The music INDUSTRY's biggest blunders
The music INDUSTRY's biggest blunders
#1 - The failure of record companies to capitalize on the Internet.
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#2 - Rowe came in at No. 2 for politely passing on the Beatles after the unpolished combo performed a disastrous audition in 1962. Beatles manager Brian Epstein later claimed the Decca Records executive had told him that "groups with guitars are on their way out," a comment that Rowe denied making. He went on to sign the Rolling Stones.
#3 - Motown Records founder Berry Gordy was No. 3, because he sold the money-losing home of the Supremes and Marvin Gaye for about $60 million in 1988. The sum was dwarfed the following year when A&M Records sold for about $500 million.
#4 - Indie promoters take the major labels to the cleaners
#5 - The RIAA sues a struggling single mom for digital piracy, in the court of public opinion, it’s hard to find a more sympathetic defendant than a single mother of two, earning $36,000 a year.
#6 - Casablanca rides strong sales straight to the poorhouse
#7 - Music publisher gives away Bob Dylan
#8 - Warner junks Interscope, when Ice-T’s “Cop Killer” became too hot to handle, Warner Music dropped him.
#9 - “Digital-rights management” backfires even more badly than usual
In a 2005 effort to combat digital piracy, Sony BMG packaged millions of CDs with copy-protection software that automatically installed a “rootkit” on users’ PCs, which, in addition to preventing consumers from making more than three copies of their legally purchased CD, also made them vulnerable to viruses and hackers.
#10 - Columbia Records for dumping Alicia Keys and rapper 50 Cent before they became famous.
#11 - Geffen records for suing Neil Young in the 1980s because it did not like his uncommercial musical direction.
#12 - Geffen records for pumping a reported $13 million into a Guns N' Roses album that still has not seen the light of day after more than a decade of work.
#13 - Warner Bros. Records for signing rock band R.E.M. to a money-losing $80 million contract in 1996.
#14 - Stax Records unintentionally gives away the store
#15 - MCA’s teen-pop calamity, ow sure was MCA that slinky Irish teen Carly Hennessy was going to be a gargantuan pop star? So sure that in 1999 they staked the former Denny’s sausage spokesmodel with a $100,000 advance, $5,000 a month in living expenses and an apartment in Marina Del Rey, California, spending roughly $2.2 million in all on her 2001 debut. In its first three months in stores, Ultimate High sold a whopping 378 copies.
#16 - Warner pays for Wilco record twice
#17 - Thomas Edison disses jazz, industry standards
#18 - BMG dumps Clive Davis, begs him to return
#19 - The industry kills the single—and begins its own slow demise
#20 - As grunge dawns, one label bets on hair metal
http://www.blender.com/articles/default ... 18696&pg=0
