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Tim Wipperman's avatar

John, that commentary is so spot on. I ran Warner Publishing in Nashville for 29 yrs. Not a lot different in company persona from the record company. We had wonderful, dedicated people who loved music and the creators behind it.

Early on the company gave us the latitude to stick with an artist or writer for an extended time. Knox and I pitched Jason Aldean to every record company, some twice, and couldn't get arrested. But the CEO let us continue for years because we 'knew' he was a star.

Now thats just not the business except in very rare occasions at majors. The indies have become the de facto A+R development platforms.

Its neither good or bad, it just is what it is.

John Strohm's avatar

Thank you Tim!

clarke's avatar

this is a great piece! unfortunately, you are one of the few music lawyers to actually have been an artist! kudos to you - because you are fighting the good fight! i'm sure Loyola's School Of Music, here in new orleans, is on your lecture radar? if you make it here, get in touch!!! xxxcm

John Strohm's avatar

I don’t reach out to schools, they reach out to me. So no, I haven’t heard from them. Though I think my good friend George Howard has taught there from time to time.

clarke's avatar

well, i will see about working on it from this end!!

Biscuit's avatar

There's been some discourse of late around the "death of music journalism" with the recent elimination of several long standing online/print outlets. Several people said they felt "the fix was in" with most music journalists and it was just payola PR in disguise. Where do you see that part of the music industry machine evolving to aid in artist publicity?