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#460867 - 12/04/07 08:37 AM
EW: Layoffs for Epic, Geffen, IslandDefJam, RCA?
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Doeeadeer
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http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2007/12/volume-goes-up.html
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.
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#460871 - 12/04/07 09:04 AM
Re: EW: Layoffs for Epic, Geffen, IslandDefJam, RCA?
[Re: Doeeadeer]
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rkt88
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tumbling tumbleweeds on colorado avenue, indeed.
i first set foot in columbia's west coast offices, in 65.. when they were at gower and sunset in the cbs building with the most massive recording studios one could ever hope to see downstairs, built for stravinsky to get down. that was a bustling motherfucker, rooms a, b c, all music all the time. worst you vould do was wander into a rip chords session with bruce n terry...tach em up, tach em up...
jump forward 40 years, give or take, and i had a vision ( ok, a thought..hah ) while sitting in utsonimya's office, marvelling at the serenity, or lack of enthusiasm for the entire process which had permeated the business.. with what remained of mtv flickering on that big screen of his, and that the music was already dead, and that it was only a matter of time.
as i left, walking past glew's office which of course was vacant, nothing was heard but crickets. tumbling tumbleweeds, indeed. god help the poor souls that have to show up there at all.
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#460886 - 12/04/07 10:04 AM
Re: EW: Layoffs for Epic, Geffen, IslandDefJam, RCA?
[Re: rkt88]
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Steffmo
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%%0 isn't much better. I haven't been up there since they started moving Jive folks up there......hopefully it perked the place up rather than dragged the staff down. But that notwithstanding it wasn't all that unsual to take a spin aroung 21 or 22 and hear absolutely no music.
Spooky and unnerving.
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#460895 - 12/04/07 10:51 AM
Re: EW: Layoffs for Epic, Geffen, IslandDefJam, RCA?
[Re: Doeeadeer]
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Syncopat
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How can Universal continue with Universal and Motown as seperate Eastcoast labels? I think Lipman has more urban releases than Motown while Motown seems to be about all about joint ventures now. Suddenly Doug and Mel realize Sylvia has never had A&R ears.
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#460904 - 12/04/07 11:09 AM
Re: EW: Layoffs for Epic, Geffen, IslandDefJam, RCA?
[Re: Syncopat]
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goldears
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Registered: 07/14/04
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You got a problem with style over substance?
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#460950 - 12/04/07 12:42 PM
Re: EW: Layoffs for Epic, Geffen, IslandDefJam, RC
[Re: Syncopat]
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stealth007
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Registered: 01/01/05
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Wasn't Interscope built on joint ventures?
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#460957 - 12/04/07 12:56 PM
Re: EW: Layoffs for Epic, Geffen, IslandDefJam, RC
[Re: stealth007]
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hugehits
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We used to get this info from Hits magazine, not some non music industry source. Now they write nothing at all about layoffs, I wonder why?
None of the IDJ cuts got any ink at all.
Guess it must be hard to slaughter a bunny and then report on other related stories.
Edited by hugehits (12/04/07 12:58 PM)
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#460958 - 12/04/07 01:02 PM
Re: EW: Layoffs for Epic, Geffen, IslandDefJam, RC
[Re: stealth007]
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goldears
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Yes, but phony captive ones.
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#461009 - 12/04/07 03:05 PM
Re: EW: Layoffs for Epic, Geffen, IslandDefJam, RC
[Re: AndyMan]
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Syncopat
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I recall that Interscope was a label started by Iovine and Ted Fields with a deal through Atlantic. When Time-Warner stopped "Cop Killer" from being released, Interscope moved over to Universal where Fields was soon bought out and it became a wholly-owned label. I don't recall if the move out of Atlantic was a breach-of-contract, their deal was up or Universal bought them out but it was the first straw in the end for the Warner Music Group.
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