What Hova Did Next
DocMcCoy
"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
OK, the story is Jay-Z's contract as CEO of Island Def Jam is up for renewal, but he isn't going to renew it. Instead, the rumours have it, he is off to Apple to head up their planned recorded music division. The twist here is that there'll be no physical product released by this label. At all. At least Rihanna's worldwide success is a nice leaving present for whoever follows him.
Comments
Said label will be download only huh, that's effing weak.
No real world object, shit kinda bums me out.
And seems like a suspect business model as well,
even though CD sales are down they still account for
70-80% of the market.
I want the Jigga IPhone......
I've heard the same rumor but at the time (this was about three weeks ago), it seemed to be at the level of strictly idle chatter. It wasn't just Jay though - Beyonce was going to be the other person in charge of the division. Seemed...implausible but have you heard something more confirmed?
Nothing else other than the news that he's definitely not renewing his CEO contract, and that IDJ don't have a replacement lined up. I understood it was always his intention to be a one-term president anyway. And you're the second person today I've heard mention Beyonce in connection with this story. Her contract with Sony BMG is up soon as well, I understand. This could be interesting.
I'm not sure what Beyonce's interest in this would be. Not saying she wants to be an artist for life but has she done much exec work at all? And shit - did Jobs bother to check Jay's trackrecord at Def Jam? I thought it was considered pretty unspectacular considering that most of the biggest acts were all signed before he got there.
The new LA Reid and Pebbles, maybe?
Like I say, the fact that Rihanna has blown up worldwide is probably enough to enable him to walk away without being considered a complete failure, although there's little else during his tenure that's performed anything like as well. I can only presume that Jobs is after a couple of marquee names/faces to gain the maximum profile possible for this venture.
Has any other label put out even half as many platinum rap acts during the past year? Jay put out at least four. Pretty good considering the state of the industry. Has any other label managed to even put out two?
If you know what the numbers that went into promoting those projects are and can offer an informed analysis then fine, but all I've heard from anybody purporting to critique his presidency so far has just been ignorance and ass-hurt.
Another thought is they want Jayz and Beyonce to be their first artists signed and giving them ceo titles is part of the price of signing. OK, that makes sense forget everything else I wrote.
I think it would be a bad move and worse look for either artists to not release physical product.
I heard the same rumor, but it was about jimmy iovine. In any case, once apple gets this going it will be one of the only things that could potentialy save the music buisiness.
According to that Live Earth concert, it's much more earth friendly to download albums than it is to buy cds. They said this repeatedly. It was almost like "kill the record industry, save the planet."
Anyone hear about the Apple/Hasbro Transformer CD? It's one physical cd and booklet that can take the shape of your entire downloaded music collection and be played on any cd player. I've got a prototype from a friend of mine.
In any event this label creation by apple should be an interesting move if it is true.
You could rock one next to your D.Wade Sidekick!
They sorted all that out. Beatles on iTunes = inevitable.