artists.
Oops. Sorry, Buster. You are absolutely correct.
Vizzini: “HE DIDN’T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.”
Inigo Montoya: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
And to the handle-less one: We were both wrong. And yes, I’m testy. But not culled.
ilife 06, Garage band, Logic Express, Logic Pro & Compressor Three, iDVD, DVD Studio pro 4, Quicktime pro, MPEG2-Playback and the list goes on…..
Get one or all of these, publish your own works, Flog them via itunes go laughing all the way to the bank with maximum earnings.
Watch them greedy fat bastards on the SS DRM sink faster than the Titanic!
Laziness and greed have destroyed the industry from within.
Amen, Brother!
WMG is a stock, so the shareholders will ultimately have the say what happens to the company including who runs it.
It’s currently trading at 17.17 with a 52 week range of 15.85 to 30.59. So it’s nearly at the bottom of it’s 52 week range. It’s not dead yet, but Bronfman can certainly bury WMG alive. If shareholders are unhappy he can be booted out, but he can do fatal damage before he’s gone.
If only we had a wheelbarrow and a holocaust cloak, then maybe, just maybe…
An insight into the industry:
Several years ago I used to work for a musician’s union and one of our members had a gig cancelled so he did some studio work to make up the lost work. He did the work and then waited to get paid. The industry contract (which he sent to Sony minus BMG) stipulated payment w/in 14 days.
He waited for three weeks and nothing happened. He contacted me (I was representing the rock industry) and told me of what was happening and asked me to get his outstanding fee.
I contacted the company and after several enquiries I was finally informed that it was industry that he be paid after 5 weeks and this was industry policy. I informed them that was a contract breach and the reply was: That’s industry policy and if he wants to continue doing studio work then he should accept the policy.
I contacted the musician and asked what he wanted to do. He told me to screw them even if it meant going to the courts because he was a live muso and he didn’t need them anyway.
I then threatened Sony with legal action if they didn’t pay up. He got the payment and I was later told by an industry insider that the company had placed the musician on a blacklist. So what happens to other musicians contracted to the companies…they get screwed.
I have no time for the recording end of the music industry. I even sent them an industry plan on how to fit in with a post cd era. I was thanked for my input and was told that I’d be contatced for further discussions…that was three years ago. To quote that musician alll those years ago…”Screw them” (and their DRM), they deserve it and they’ve been screwing musos and punters for years.
C1, are you saying that Bronfman is the Dread Pirate Roberts?
Inconceivable.
Walter Chillum: “To quote that musician alll those years ago…”Screw them” (and their DRM), they deserve it and they’ve been screwing musos and punters for years.”
I agree, and would totally love to be able to purchase tracks from my favorite artists directly and cut out the middle man RIAA. Sadly that is not (yet?) the case.
Hopefully someday soon it will be.
Twilightmoon,
The RIAA and the various national equivalents (ARIA in Australia) are the companies themselves. And the industyr is beginning to change.
There are a number of things happening out there.
1. P2P has knocked the guts out of the industry and I know there are various opinions out there over the issue but I honestly believe that’s it’s because of pressuer from falling sales that are motivating companies to change.
2. iTunes is a pain in the arse for the majors and Apple is forcing an industry (that sees the halycon days of the fifties and sixties as good times) to get a reality check.
3. Russian pirates are indirectly helping the legal download sites (see #2) to move trhe industry forward.
4. Most of touring band’s/singers income is NOT from selling music it’s from touring and musicians need to tell the industry (in other word musos are therir own worst enemies) just that.
5. The prescription I have for the industry is for the acts to sell music from their own sites linked to the major’s own websites and the industry MUST publicise those acts in return. Alternatively, the industry could also do the above AND go back to what they used to do and that’s directly employing the acts. But they won’t do that because that means taking direct responsibility for “employees”. (You’d also need strong laws against payola in that scenario).
6. Governments need to treat the industry like any other. And that means opening up their coffers to help restructure the music industry.
At the moment what’s happening is the industry’s response is to litigate and lobby (over DRM) and most of the victims are consumers using p2p sites. This is nuts. If governments can restructure the auto and airline industries why can’t they do with the music industry.
I’m NOT a fan of big governenment but the industry has proven itself largely incapable of change w/out hurting consumers and what they fail to understand is that w/out consumers they are nothing. The industry’s response at the moment is summarised by one word: litigation! That’s not good enough. We need change.
(P.S. Before representing musicians I was one myself and I was also involved in promotions before that. All up I had over 12 years’ involvement in the music industry.)
W.C.
Like I said, there is nothing to stop musicians from recording their own creations and distributing it themselves apart from fear itself.
The fear of going it alone yet out there, their are many musicians who are recording themselves then handing over their demo cd’s to the recording companies in the hope of getting a contract.
Wake up musicians & smell the coffee! times are a changing but the people still keep coming back to itunes for more!
P.s if you need mentoring & advice contact me. Your backside and frontside will be safe from a scr*wing!!!!!:-)
WC: “The prescription I have for the industry is for the acts to sell music from their own sites linked to the major’s own websites and the industry MUST publicise those acts in return. Alternatively, the industry could also do the above AND go back to what they used to do and that’s directly employing the acts. But they won’t do that because that means taking direct responsibility for “employees”. (You’d also need strong laws against payola in that scenario).”
Sell their own content where? to use how? where? From internet to use on PCs? Are you saying sell DRM free files in MP3 or AAC format?
If there’s any DRM involved it will severely limit their access to customers, by locking out iPods which dominate the portable market. If not DRM free, why not just sell through iTunes? It’s hardly like Apple is taking a huge cut out of the price of each song sold through its store. And they are already handling the distribution of software, promotions, huge customer base..
And I cannot say this enough: iTS is the only successful online media distribution store representing any promise to replace the nose diving CD sales. There are a few other stores that MAY be making razor thin profits off tiny sales, however none represent a viable replacement for CDs.