Why would you cut your workforce when the labels are experiencing their greatest growth and profitability? I'll tell you why! It is because it is a way to clear out the old guard, remove those dinosaurs in our industry who have not yet come to terms with the fact that the ONLY constant in music is CHANGE! There have always been two schools in this business when it comes to running it. One is to slow things down and remain in the tried and true methods of the past when all you needed was a spreadsheet and a bag of money to travel from town to town to take care of business and see the immediate sales bumps of the increased and greased airplay. Sales were easily trackable, results were immediate, and the physical world paid way much more than does its new cousin the digital one. The other camp is the one of today who runs at the speed of light and is going so fast to get to an all digital society where your posts, business plans and releases can be changed in a day and online by a few hours after a course direction is in place, because it makes their lives easier and caters to the fast food music consumers over those who like fine dining.
My thought is that there should be a bit of a balance and we should discard the past selectively and not with a broad brush that knocks everything of course and waits for the gyros of technology to kick in and stabilize the changes.
To my older colleagues I say to you, love and reflect on the past but do not dare live in it. Either you change with the times or you will find that you have been changed out for newer, more reliable and contemporary people because this is a new world and we must learn to embrace it and learn what we do not know in an effort to better and propel ourselves. So when you see cuts across the board in staffing, realize that they are not cuts for financial reasons but simply a culling of the herd to remove unnecessary roadblocks to their plans and have less of a combative discussion on why things are changing, they just are. I for one, like change and have re-envisioned and reinvented myself for decades. It is fun for me, like putting on a new suit and looking at the fact that things that get in my way are not obstacles but rather opportunities in disguise!
In the words of the great Donald Byrd, "Change Makes You Want To Hustle!" so get off your butt and get going!
"The news was announced to WMG staff on Wednesday morning (March 29), in a memo from Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl, obtained by MBW.
Kyncl writes that, in his “discussions with our leaders across the company, many of them came to the same conclusion – that to take advantage of the opportunities ahead of us, we need to make some hard choices in order to evolve”.
He added that “consistent with this direction”, the company has “made the tough decision” to reduce its global workforce by approximately 270 people, or about 4%".