Industry Round Up: McCarroll Upped @ EMI, Lyor’s Hot Seat, The Head & The Heart & more…
Post Shake Up Changes Continue
As was rumored and expected for weeks, it was announced this morning that current EVP NA of creative at EMI Music Publishing, Dan McCarroll, will be taking the top spot overseeing A&R operations for the entire music group in North America. In his tenure at EMI’s pubco, McCarroll signed and oversaw a number of successful artists including John Mellencamp, Cobra Starship, Travie McCoy, Death Cab For Cutie, Butch Walker and Panic At The Disco among others. In his new role, at the newly dubbed Capitol & Virgin Label Group, McCarroll will be tapped with reinvigorating the company’s creative performance in the US, leaving many to wonder the fate of the current creative team on the recorded music side. In his statement, Roger Faxon also announced that current A&R executives Steven Melrose and Leonard Brooks would be exiting their positions…
Switching gears, with Warner Music Group ruler Lyor Cohen enjoying an indian summer on the West Coast, anecdotes abound, including one involving an A&R assembly where Cohen in true-to-form fashion, put creative execs in the hot seat. As the dust settled, there were more artists than reps to match, leaving a couple acts unaccounted for. So who signed them? When the junior staffer responsible for the act was summoned, his detailed knowledge of every aspect of the artist, and his general chutzpah, led to him being granted a seat in the meeting… And what about all those expected departures from the Bunny in the wake of the regime change? Rumblings seem to indicate they might not be coming as soon as predicted due to financial implications…
THATH
Elsewhere, keeping up with the chase, it was a regular industry frenzy on this past rainy Monday night in Los Angeles, as many scrambled to make it out to see Seattle combo The Head and The Heart, who played both an early and late set at Silverlake Lounge and Bardot respectively. The band, who has been wowing audiences in their native Pacific Northwest – drawing large crowds and rave reviews, played to a throng of industry onlookers at both L.A. shows. With representatives from most major label groups present, including Warner Bros., Universal/Republic and RCA (maybe EMI reps were preoccupied – see above), along with some publishers and bigger indies, the currently unmanaged group has succeeded in spawning a double derby, with reps from some of the top management firms present too, including Red Light Management’s newest comrade Mark DiDia…
Speaking of, the recent buzz on a few of the bigger boutique labels with major label ties, is that they’re are making internal moves that would shift them into scaled-down management operations and away from the label business… And are major label imprints in trouble? Jive Records urban imprint Hitz Committee will be shutting its doors, and a pending deal for an established LA-based indie label has been shuttered due to the exit of a recent major label head. Expect more to come… In recent signing updates, it looks like Nashville act Mona has been picked up by Island Records in the UK and Mercury Records stateside, while NZ darlings The Naked and Famous seem to have landed with UMG affiliated Fiction Records - both deals are rumored to have been for massive sums. Meanwhile, some are starting to wonder who will be the last through the gates for these kinds of deals, as insiders share that some label heads are starting to put the kibosh on high-dollar signings for uberly-hyped indie acts. Stay tuned… IN THE MIX: Michael Goldstone, Glenn Delgado, Craig Aaronson and Paul Pontius
09.15.10The Plot Thickens: Executive Reordering at Warner Music & EMI Leads to More Questions
News from Warner Bros. Records made industry waves yesterday as it was announced that Tom Whalley is exiting his post as Chairman and current Chief Creative Officer Rob Cavallo will be taking the reins, while Todd Moscowitz and Liva Tortella, will assume the roles of Co-President/CEO and Co-President/COO, respectively. A long time coming in the eyes of many industry insiders, it leaves to question the future of the current A&R staff at the bunny. Will the label’s headquarters be now based in New York, considering that’s the current home base for Moscowitz and Tortella? And it falls in line with Lyor Cohen’s M.O. to keep company headquarters under one roof in the same city. What then becomes of the fabled WB offices (aka the ski lodge) in Burbank, which has been considered a buzz-kill environment compared to the heyday of the Mo and Lenny years. We can probably expect more staff consolidation within the Warner labels so that the music group can share back-office functions, which seems to make sense to do so.
Meanwhile more questions surround the recent decree from new EMI Group head Roger Faxon that included exits by Ronn Werre, Nick Gatfield and Billy Mann. Lots of industry chatter with the exit of Werre due to the handsome salary compensation he was receiving. Insiders share that when Terra Firma’s Guy Hands took over the music group, he handed (no pun) Werre a substantial 7-figure per year salary in order for him to stay at EMI when Sony Music was courting him vigorously with a deal that was reportedly completed. Will Faxon tap any of his key publishing executives to oversee A&R functions on the record side? And with Gatfield’s departure, what will current Virgin Records Prexy Rob Stevenson’s role be at the music group? We heard that Gatfield has been meeting with other labels, including Sony Music, but insiders share that Sony is no longer a play. Does that leave the obvious move for Gatfield to rejoin former boss Lucian Grainge at Universal? Moreover, the significant changes announced at two of the four major music groups within the last few weeks now leaves eyes turned toward Universal Music Group and Sony, where similar executive changeovers are expected to happen. Stay tuned…
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Strong Arm Of The Law: New Plan For EMI Music Coming Soon…
Word is that onlookers won’t have to wait much longer for recently appointed EMI Music Group head Roger Faxon to lay out his new business plan for the company in transition. Insiders are also signaling to keep a close eye on the A&R departments of both the recorded music and publishing divisions. Rumblings continue to indicate that Faxon will concentrate on bolstering the creative forces who he is most familiar with and that have proven successful during his tenure overseeing EMI Music Publishing… Stay tuned.
In Case You Missed It: Who’s In & Who’s Out Edition
MySpace Co-Prez Jason Hirschhorn (L) leaves; Mike Jones (R) Remains
With an announcement out of London this morning, Roger Faxon is in as the new group chief executive for EMI, moving from his previous position as chairman and chief executive of EMI Music Publishing. Recently appointed non-executive chairman of the group’s recorded music division, Charles Allen, will now become an advisor to EMI and Terra Firma… MySpace co-president Jason Hirschhorn is out as shared head of the troubled social network, leaving Mike Jones to remove the “co” from his title… News yesterday revealed that veteran A&R executive Mark Williams is in as the new Sr. VP of A&R at Columbia Records. William’s most recently worked on M.I.A.’s new album for Interscope Records… Limewire is in for more trouble as members of the National Music Publisher’s Association including EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group and Warner/Chappell filed a copyright complaint in federal court against the file-sharing service this week… And free concerts are out in NYC, as the city cracks down after the recent Drake concert fiasco…
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