John Macy
From:
Rockport TX/Denver CO
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Posted 11 Feb 2002 8:40 am |
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I get a lot of emails when I post this stuff from people that enjoy it. So here's some more...
Talent, promotion, marketing. In that order. That's what it takes to
have a successful record label.
What about direction?
Interesting question. For a record label is a vehicle to exploit artists. The vehicle's got to be well-maintained, but without the gas, you ain't goin' nowhere. No, let's change the analogy. The ARTIST is the vehicle.
And the label is the DRIVER!
A driver's like a caged animal. A racehorse. A bucking bronco. Itching to do its thing. But without input, without direction, the animal will go off any which way. You've got to tell the driver the plan. How fast to go. How to manage the fuel. Impart strategy. That role, the person giving direction to the label, is the MANAGER! Yes, the ARTIST manager. Not the label President. That's how we got ****ed up here. The label became the manager. And since the label is the driver, he puts his foot on the gas hard, and spins out and destroys the vehicle on the first lap or runs out of fuel WAY before the finish line.
Think about it.
All the great acts. They had managers telling labels what to do. Brian Epstein with the Beatles. Albert Grossman with
Peter, Paul & Mary, Dylan and Joplin. David Geffen with CSNY. David Krebs with Aerosmith. Paul McGuinness with U2. Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch with Metallica. The manager takes a world view. Sees it's about a career. Keeps the label in check. But most of the managers today are a joke. They're glorified babysitters. The label tells THEM what to do. Except for the Firm. And isn't it funny that the Firm has the most successful acts???
But enough lamentation of the loss of career direction, let's go back inside the label.
The most successful label of the last two decades was Geffen Records. Geffen Records was the OPPOSITE of today's successful record label paradigm. There wasn't one experienced tyrant at the top of the pyramid dictating. Rather, there was a king, actually, a manager of the LABEL, David Geffen. He focused on the big picture. Whether the company was moving toward the proper destination. Then there was Eddie Rosenblatt. He was the mechanic. Who made sure every piece of the machinery functioned well, both individually and together. And then there were three A&R titans. Who acted pretty much on their own.
Oh, you'll hear Gary Gersh tell you that Eddie came down on him in the beginning, that he needed to have some hits, but really, these guys did...THEIR JOBS! Yup, their job was to find hit talent.And they did. The biggest talent of its day. They weren't encumbered. They weren't second-guessed. They were treated as professionals. Not like today's A&R guys, who, if they're lucky, can sign an act a year, and have to convince the President and promotion and everybody in between that yes, this act will really hit, that it's worth it. Music is not a collaborative art. The more people you get in the mix, the further away you get from the vision. And it's the VISION that has made the great records sell in eight figures.
Alanis and Glen Ballard made "Jagged Little Pill" alone. If the whole label was involved would it have sounded that way? OF COURSE NOT! Then, again, fascinatingly, most of the acts signed at today's labels are not even found or nurtured by A&R men. Rather, they go directly from the lawyer or manager to the President. The machine can't run right this way. The A&R guy has no self-esteem. The President doesn't really know music. It's not organic. Everybody's pissed off. Just pressured to DELIVER! Since the President spent a lot of money on this one and has to look good. A recipe for disaster.
Now Geffen was so successful because of David Geffen. He was a winner.
He was laid-back. He was respected. Devious? Sure. Occasionally out of control? That too. But really, most of the time, he was just there...observing. He might not be involved in every little detail, but you knew he was on the case. Kind of like a FATHER! He nurtures you, puts
you out on the highway with the lessons he's taught you, and you try...to do
the right thing. Knowing that if you do the WRONG THING, there's gonna be
hell to pay. You want to come through for your father. You want to DELIVER!
You won't work as hard or be as worried about the reaction of...anybody else. David Geffen is sui generis. One of a kind for the latin-impaired. If you could find him, sign him up. Knowing that he's so savvy he's going to leave you at some point, taking the business with him. Doug Morris is Geffen-like. In that he's seen as a winner. Whom his troops want to come through for. That's got a lot to do with the success of Universal. Doug's not as worldly as Geffen. Which limits him. And he was never an artist manager, which leaves him pushing the gas rather than holding back and developing careers. But he's the best we have now.
BMG? There's a complete vacuum. And, word on the street in America is you don't trust the Germans. Yup, that's the truth. THEY should have hired somebody like Munns and given him an ironclad seven year hundred million dollar contract. Just to show that they wouldn't undercut him. But those Germans...they want too much control.
WMG? Roger Ames is the opposite of David Geffen. He's a micromanager. He's a control-freak. He's IN YOUR BUSINESS! How are you supposed to grow up and be an adult if your father always jumps in and finishes your projects for you? You've got to hire the right people and leave them alone. Just give them a little guidance.
Tommy Mottola? He runs Sony like a family. It's just that it's a very small family. And, if you've got a contrary opinion, see things differently, don't believe in the Mariahs and Celines, you're...out. Oh, maybe not exactly out. Maybe just ostracized. Neutered. You're like the misunderstood kid who disobeys his parents, does dope, and eventually gets kicked out. Or leaves.
And then there's EMI. Which has been ****ed up and mismanaged for decades. Now we've got a new team. Alain Levy? Smart. As smart as Geffen? No. But CLOSE! Smarter than anybody else running a music conglomerate. But about as trustworthy as the Germans. He loves you, he loves you...and then you're gone. But, unlike Roger Ames, Levy realizes he can't do it all alone. He needs a right-hand man. He hires Munns. Which is FASCINATING! Because as much as people won't fall asleep around Levy, feeling like Christopher in that van with Paulie in the snowbound Jersey park, that they'll be killed in the middle of the night, people see Munns as Tony Soprano. Somebody who's got to do the job, but is loyal and trustworthy underneath. You'll pay for your sins, but do right by the company, and you'll be taken care of.
Despite the Mafia analogy, it's bad cop/good cop. Don't know if this was Levy's intention, but that's the brilliant result. But, what is Levy in charge of? A reasonable worldwide business. But a disaster in the U.S. The U.S. is only thirty percent of the market these days, but it sets the tone for the rest of the company. It's the head of the hydra. The U.S. has to run right. He inherited Andy Slater. There's just too much money there to wipe the slate clean and start over. But Virgin. There are too many lifers and not enough sales.
So Alain gets rid of the dead wood. And moves the company to New York. Brilliant move. Because right now, New York is the capital of the music business. How you could be one of the five big conglomerates and not have a major presence there... Look. Microsoft NEVER would have missed the web browser if they'd been headquartered in Silicon Valley instead of Redmond, Washington. But that's locale. What about the label itself? LEVY KNOWS THE GAME! He knows it's about TALENT! That's the explanation for the hiring of Serletic. Jeez, Matt seems to have his finger on the pulse of white boy rock (yup, make no mistake, "Smooth" was white). But, haven't we learned from the Geffen example that A&R shouldn't be RUNNING the label???
Well, Serletic's got Roy Lott to do the day by day. Roy was Clive's right-hand guy. But Clive's Mussolini. He DICTATES that the trains will run on time, that Alicia Keys will hit. HE makes all the major decisions. Roy just actuated them. An important, skilled job, but not
the NUMBER ONE job. Seemingly nobody at EMI knew this when they hired Roy.
They thought they were getting THE GUY! It's been proven with his stint at Capitol that Roy can't run a label alone. But, maybe, as a number two...Then again, we go back to the A&R example above. Running a label is not a collaborative art! Look through history. How many of the great labels were run by duos? NONE! The buck's got to stop with SOMEBODY! And, even if
in this case it's Serletic, isn't he going to be off making a Matchbox 20 record???
And, what kind of records is Serletic going to make? Geffen Records went out of business for two reasons. One, David Geffen left. Two, they weren't in the black business. Do they come any whiter than Andy Slater and Matt Serletic? Alain Levy's got a HUGE hole in his vision. But, Matt Serletic wouldn't take the job unless he was named Chairman.
I'm sure that was the case. Alain Levy's heart was in the right place here. He wanted to make talent number one. But his organizational skills are all ****ed up. You find the talent discoverer and nurturer and ensconce him in the most comfortable playpen possible. But, YOU DON'T GIVE HIM THE KEYS TO THAT PLAYPEN!!!
Sure, it's about control. But it's also about leaving the genius unfettered and alone. Now, Matt's going to have to be involved with renting space, hiring a team, soothing personalities...whereas if he were just the number one A&R guy, he could be a benevolent dictator. Within his realm anyway. He could finish his records and hand them off to a mechanic like Eddie Rosenblatt.
Maybe Roy Lott will evolve into that guy. Still, you make a white guy producer head of a major label that's a key part of a faltering conglomerate? Levy's rolling the dice here. He's making talent number one, but he's giving two inexperienced people control of not only his, but the company'sdestiny.
I'm not saying he can't be successful, just that the odds are long. He would have been better off making a deal with Ted Field. Who at least UNDERSTANDS the business. That a new regime must immediately have good records in the pipeline and that you must hit the ground running. I mean they're going to move the label to New York, hire new people and the first releases of the new regime will be ready...A YEAR FROM NOW??? When Mario Monti finally allows BMG to buy EMI? Sure, the company's in trouble, but you don't change EVERYTHING! And you don't ignore the black business, not with that percentage of the overall marketplace |
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