>From today's Nashville Tennessean:
Shakeup swallows Decca
By Jay Orr and Tom Roland / Tennessean Staff Writers
Decca Records closed shop, Mercury Records trimmed its artist roster, and
MCA Records fired staff yesterday as Nashville felt the impact of a
national corporate overhaul.
Decca, a historically significant label in Nashville, was a subsidiary
of MCA Records. MCA's parent company, Seagram, bought Mercury's parent
company, PolyGram, last year, and yesterday slashed staff and artist
rosters in all of its offices. The moves are designed to streamline the
umbrella company Universal Music Group, which distributes music from all
the merged labels.
Five hundred employees were terminated nationally at numerous labels,
with 700 more cuts expected within the next nine months.
"In the end we'll have a fairly lean organization as these labels are
merged. ... It gives us an advantage in terms of our margins," said a
source within the company. "When you have the best of the best of two
rosters going out through a leaner organization, you're in pretty good
shape."
Country hitmakers Mark Chesnutt, Lee Ann Womack and Gary Allan are all
being shifted from the Decca roster to MCA. The label's remaining artists
-- including Dolly Parton and Rhett Akins -- were let go. No artists
already signed to MCA were terminated.
Mercury dropped honky-tonk favorite John Anderson, comedian Rodney
Carrington and newcomer Jenny Simpson, whose debut album had not yet been
released. The label also cut one support staffer in its marketing
department.
The consolidation created confusion across Music Row yesterday.
Universal, however, acknowledged its moves with a sketchy, unspecific
three-paragraph release issued from its West Coast office. Local
employees were tight-lipped.
Mercury Nashville and MCA Nashville will continue as separate labels
under the agreement. Mercury still will be led by president Luke Lewis.
MCA Nashville remains under the direction of chairman Bruce Hinton and
president Tony Brown.
Mark Wright, who was in charge of finding talent and songs for Decca, is
expected to move to MCA. The label held discussions with him yesterday to
work out the details. Enzo DeVincenzo, a regional record promoter based
in Dallas, will also shift from Decca to MCA.
The remainder of the Decca staff -- seven full-time and four temporary
employees -- lost their jobs. Two of the employees who are now without
jobs had been associated with MCA and Decca for at least 14 years --
marketing executive Phil Hart and Shelia Shipley Biddy. When Decca
reopened, Shipley became the first woman to jointly head a major record
label in Nashville.
Some of the employees who were ousted experienced both disappointment and
relief at yesterday's developments, which ended three months of
uncertainty about their futures.
No MCA artists were let go. The MCA roster includes George Strait, Vince
Gill, Reba McEntire and Trisha Yearwood. MCA let six employees go,
according to a source with close ties to the company.
Those remaining at Mercury include such successful mainstream country
acts as Shania Twain, Toby Keith, Terri Clark, Sammy Kershaw, Kathy
Mattea and Mark Wills. Mercury also boasts a stable of quality
alternative country and roots-rock acts, such as Neil Coty, Kim Richey
and William Topley.
Seagram's $10.4 billion buyout of PolyGram was finalized Dec. 10, with an
expectation that combining labels would save $300 million.
"While change is always difficult, the restructuring of the labels is
necessary for us to be more competitive, develop artists' careers and
pave the way for meaningful growth in the future," the Universal release
stated.
Nationally, the consolidation realigned a number of labels, including
Island, Geffen, A&M and Interscope. As many as three-quarters of the
labels' acts may be purged, according to the current issue of Rolling
Stone. Artists on those labels include Sheryl Crow, U2, Aerosmith, Beck
and B.B. King. Boyz II Men was officially shifted yesterday from Motown
Records to Universal Records.
The timing was particularly ironic for country singer Mark Chesnutt, who
kicked off a Seagram-sponsored three-month tour Wednesday at Ryman
Auditorium. Chesnutt's version of the Aerosmith pop hit I Don't Want to
Miss a Thing is the only Decca or MCA single currently in country's Top
10, and an album of the same name is slated for a Feb. 9 release date.
The album still is expected to hit stores that day.
Reflecting the confusion surrounding the event, Dolly Parton still did
not know by 5:30 p.m. yesterday that Decca had dropped her, a Parton
spokesman said.
When an artist is dropped by the record label, the act essentially
becomes a free agent, able to pursue a recording deal with other
companies. When, for example, Steve Wariner and Arista Records parted
ways last year, Wariner received offers from several Nashville labels,
eventually signing with Capitol.
The merger also may affect Nashville-based rock acts. Pop-rock group The
Evinrudes' self-titled debut album was released on DAS/Mercury in
September 1998, and roots rocker Matthew Ryan's debut Mayday was released
on A&M Records in October 1997. Both labels are part of the Universal
Music Group.
"We haven't received any word that we will be cut from the label," Sherry
Cothran, lead singer for The Evinrudes, said. "We're trying to stay clear
of all the rumors, because rumors can kill your spirit, and it usually
turns out they're not true."
Steve Karas, an A&M publicist who's been shifted to Interscope, said he
likely would not have any word on Ryan's status until next week.
Decca's shut-down continues a local trend of label closings that has been
predicted -- and even welcomed -- in many quarters of Music Row. At the
beginning of the decade, country music had only six major labels. But as
country exploded in the early '90s, most of the major record companies
attempted to increase their share of the market by establishing sister
labels. The number of labels ballooned to more than 20.
At the same time, consolidation in radio led to smaller playlists,
meaning more labels were bombarding radio -- the genre's primary means of
exposure -- with more artists at a time when fewer records are receiving
airplay.
As the country boom subsided, many of the labels have faced tougher
times. Among the country companies that have bitten the dust are
PolyGram-affiliated A&M Records, MCA firm Rising Tide Entertainment,
Arista sister Career Records, Geffen-distributed Almo Sounds and Capitol
sister Patriot Records. RCA sister label BNA Records was also scaled
back, with the two labels under more central control.
Staff Writer Rick de Yampert contributed to this report
Artists' standing, chronology, profile of Decca
Tennessean Staff
Facts on Decca
Decca opened in England in 1929.
The company's American operation opened in 1934.
A&R man Paul Cohen began recording Decca artists in Nashville in 1947.
Owen Bradley joined Cohen as an assistant in 1949.
Owen Bradley took over Decca's Nashville office in 1958.
Music Corporation of America (MCA) purchased Decca in 1966.
Decca changed its name to MCA in 1973.
MCA reactivated Decca on Jan. 3, 1994.
Seagram, MCA's parent company, bought PolyGram on Dec. 10 for $10.4
billion.
Decca shut down a second time yesterday in the corporate merger.
Mark Chesnutt, Lee Ann Womack and Gary Allan shifted from the Decca
roster to MCA. Dolly Parton, Rhett Akins among those let go.
Nationally, artists who could be affected include Sheryl Crow, U2,
Aerosmith and Beck.
Decca artists moving to MCA
Mark Chesnutt
Gary Allan
Lee Ann Womack
Dropped Decca artists
Rhett Akins
Chris Knight
Dolly Parton
Rebecca Lynn Howard
Danni Leigh
Shane Stockton
Who's still where
Among the artists still recording for labels involved in yesterday's
record company merger:
MCA: Tracy Byrd, Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, George Strait, Marty Stuart,
Chely Wright, Trisha Yearwood.
Mercury: Terri Clark, Billy Ray Cyrus, Toby Keith, Sammy Kershaw, Kathy
Mattea, Shania Twain and Mark Wills.
Decca earned industry's respect
The Carter Family, Ernest Tubb, Red Foley, Bill Monroe and Kitty Wells
helped make Decca Records one of the most respected label names in
country music.
Decca's Paul Cohen was the first producer to record country artists
regularly in Nashville, beginning in 1947.
Producer Owen Bradley began working with Cohen in 1949, and when Cohen
became head of Coral Records in 1958 Bradley took over the Nashville
operation, using his Quonset hut studio and an adjoining house as Decca's
Nashville division.
Bradley continued to build Decca's reputation as a country music giant,
signing Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, Bill Anderson, Loretta Lynn and Conway
Twitty, among others.
Music Corporation of America (MCA) bought Decca in 1962, making it an
official part of the company in 1966. In 1973 MCA put all its music
divisions under the MCA name, retiring the Decca tag. At the time,
company officials offered to let the Nashville division keep the Decca
name, but Bradley discouraged them.
"I said, 'I don't think we ought to do that,' " Bradley said in a 1993
interview. " 'That means we're like second-class people. You're going to
have this prestigious label (MCA) and work on all these other projects,
and our stuff will always be limited.' "
In 1994, MCA's Nashville division reactivated the Decca name and
installed Sheila Shipley Biddy as senior vice president and general
manager of the label, making her the first woman in Nashville to jointly
head a major label.
Mark Chesnutt, an MCA artist, moved to Decca in 1994 as the label's
flagship artist. The final roster included Chesnutt, Lee Ann Womack, Gary
Allan, Chris Knight, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Shane Stockton, Danni Leigh,
Dolly Parton and Rhett Akins.
Cohen and Bradley are members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Merger made world's largest music company
Seagram Co., announced plans in May to purchase PolyGram from Philips
Electronics for $10.4 billion. The merger of Universal and PolyGram music
groups under one umbrella, completed in December, formed the largest
music company in the world.
Montreal-based Seagram unveiled plans to restructure the music operations
in order to cut $300 million in yearly costs.
While outlining the consolidation, the company initially said it would
have little or no effect on the Nashville operations of Mercury and MCA,
with Bruce Hinton and Tony Brown remaining at the helm of MCA Nashville
and Luke Lewis continuing as president of Mercury Nashville.
Country music market share
The merger of Universal and PolyGram gives Universal Music Group the
lion's share of the country music market. The following figures represent
1998 market share for major distributors, adjusted for the merger.
Universal Music Group
Labels: Mercury, MCA.
Market share: 20.1%.
Artists: Shania Twain, Vince Gill, George Strait.
(Universal formerly accounted for 16.6%, PolyGram 12.5%.)
EMI Distribution
Label: Capitol.
Market share: 19.6%.
Artists: Garth Brooks, Deana Carter, Steve Wariner.
WEA
Labels: Warner, Reprise, Curb, Atlantic, Giant.
Market share: 19.6%.
Artists: Travis Tritt, Wilkinsons, LeAnn Rimes.
BMG
Labels: RCA, Arista, BNA.
Market share: 15.7%.
Artists: Alabama, Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn.
Sony
Labels: Columbia, Epic, Monument.
Market share: 11.8%.
Artists: Dixie Chicks, Patty Loveless, Ricochet.
Independents
Market share: 4.3%.
Source: SoundScan, Billboard
