Now that Warner Music Group is president/CEO Robert Kyncl had a full year at the helm of the major label, he released a New Year's memo to staff, which he received from Advertising signoutlining a plan to launch and build the company for the next 10 years of change in the music industry.
In the memo, Kyncl says he refers to the year 2024 as “The Year of the Next 10 – the year we move with speed to prepare for a victorious decade in the new world.”
“As we begin the new year, one thing I'd like us all to remember is that our world has changed radically… the music industry is in a very different place than it was 10 years ago,” Kyncl writes. “Now, we are in a position of strength. This is the time to move forward for the future.”
He then emphasizes three key areas he sees as critical for the coming year: increasing engagement with music; increasing the value of music. and the evolution of the team's way of working together.
In the first point, Kyncl breaks it down into four main points of focus. The first, he writes, is about A&R focusing more on capturing opportunities, including geography (“based on where artists and songwriters are coming from and where their streams are going”) and expectation, as well as identifying genres that will develop in the future. The second, in marketing, emphasizes collaboration between marketing, A&R, technology and business intelligence to better focus efforts and make better use of available data. The third, on catalog, emphasizes the ability to market and promote WMG's extensive catalog along the same lines as front-line music, particularly in digital optimization, given that catalog drives approximately 70% of consumption in the current market. And finally, he's emphasizing distribution and administration, strengthening both the services available to the “middle class of artists” and the management side of major label releases, which he wants to expand further.
The second point, which focuses on value, concerns the resolution in 2024 of some of the debates that began and came to dominate in 2023: namely, the value of artists and music on streaming platforms, as well as the issues surrounding the dilution of royal pool from liturgical music and white pieces. Kyncl has previously spoken about the importance of streaming services raising prices, which many have done in the past year, which he also points out. And finally, he stresses the need to further develop artist-proud relationships, which he calls “relatively untapped and underutilized,” though he notes that WMG already has initiatives in the works in many of these areas.
The last point, on collaboration, is about reorienting the way the WMG team works, including leaning towards expertise, transparency, flexibility, cross-departmental and intra-team collaboration, based on metrics and not afraid to lead rather than follow the industry.
Kyncl also takes time to highlight some of WMG's successes this past year, including big years from Zach Bryan, Jack Harlow and Gunna. returns from Dua Lipa, David Guetta and Ed Sheeran. and catalog wins for the music of David Bowie, Madonna and Talking Heads, among others, while we look forward to new music from Gabby Barrett, Maria Becerra, Green Day and more.
Looking at the last few decades in 10-year chunks is a useful way to get snapshots of how significantly things have changed. By 2004, the CD boom had stalled for good as piracy began to take chunks out of the record industry, and the business was in the midst of its protracted battle with piracy and the digital revolution. By 2014, the industry had essentially bottomed out, with recorded revenues reaching their nadir as streaming was introduced but had yet to become a viable, much less dominant, format for the business. Now, in 2024, with streaming the biggest source of revenue for an up-and-coming business, the revenue model is under intense scrutiny as new technologies and increasing fraud and volume threaten to overwhelm the now-established status quo.
In this regard, Kyncl sees this year as crucial to answering many of these big questions and preparing WMG for the next decade of business challenges and opportunities. “We will fuel the growth of this company using the same ingenuity and determination with which we grow our artists and songwriters,” he writes. “Because ultimately that's what will serve them best.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/business/record-labels/warner-music-ceo-robert-kyncl-2024-10-year-plan-1235577636/