by TotallyUncool » Sun Nov 22, 2020 6:49 pm
I've had the impression for a long time that Avex occupies about the same position in the Japanese entertainment industry that Warner-Elektra-Atlantic did in the U.S. in the 70s:
WEA was huge, and its catalog (including subsidiary labels) seemed to account for a majority (probably by a large margin) of the acts signed to a major label during that era. But the trouble was that WEA had a tendency to sign everybody, and then let most of the groups they signed fade away out of neglect (or worse). As I understand it, promotion money frequently got siphoned away long before it would have reached lesser-known (or even medium-ranked) acts, and even some of the better-known groups had to continually tour in order to pay the label back for studio time. For a lot of lesser-known groups, just signing with WEA was a one-way ticket to nowhere - and by the late 70s, everybody even remotely associated with the industry knew it - which was, I think, one of the motivating factors for the rapid explosion of indie and artist-owned labels around that time. After all, if hitting the big time meant being buried in a landfill under a pile of some better-known act's promo giveaways, why even bother?
And when I became aware of Avex's place in the Japanese music industry, so much of what I was seeing seemed all too familiar. If an act had a major management/promotion company behind it, or if it was managed by Avex itself, it could do pretty well there. But if it had smaller/indie management, it likely to be stuck away in a closet somewhere and forgotten - while at the same time having to operate under Avex's creative control. And if an act was in direct competition with one managed by Avex, it might not even be a matter of neglect - it could be more like deliberate destruction, with both promotion and distribution drying up to almost nothing (as was the case, I suspect, with Parago, which was up against SweetS).
It's lousy that a lot of people on the business, A&R, and production side are getting pushed out (and it's not surprising that it includes people who have actually done the most for the company), and if they start dropping acts, performers who deserved a better deal than being signed with Avex in the first place will probably get hurt. But if Avex downsizes significantly (or even goes out of business entirely, which I don't think will happen), I think it may actually have a positive impact on the Japanese music industry as a whole.
If madness made us strong, we would all be invincible.
Back injuries are awful; I hope she has a smooth recovery.
A rather, uh, 