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Max Lousada responds to Lily Allen’s remarks about Warner’s handling of her assault allegations
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 16 September 2019
The boss of Warner’s recorded music division, Max Lousada, has responded to the new interview by Lily Allen in which she criticises the major for taking no action after she wrote about being sexually assaulted by a music industry executive.
Allen first spoke about the alleged assault, which took place in 2016, around the release of her autobiography last year. She talks about it further in a new BBC podcast, where she also reveals that she discussed the allegations with Lousada – who ultimately oversees Allen’s label Parlophone – after her book had been published. Asked if he or Warner Music took any action after that discussion, Allen bluntly replies “no”.
Lousada responded to the new interview in a memo to staff. He wrote: “We wanted to talk to you about today’s BBC podcast with Lily Allen. Her account of an assault that took place in 2016 is deeply disturbing and obviously an appalling thing to have happened. Behaviour like that has no place in our industry”.
Allen has not publicly named the individual she accuses of assault, although she reckons many in the industry know who she is talking about. As the new podcast went live on Friday, the BBC said it believed that the accused man continued to work “with” Warner Music. Although not “for” Warner Music, something Lousada stressed in his note to staff.
“I want everyone to know that we take allegations of sexual misconduct extremely seriously, and in situations where they’ve been made about Warner employees, we’ve quickly investigated and taken action”, he went on. “The BBC piece does not say that the person involved is our employee and we understand that he wasn’t and isn’t”.
“While there’s a robust process in place when it comes to our employees”, the memo continued, “we need to improve how we handle situations involving an artist and a person who’s not an employee. We’re going to listen and learn from this experience, and take concrete steps so we do better in future. Please, if you ever hear of anything like this, you must raise it through official channels, such as your manager or HR. You can also call the compliance hotline anonymously or refer to our code of conduct”.
