More major label nonsense from the US, and I don't really agree with what Fox columnist Roger Friedman makes of Warner Music chief Edgar Bronfman Jr's recent ramblings about the future of music, but we'd never let a difference of opinion stop us from printing some quality bitching, so what the hell.
Bronfman was speaking to investors and journalists on Thursday following the release of the major's latest somewhat disappointing financials. Despite the profits fall, Bronfman was upbeat bigging up his plans for diversification, especially into the artist management domain. Now, you know we here at CMU advocate diversification at record companies, but Friedman doesn't seem convinced.
Joking that Warner should rename itself as 'Warner Miscellaneous Group', he reported that Bronfman had told investors "we're not going to continue to sign artists for recorded music revenue only", and then commented: "So that's it, and that explains in some small way, why WMG no longer has hits or develops recording artists. Not only is Bronfman clearly not interested in recorded music, he is more enthusiastic about being a management company".
He continued: "During two questions from analysts, he stood firmly behind WMG's $10 million investment in Irving Azoff's Front Line Management. Here's the funny thing about that: Azoff manages the Eagles, who used to record for Warner Music. They don't anymore... So Bronfman has a $10 million investment in a company that manages an act that records for someone else. Bronfman must know something about how the record business works that [SonyBMG's] Clive Davis and [Universal Music's] Doug Morris don't. They just sell records (aka CDs). They don't manage any acts. And believe me, if their companies had investments in management companies, they'd be releasing the CDs of the artists they represented".
Actually, didn't Universal Music buy Sanctuary Music for its management assets, and haven't SonyBMG been dabbling in artist management in Europe? Still, can't beat a bit of Monday morning bitching.