Major Changes for Major Labels

When I was a talent agent and manager, I was often reminded by my record label counterparts that they were the ones sleeping soundly at night, knowing their artists were locked into long-term deals. The labels were bulletproof, while everyone else lived one mishap away from being fired.

Label relevance has waned in recent years, and more and more creator tools are being generated to empower artists. It’s exciting to see the industry change for the better and to see pressure put on major labels to innovate if they want to stay atop the artist-business ecosystem.

Warner CEO, Steve Cooper, pronounced this week: “Becoming a more equitable and sustainable company is a moral, commercial, and creative imperative. “ That sentiment is important, and a flurry of deals that Warner announced seem to back it up.

First, Warner released its inaugural Environment Social Governance report, “the first-ever stand-alone report from a major music company, created to set a baseline for WMG to measure its progress in areas including employee well-being, social impact, climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).”

On top of that, Warner announced two blockbuster NFT deals with two great platforms, OneOf & Blockparty. OneOf has created a preferred partnership with WMG that will see the company create exclusive NFTs for a range…