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Re: Music Industry on verge of major collapse
Music industry layoffs on the horizon
Dec 3, 2007, 10:29 PM | by Shirley Halperin
Categories: Music Biz
There's industry talk of a "Black Monday" on the horizon at several major record labels, including SonyBMG and Island DefJam, as reported by Digital Music News. Now, we've learned, Geffen might also see the ax come down this week. According to several insiders, as much as 80 percent of the staff may lose their jobs as part of a massive restructuring at Interscope/Geffen/A&M. The label would ostensibly be folded into market-share behemoth, Interscope '” home to Gwen Stefani, Fergie, Sheryl Crow, and U2 '” headed by Jimmy Iovine. It's unclear what that would mean for artists like Ashlee Simpson and Mary J. Blige, who has a new album coming out on Dec. 14. Or for label president Ron Fair, the mastermind behind recent successes like the Pussycat Dolls. All, we suspect, will have a future at Interscope. (Representatives of the label declined to comment.) Elsewhere in the Universal Music Group, Island DefJam executive VP of promotion Greg Thompson left the company, it was announced on Friday, sparking chatter about a wider executive exodus.
As for SonyBMG, Digital Music News reports Columbia, headed by Rick Rubin and Steve Barnett, will bear the brunt of a cut, but our sources say Epic's future may be on the line as well. Or at least the Epic we've come to know, which has had recent successes by the likes of Sean Kingston and Good Charlotte. "It's just tumbleweeds [at the Santa Monica offices]," says an insider who works out of the Sony building. "At 3 in the afternoon, the lights aren't even on." Adds another: "It's the culture of an ever-shrinking business, which feels a lot of things are outsourceable." Still, a senior Epic executive contends the label has already seen its major cuts go down "when no one was looking" and adds, "in six months to a year, who knows what will happen, but for now, Epic is a lean and mean frontline label that's already a small, tight machine where the business plan functions." On the formerly-known-as BMG side, Arista artists have already been divvied between Jive (urban acts like Usher and Pink) and RCA (pop acts including Avril Lavigne, Christina Aguilera, and Chris Daughtry), but we hear RCA may also see some significant changes. (Reps for Columbia and Epic declined to comment.) At least J Records can rest easy: Clive and Co. have a platinum seller in Alicia Keys, with Whitney Houston on the way.
Re: Music Industry on verge of major collapse
The future of the music industry is looking very bleak. Looks like the coming year could see a complete obliteration of what we have all known and some sort of new course starts to take shape.
Will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming months.
- DoubleTalkingJive
- Rep: 74
Re: Music Industry on verge of major collapse
Wow, this is pretty intense. It will be interesting to see how things will change going forward.
- Communist China
- Rep: 130
Re: Music Industry on verge of major collapse
It should be made clear that the future of the music industry is bleak, not the future of music. Music itself will continue regardless, the industry side of it is that comes down.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Music Industry on verge of major collapse
I agree music has lived for generations long before there was business. But I think we will re-enter the age of poor quality sounding recordings!! As everything turns 128 bit mastered from a windows sound recorder 16bit capture of a $10 Ebay guitar amp 
- DoubleTalkingJive
- Rep: 74
Re: Music Industry on verge of major collapse
monkeychow wrote:I agree music has lived for generations long before there was business. But I think we will re-enter the age of poor quality sounding recordings!! As everything turns 128 bit mastered from a windows sound recorder 16bit capture of a $10 Ebay guitar amp
I disagree. With high quality "home studios" available in every price range, there's be no shortage high quality stuff available.
I agree with Russ, more musicians can and will go the home studio route and it sounds just as professional as if it was mixed and mastered in a "professional" studio so not only will the record co's take a hit, the studios out there could as well.
