Awesome site you have here! When I worked in Nashville in the record biz, we used to be concerned when someone we knew got signed to Warner Brothers Records. There, Warner was known as ‘the artist protection program’ because they would sign artists and they would disappear completely. Warner never would release their albums but …
Awesome site you have here! When I worked in Nashville in the record biz, we used to be concerned when someone we knew got signed to Warner Brothers Records. There, Warner was known as ‘the artist protection program’ because they would sign artists and they would disappear completely. Warner never would release their albums but rather put them on the self, which of course, ensured they couldn’t compete in the market with other artists on the label. Very strange way of doing business so to me, the funeral home thing kinda makes a lot of sense! Best wishes!
Indeed! A number of truly excellent artists grabbed the advance money, likely not knowing that it was the end of their potential career. Warner was not the only label to do this, by the way, but the most obvious. Also, CBS/Columbia (now Sony, as you know) had an A&R guy I knew, who was with the company for something like thirty plus years and it's pretty well known that the only reason he kept his job so long is because throughout his career, he only signed one artist and that artist turned out to be a superstar. But if you don't sign anyone, you don't have a track record of making bad decisions, which makes it more difficult to get fired, especially when the only artist he signed made massive amounts of money for the label.
Hi Chris,
Awesome site you have here! When I worked in Nashville in the record biz, we used to be concerned when someone we knew got signed to Warner Brothers Records. There, Warner was known as ‘the artist protection program’ because they would sign artists and they would disappear completely. Warner never would release their albums but rather put them on the self, which of course, ensured they couldn’t compete in the market with other artists on the label. Very strange way of doing business so to me, the funeral home thing kinda makes a lot of sense! Best wishes!
Thanks for reading! That is insane
Indeed! A number of truly excellent artists grabbed the advance money, likely not knowing that it was the end of their potential career. Warner was not the only label to do this, by the way, but the most obvious. Also, CBS/Columbia (now Sony, as you know) had an A&R guy I knew, who was with the company for something like thirty plus years and it's pretty well known that the only reason he kept his job so long is because throughout his career, he only signed one artist and that artist turned out to be a superstar. But if you don't sign anyone, you don't have a track record of making bad decisions, which makes it more difficult to get fired, especially when the only artist he signed made massive amounts of money for the label.