Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Warner Records

Not your parents' Warners!
After going the way of Glastonbury this past year, I'm back.
Warner Bros Records are no more, being reborn as just Warner Records. This was a surprise, although their licence from former sister company Warner Bros. ran out, a decade and a half after Warner Music Group spun off of Time Warner (since sold to AT&T), which was orchestrated by Edgar Bronfman Jnr, who also did the same for Universals purchase of PolyGram in 1999, only for them to separate from their former parent studio.  I have tagged artists with a tag who have been on Warner or Reprise, at least in the US and Canada if not worldwide.
The label moved across town from Burbank to downtown LA propers arts district.
There have been mixed reactions to this, but I think this is a new beginning.  I'm looking forward to seeing new releases on the new label, although Duran Duran and Liam Gallagher are the only ones I know so far confirmed to have one, and Fleetwood Mac have considered one with their newest lineup.   For back releases, I still have both (Duran mostly on sister label Parlophone) as well as a-ha, Black Sabbath and Depeche Mode (North America), Alanis Morissette, and related artists to get, mainly on LP.  For anything that has yet to be reissued, it could have the old logo on it to make it look accurate.  The Smiths were reissued on it as wea was retired as a label after the sale.
With all that's going on in the world these days, this is a mere change in strategy and we should embrace this.  Several catalogue releases have already been reissued with the new label.