Warner Bros. Records

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Warner Bros. Records
WBR logo.PNG
Parent company Warner Music Group
Founded March 19, 1958
Founder Jack Warner
Distributing label Warner Bros. Records (U.S.)
WEA International Inc.
(outside U.S.)
Genre Various
Country of origin United States
Location Burbank, California
New York, New York
Official Website Official Web site of Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It is also affectionately known as 'Warners' or 'the Bunny', based on the Bugs Bunny cartoons produced by the label's parent company, Warner Bros. Pictures.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Introduction

Warner Bros. Records was originally established in 1958 as the recorded music division of the American movie studio Warner Bros. Pictures. For most of its existence Warner Bros Records was one of a group of labels owned and operated by larger parent corporations. The sequence of companies that controlled Warner Bros and its allied labels evolved through a convoluted series of corporate mergers and acquisitions from the late 1960s to the early 2000s. Over this period, Warner Bros. Records grew from a struggling minor player in the industry to become one of the top recording labels in the world.

In 2003 these music assets were divested by their then owner Time Warner and purchased by a private equity group. This independent company currently trades as the Warner Music Group (WMG), of which Warner Bros. Records is still an active label. WMG is currently the third-largest of the four major international music conglomerates and the world's only publicly traded major music company[1]. The group's extensive publishing assets, which include over one million song copyrights by more than 65,000 songwriters[1], currently make it the world's largest music publisher.

At the end of the silent movie era Warner Bros. Pictures decided to expand into publishing and recording so that it could access low-cost music content for its films. In 1928 the studio acquired several smaller music publishing firms—including M. Witmark & Sons, Remick Music Corp., Harms Inc. and a partial interest in New World Music Corp. -- and merged them to form the Music Publishers Holding Company, which controlled valuable copyrights on standards by George and Ira Gershwin and Jerome Kern and the new division was soon earning solid profits of up to US$2 million annually[2].

In 1930 MPHC paid US$28 million to acquire Brunswick Records, whose roster included Duke Ellington, Red Nichols, Leroy Carr, Tampa Red and Memphis Minnie, and soon after the sale to Warners, the label signed rising radio and recording star Bing Crosby. Unfortunately for Warners, the impact of the Great Depression soon decimated the record industry and sales plummeted from 104 million in 1927 to just 6 million by 1932, when the label was offloaded to the American Record Corporation (ARC) for a fraction of its former value. This loss implanted a deep suspicion about the music industry in Warner corporate director Herman Starr, who also headed MPHC from 1939. Due to Starr's considerable influence with Jack Warner, the studio stayed out of the record business for more than 25 years, and during this period it licensed its film music to other companies for release as soundtrack albums[3].

[edit] 1958-1963: formation and early years

Warner Bros. re-entered the record business with the establishment of a new subsidiary, Warner Bros Records, in 1958. By this time the established Hollywood studios were reeling from multiple challenges to their former dominance, the most notable being the introduction of television in the late 1940s. Legal changes also had a major impact—lawsuits brought by major stars had effectively overthrown the old studio contract system by the late 1940s; Warner Bros. Pictures sold off much of its movie library in 1948 (although, ironically, Time Warner's 1989 takeover of Turner Broadcasting returned most of the Warner archive to the company) and in 1949 anti-trust action by the US government forced the five major studios to sell off their cinema chains.

In 1956 Harry Warner and Albert Warner sold their interest in the studio and the board was joined by new members—Charles Allen of the investment bank Charles Allen & Company, Serge Semenenko of the First National Bank of Boston and investor David Baird—who were more favourably disposed to a renewed expansion into the music business. Semenenko in particular had a strong professional interest in the entertainment business and he began to push Jack Warner on the issue of setting up an 'in-house' record label. With the record business booming—sales had topped US$500 million by 1958—Semenenko argued that it was foolish for Warners to make deals with other companies to release its soundtracks when, for less than the cost of one motion picture, they could establish their own label, creating a new income stream that could continue indefinitely and providing an additional means of exploiting and promoting its contract actors[4].

Another impetus for the label's creation was the fact that Warner Bros. contract actor Tab Hunter scored a number one hit in 1957 with the single "Young Love", recorded for Dot Records. To Warners' chagrin, reporters were primarily asking about the hit record, instead of Hunter's latest Warner movie. The company quickly signed Hunter to the newly formed record division, although his subsequent recordings for the label failed to duplicate the success that he had with Dot.

Warners had agreed to buy Imperial Records in 1956 and although the deal fell apart it signified the passing of a psychological barrier—if they were willing to buy another label, why not start their own? To establish the label Warner Bros hired former Columbia Records president James Conkling, an able administrator with extensive experience in the industry—he had been instrumental in launching the LP format at Columbia and had played a key role in establishing the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences the previous year[5]. However, Conkling had decidedly middle-of-the-road musical tastes (he was married to Donna King of vocal trio the King Sisters) and was thus rather out of step with emerging trends in the industry, especially the fast-growing market for rock'n'roll music[6].

Warner Bros. Records opened for business on 19 March 1958, and its original office was located above the film studio's machine shop at 3701 Warner Boulevard in Burbank, California. Its first batch of stereo albums, which mirrored the MOR taste of its president, was a bland collection aimed at the upscale end of the mainstream market. This included:

  • Concetta, the debut album by singer-actress Connie Stevens, who played Cricket on the hit Warner Bros. TV series Hawaiian Eye
  • an album of love songs recited over orchestral backings performed by actor Jack Webb (who was a friend of Conkling)
  • a re-recording of the score from the 1943 film For Whom the Bell Tolls
  • a double-album of Dixieland jazz by Matty Matlock and his Paducah Patrol
  • an album by vocal octet The Smart Set (which featured an unattractive cover photo of eight baby birds in a nest [1])
  • Sousa in Stereo (arranged and produced by Henry Mancini) and
  • the bizarrely titled Music for People with $3.98, plus Tax, if Any credited to "Ira Ironstrings", a pseudonym for guitarist Alvino Rey, who was in fact under contract to Columbia at the time; Rey was also Conkling's brother-in-law, the husband of Luise King and was musical director for the King Sisters.

Not surprisingly, all were commercial failures[7].

Warner Bros. Records scored its first hit in 1959 with the novelty single "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)" performed by Warner contract actor Edd Byrnes, who played the character Kookie on TV's 77 Sunset Strip, but the story behind the recording exemplified the sharp practices often employed by major recording companies. Connie Stevens sang the song's chorus, but although her contract entitled her to a 5 percent royalty rate, the label arbitrarily defined her contribution as a favour to Byrnes and they assigned her just 1% royalty on the song, despite the fact that Stevens soon discovered that her name was being prominently displayed on the single's label; Warner Bros. also charged her for a share of the recording costs, which was to be recouped from her drastically reduced royalty. This was the first in a string of insults Stevens suffered at the hands of her label—when she scored her own hit with "Sixteen Reasons" in 1960, Warner Bros. refused to allow her to sing it on Hawaiian Eye because it was not published by MPHC, and they also prevented her from performing it on The Ed Sullivan Show, thereby robbing her of nationwide promotion and a $5000 appearance fee[8].

Despite these minor successes, the label was in serious financial trouble by 1960, having lost at least US$3 million[8][9]; the only reason it was not closed down was because the Warner board was reluctant to write off the additional $2 million the label was owed in outstanding receivables and inventory. After a restructure, Conkling was obliged to report to Herman Starr, who still loathed the record business; he rejected a buyout offer by Conkling and a group of other record company employees but agreed to keep the label running in exchange for heavy cost-cutting—the staff was reduced from 100 to 30 and Conkling voluntarily cut his pay from $1000 to $500[10].

Warner Bros then turned to rock'n'roll acts in in hopes of turning around the label's fortunes, but their first signing, Bill Haley, failed to score any hits. They were luckier with their next signing, The Everly Brothers (who had previously recorded for Cadence Records). In a bold and uncharacteristic move, Herman Starr effectively gambled the future of the company by approving what amounted to the first million-dollar contract in music history, which guaranteed the Everly Brothers $525,000 against an escalating royalty rate of up to 7 percent, well above the industry standard of the day[10]. Luckily the Everlys' first Warner Bros single, "Cathy's Clown" was a smash hit, going to #1 in the U.S. and selling more than eight million copies.

In 1959 Warner Bros had signed rising standup comedian Bob Newhart, who provided the label's next major commercial breakthrough. In May 1960, three months after the success of "Cathy's Clown", Warners released Newhart's debut album The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, which went straight to #1 in the U.S., staying at the top for fourteen weeks, charting for more than two years and selling more than 600,000 copies[10]. Capping this commercial success, Newhart scored historic wins in three major categories at the 1961 Grammy Awards, winning Album of the Year for Button-Down Mind, while Newhart himself won Best New Artist -- the first time a comedy album had won 'Album of the Year', and the only time a comedian has won 'Best New Artist' -- while Newhart's quickly-released follow-up album, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back (1960) also won the Grammy for Best Comedy Performance - Spoken Word.

New staff joined the label in late 1961 -- Jim Conkling retired in the fall of that year, selecting as his successor Mike Maitland, a former Capitol executive, and Joe Smith joined as head of promotion. Warner Bros made another prescient signing in folk group Peter, Paul & Mary. The trio had been on the verge of signing with Atlantic Records, but before the deal could be completed they were poached by Warners. Artie Mogull (who worked for one of Warners' publishing companies, Witmark Music) had introduced their manager Albert Grossman to Herman Starr, and the group signed a recording and publishing deal with the company. Grossman's deal for the group broke new ground for recording artists -- it included a substantial advance of $30,000 and, even more significantly, he set a new benchmark for artist contracts by successfully demanding that the trio should retain complete creative control over the recording and packaging of their music[11].

Soon after, Grossman and Mogull signed a publishing deal that gave Witmark one of its most lucrative clients -- Bob Dylan. Grossman bought out Dylan's previous contract with Leeds Music and signed the then unknown singer-songwriter to Witmark for an advance of $5000. Two years later in 1963, Peter, Paul and Mary scored two consecutive Top 10 hits with Dylan songs, launching Dylan's career, and this was followed by many more hits for artists covering Dylan's songs, alongside the growing commercial success of Dylan himself. Grossman benefited enormously from both deals, since he took a 25% commission as Dylan's manager, and he structured Dylan's publishing deal so that he received 50% of Witmark's share of Dylan's publishing income[12] -- a tactic that was later emulated by other leading artist managers such as David Geffen.

Meanwhile, the label enjoyed further success with comedy recordings. Allan Sherman recorded an LP My Son, the Folk Singer, which satirised the folk boom, and it became a huge hit, selling over a million copies. Bill Cosby broke through soon after and he continued the label's dream run with comedy into the late 1960s, releasing a string of highly successful albums on Warner Bros over the next six years, alongside his groundbreaking career as a TV actor.

Despite a dismal Christmas party to end 1961, the label's fortunes had finally turned around by 1962 thanks to the Everly Brothers, Newhart, Peter, Paul & Mary and Allan Sherman. As a result, Warner Bros Records ended the financial year 1961-62 in the black for the first time since its foundation[13].

[edit] Warner/Reprise 1963-67

In 1963, the year that Warner Bros. Pictures closed its famous animation division, the company purchased Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records in a "rescue" takeover, which paid Sinatra US$1.5 million and gave him a one-third share in the combined record company, as part of a broader deal to acquire Sinatra's services as an actor for Warner Bros Pictures[10].

Reprise was itself in financial straits at the time of the sale, and the Warner Records management was dismayed at being pushed back into debt by the acquisition, but they were reportedly given no choice—Ben Kalmenson, a Warner Bros company director and close aide to Jack Warner, summoned the label's directors to a meeting in New York and explicitly told them that both he and Jack Warner wanted the deal and they expected them to vote in favour of it[14].

Ultimately, the deal proved very beneficial; Reprise flourished in the late 1960s thanks to Sinatra's famous "comeback" and the hits by Sinatra and his daughter Nancy, and the label also secured the U.S. distribution rights to the recordings of Jimi Hendrix. Most importantly for the future of the company, the merger brought Reprise manager Mo Ostin into the Warner fold and his influence and instincts were to be crucial to the success of the Warner labels over the next two decades and "his ultimate value to Warner Bros. would dwarf Sinatra's"[15].

In 1964, Warner Bros successfully negotiated with French label Disques Vogue and Warners' British distributor Pye Records for the rights to distribute Petula Clark's recordings in the US, beginning with her international hit "Downtown", which won . Warner also released other Pye artists to the U.S. market such as The Kinks. Eight years later, in 1972, Dionne Warwick was brought to the label after leaving Scepter Records in a deal that was the biggest contract at the time for a female recording artist, although Warwick's five years at Warners were relatively unsuccessful in comparison to her spectacular hit-making tenure at Scepter.

Another significant step in the label's history came in 1966 when Mo Ostin hired young producer Lenny Waronker as an A&R manager, beginning a strong and enduring mentor/protege relationship between the two. Waronker, the son of Liberty Records founder Simon Waronker, had previously worked as an assistant to Liberty producer Snuff Garrett[16]. Later he worked with the small Los Angeles label Autumn Records, founded by disc jockeys Tom Donahue, Bobby Mitchell and Sylvester Stewart (who later became famous as Sly Stone). Waronker had been hired as a freelance producer for some of Autumn's acts including The Beau Brummels and The Mojo Men and for the recording sessions he brought in several musician friends who were then becoming established on the L.A. music scene: pianists Randy Newman (a childhood friend) and Leon Russell and pianist/arranger Van Dyke Parks. This association was the foundation of the creative circle that centred on Waronker at Warner Bros and which, with Ostin's continuing support, became the catalyst for Warner Records' subsequent success as a rock music label[17]. Initially, Waronker looked after the acts that Warners took over when they bought Autumn Records for $10,000, but during the year he also avidly pursued rising Los Angeles band Buffalo Springfield although, much to his and Ostin's chagrin, the band was ultimately signed by Atlantic Records.

In 1967, another record company was acquired, Valiant Records and with it The Association was added to the Warner roster.

[edit] 1967-1969: transition and expansion

In November 1966 the entire Warner group was taken over by and merged with Seven Arts Productions. Owned by Elliot Hyman, Seven Arts was a New York-based company that specialized in syndicating old movies and cartoons to TV and had produced a number of significant features for other studios including Stanley Kubrick's Lolita, and forged a production partnership with the noted British studio Hammer Films. Hyman's purchase of Jack Warner's controlling share of the Warner group for US$32 million stunned the film world -- Warner Records executive Joe Smith later quipped that it was "... as if the Pasadena News bought The New York Times. As ludicrous as that."[18].

The newly-merged group was renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. Although Warner Bros. Pictures was faltering, the purchase coincided with a period of significant growth in the music business and Warner-Reprise was now well on the way to becoming a major player. Hyman's investment banker, Alan Hirshfeld of Charles Allen and Company, urged Hyman to expand the company's record holdings and arranged a meeting with Jerry Wexler and Ahmed and Nesuhi Ertegun. In 1968, using the profits from Warner-Reprise, Hyman purchased Atlantic for $17.5 million, adding the label's valuable archive and its roster of newly-signed artists to Warners' growing hoard of assets. However, the Warner/Reprise management were bitter about the fact that their hard-won profits had been co-opted to buy Atlantic, and that Atlantic's executives had become significant shareholders in Warner-Seven Arts -- the Ertegun brothers and Jerry Wexler between them held 66,000 shares of common stock

It soon became apparent that there was growing friction between the Atlantic chiefs and Mike Maitland, the Warner/Reprise president. Maitland believed that, as vice-president of the music division, he should have final say over all record operations, and he proposed that most of Atlantic's back-office functions (such as accounting and distribution) be combined with the existing departments at Warner/Reprise. In retrospect Ertegun clearly feared that Maitland would ultimately have more power than him and so he moved rapidly to secure his own position at Maitland's expense. Maitland had put off renegotiating the contracts of Joe Smith and Mo Ostin, the presidents of Warner Bros and Reprise. When Wexler -- now a major shareholder -- found out about this he and Ertegun began pressuring Elliot Hyman to get Smith and Ostin under contract, ostensibly because they were worried that the two executives might move to the labels -- and in fact Ostin had received overtures from both the MGM and ABC labels.

In 1969 the wisdom of Hyman's investments was proved when Kinney National Services purchased Warner-Seven Arts for $400 million -- more than eight times what Hyman had paid for Warner/Reprise and Atlantic together. From the base of his family's funeral parlour business, Kinney president Steve Ross had rapidly built the Kinney company into a profitable conglomerate with interests that included comic publishing, the Ashley-Famous talent agency, parking lots and cleaning services. Following the takeover, Warners' music group briefly adopted the 'umbrella' name Kinney Music, because U.S. anti-trust laws at the time prevented the three labels from trading as one; once resolved, Kinney rebadged the film and music group Warner Communications Inc.

Ertegun's campaign to undermine Maitland began that summer when Atlantic agreed to help Warner Bros in its efforts to establish its labels overseas, beginning with its soon-to-be-established Warner Bros subsidiary in Australia. However, when Warner executive Phil Rose arrived in Australia, discovered that just one week earlier Atlantic had signed a new four-year distribution deal with local label Festival Records (owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Limited). Warner president Mike Maitland complained bitterly to Kinney executive Ted Ashley, without success; as it turned out, Maitland was soon to be dumped as president of Warner Bros Records[19].

Ahmed Ertegun had the ear of Steve Ross, the Kinney president, and he urged Ross to extend Mo Ostin and Joe Smith's contracts, a recommendation Ross was happy to accept since he knew that the Warner labels were generating most of the group's profits. Ostin however had received overtures from other companies including MGM Records and ABC Records and when he met with Ertegun in January 1970 and was offered Maitland's job, he at first declined. In response, Ertegun hinted that he was going to take over the recording division and that Maitland's days were numbered.

Ostin was concerned that, if he accepted the position, the Warner Bros staff would feel that he had stabbed Maitland in the back, but his attorney convinced him that Maitland's departure was inevitable, regardless of whether or not he accepted the post (succinctly advising him, "Don't be a schmuck"). On Sunday January 25 Ted Ashley went to Maitland's house to tell him he had been dismissed, and Maitland declined the offer of a job at the movie studio. One week later Mo Ostin was named as the new President of Warner Bros Records, with Joe Smith as his Executive Vice-President[20].

[edit] 1970-1988: Warner Communications Inc. and WEA

Beginning back in 1967 with The Grateful Dead, Warner Bros. Records had steadily built up a prestigious roster of rock and pop artists. By the mid-1970s its signings included James Taylor, Van Morrison, hit-making pop-rock trio America, shock-rocker Alice Cooper, Little Feat, Bonnie Raitt, Seals & Crofts and LaBelle.

In 1975 expatriate British band Fleetwood Mac transferred to Warner Bros from its sister label Reprise, and their massive success in the late 1970s firmly established Warner Bros in the front rank of major record labels, although few would have predicted it from the band's tumultuous history between 1970 and 1975 -- there been multiple lineup changes (with only two original members remaining by 1974), their album sales declined, and a legal battle over the group's name kept them off the road for over a year.

However in 1975 the band was re-invigorated by the recruitment of American singer-guitarist-songwriter Lindsay Buckingham and his then girlfriend, singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks. The 'new' Fleetwood Mac scored a string of US and international hits with tracks lifted from their self-titled Warner Bros. debut album, which was a huge success -- it reached #1 on the US album chart, charted for more than 30 weeks and sold more than 5 million copies. In 1977, despite major internal problems, they produced their now-legendary Rumours LP, which similarly generated a string of hit singles and became even more successful -- Rumours is currently ranked the 11th biggest selling album of all time and as of 2009 it has accrued sales of more than 24 million copies.

Throughout the 1970s Warner Bros. also benefitted from its distribution deals with independent labels such as Straight Records, DiscReet Records, Bizarre Records, Bearsville Records and Geffen Records (which was sold to MCA in 1990).

[edit] 1989-2004: the Time Warner era

In 1989, Warner Communications was acquired by Time Inc. to create Time Warner. In 1991, WEA was renamed Warner Music. In 1994, Seagram acquired a stake in Time Warner.

[edit] 2004-present: Warner Music Group

In 2003, amid management disputes, sagging share prices and rising alarm about the impact of digital file sharing, Time Warner decided to unload its music operations. In March 2004, Time Warner's music assets were acquired by private equity group headed by Thomas H. Lee Partners, Lexa Partners (led by Edgar Bronfman Jr., who put up US$150 million drawn from his family's stake in Vivendi), Bain Capital and Providence Equity Partners. The deal set the group's value at around US$2.6 billion, payable in cash and other considerations, and it included an option that would allow Time Warner to buy back in if conditions proved favorable. Bronfman, Lee, Bain and Providence had reportedly recouped their investment by May 2006 through dividends, refinancing and a share offer floated in May 2005.

Today Warner Bros. Records remains one of Warner Music Group's dominant labels, with around 120 artists on its roster.

Despite the divestiture, WMG currently enjoys a royalty-free license from Time Warner for the use of Warner Bros. trademarks although this could be revoked if WMG becomes under control of a major motion picture studio.[21]

American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi was appointed to vice president of A&R in 2008.

[edit] Affiliated labels

[edit] Current

[edit] Former

[edit] Artists

Main article: List of current Warner Bros. Records artists
Main article: List of former Warner Bros. Records artists

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Warner Music Group - Overview
  2. ^ Fred Goodman, The Mansion on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen, Springsteen and the Head-on Collision of Rock and Commerce (Jonathon Cape, London, 1997, ISBN 0-224-05062-1), p.44
  3. ^ Goodman, 1997, pp.43-44
  4. ^ Goodman, 1997, p.44-45
  5. ^ Jon Pareles, James Conkling obituary, New York Times, 17 April 1998
  6. ^ Goodman, 1997, p.45
  7. ^ Goodman, 1997, p.45-46
  8. ^ a b Goodman, 1997, p.46
  9. ^ Frederick Dannen, Hitmen: Powerbrokers and Fast Money Inside The Music Business (Vintage Books, London, 1991, ISBN0-09-981310-6), p.121
  10. ^ a b c d Goodman, 1997, p.47
  11. ^ Goodman, 1997, pp.88-90
  12. ^ Goodman, 1997, pp.88-90
  13. ^ Goodman, 1997, p.48
  14. ^ Goodman, 1997, p.51
  15. ^ Goodman, 1997, p.49
  16. ^ http://www.answers.com/topic/lenny-waronker
  17. ^ Goodman, 1997, p.65
  18. ^ Goodman, 1997, p.138
  19. ^ Goodman, 1997, p.146
  20. ^ Goodman, 1997, pp.146-147
  21. ^ Warner Music Group 2008 Form 10-K

[edit] External links

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Warner Music Group
Atlantic Records Group
Independent Label Group
Rhino Entertainment
Frank Sinatra Enterprises (FSE) · Rhino Records · Warner Custom Products · WMG Film, Television & Commercial Licensing
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Asylum Records · Nonesuch Records · Reprise Records · Sire Records · Warner Bros. Records Nashville · Word Records
Distribution
Music Publishing
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Management
Edgar Bronfman, Jr. · Mike Caren · Lyor Cohen · Julie Greenwald · Jac Holzman · Robert Hurwitz · John Janick
Craig Kallman · Kevin Liles · Todd Moscowitz · Scott Pascucci · Dairmuid Quinn · Seymour Stein · Cees Wessels · Tom Whalley
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