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Guy Hands Attacks 'Lazy' A&R Men

His staff must love him...

Guy Hands Attacks 'Lazy' A&R Men
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EMI boss Guy Hands has once again enamoured himself with his employees by calling the label’s A&R men “lazy”.

Hands says he wants the job of spotting new talent to be handed over to “the suits” because they work a lot harder at selling the music.

Hands was speaking at the Super Return private equity and venture capital summit in Munich when he said : "The power and the decision has sat with the A&R man, who is someone who gets up late in the day, listens to lots of music, goes to clubs, spends his time with artists and has a knack of knowing what would sell."
 
Hands added: "What we are doing is taking the power away from the A&R guys and putting it with the suits - the guys who have to work out how to sell music."

He also castigated some of EMI’s imprints for the money they spend on marketing, saying: "You might as well have put a £50 note on the CD - it probably would have done better."
(9)
  • Haha Guy Hands is sending music to hell in a handcart. If the ’suits’ start signing bands expect a million James Blunts for the Mums.

    ~ by Buy Lands 2/28/2008

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  • what a cock! This guy will run EMI to the ground.

    ~ by jan 2/28/2008

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  • I like the idea of £50 note on a CD.

    ~ by Andrew 2/28/2008

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  • Ha Ha... more suits, right. Seems like Mr. Hands is giving The Finger to the life’s blood of his business. Future headline: ”It’s the Who-Cares... Playing in front of Nobody!”

    ~ by sk 2/28/2008

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  • What a douche, everything he said about them being a liability, is actually why they are an asset. Good luck with that...

    ~ by Fuzz 2/29/2008

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  • This should come as no surprise. All the really popular music right now comes from people who were manufactured by the very same ’suits” that Mr. Hand is talking about. It’s the very same people that get all the financial backing from the ”suits” in order to promote their career and music. Major label music sucks and has for a very long time. One has to search high and low to find meaningful music these days. The majors only care about market penetration, desirable

    ~ by C.T. 2/29/2008

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  • He’s right music sucks right now.Hey any company that only listens to bean counters is gonna suck. Soon enough a new(old) sound will come along and all those suits will be desperate to sign the stuff they ignored(again) and we will all be happy for a year or 2.

    ~ by reality 2/29/2008

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  • i worked for emi for 10 years and for everyones information, emi was run into the ground by a&r and other do-nothing, know-nothing executives. guy hands is emi’s last hope. please save your comments for something you actually know about.

    ~ by ex-emi employee 2/29/2008

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    • you most probably do know a lot about the music business and the infrastructure of an industry that sells music to masses but i worry that generic music with the business potential to be exploited in order to generate capital will be chosen instead of music by people who play from their hearts and sound ace. Actually fuck it, that’s gone on for years.

      ~ by indeed 3/25/2008


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