One of the most storied – and controversial – executives in the history of the record industry, Walter Yetnikoff was head of CBS Records from 1975 to 1990. Over the course of his career at CBS, he oversaw an explosive growth in record sales (both by his label group and the industry at large), became embroiled in numerous feuds with artists and rival executives, and presided over the sale of the CBS label group to Sony in 1988. Along the way, he made the careers of a who’s who of modern rock and pop music – Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and Billy Joel among them. Today, Yetnikoff runs a small boutique label and is an in-demand public speaker. His memoir, Howling at the Moon: Confessions of a Music Mogul in an Age of Excess, was published in 2004.
In this panel held at a 2007 meeting of the American Bar Association on how substance abuse should be handled among lawyers, managers, and corporate management in the music industry, panelists Bruce Phillips, Philip Lyon (both attorneys) and Walter Yetnikoff (former head of CBS records) discuss the ethical, legal and business dimensions of drug use among employees or clients. Lyon, who is currently publishing findings on the ethical dimension of this issue, shares his thoughts on what the actual duties are of a lawyer to a client who has a drug problem, and Yetnikoff draws on his extensive music industry experience to provide historical perspective, first-hand experience, and some hard lessons learned about the right and wrong ways to deal with drug issues. The panel also debates where to draw the line between confidentiality and ethical/legal responsibility, and discuss how disclosure regulations such as the Sarbanes/Oxley Act can complicate the decision-making process and aftermath of dealing with substance abuse in a client or employee.
Walter Yetnikoff, the legendary former head of CBS Records, speaks frankly and on the record at a meeting of the American Bar Association in 2008 about his opinion of author Fred Dannen and his book Hit Men, why major labels today are failing to capitalize on the new artists they sign, and why the record industry has thus far completely missed out on the internet music revolution.
Walter Yetnikoff, the legendary former head of CBS Records, shares his opinion of Fred Dannen and his book Hit Men (which is in part an airing of dirty laundry from Yetnikoff’s CBS days), at a meeting of the American Bar Association in 2008.
Walter Yetnikoff, the legendary former head of CBS Records, shares his thoughts at a meeting of the American Bar Association on the tendency of record label management to abandon an artist if they don’t meet with immediate success, instead of working through periods of lower album sales (or revenue) to build a lasting market for that artist’s music. He illustrates his argument with an analysis of the career of Bruce Springsteen, who was on CBS during Yetnikoff’s tenure.
In this clip from a panel held at a 2007 meeting of the American Bar Association on handling substance abuse problems in clients or company settings, former head of CBS Records Walter Yetnikoff discusses the nature of addiction and how the music business historically has handled substance use and abuse. He then shares his thoughts on what a responsible manager or attorney ought to take into account when approaching the issue of substance abuse among his staff or clients.
Walter Yetnikoff, the legendary former head of CBS Records, takes a few minutes at a meeting of the American Bar Association to explain why internet and new-media companies are eating the lunch of the major labels in today’s music marketplace. He also discusses what the major labels could do to reassert their dominant role in the music marketplace, and why the management of those labels makes it unlikely that they will ever manage to do so.
In this clip from a panel held at a 2007 meeting of the American Bar Association on handling substance abuse problems in clients or company settings, former head of CBS Records Walter Yetnikoff discusses how addictions were handled when he first started in the music industry, and assesses what the industry as a whole has learned from the aftermath of that time. He then talks in specific terms about what he recommends that management do about drug use, drug sharing, and evident substance abuse issues in the workplace.
In this clip from a panel held at a 2007 meeting of the American Bar Association on handling substance abuse problems in clients or company settings, former head of CBS Records Walter Yetnikoff shares his thoughts on the duty of, for example, the General Counsel of a company who discovers a substance abuse problem on the staff, and how such a situation might best be handled.
In this clip from a panel held at a 2007 meeting of the American Bar Association on handling substance abuse problems in clients or company settings, the panelists discuss whether there are any sure winning strategies for approaching difficult substance abuse cases.
In this clip from a panel held at a 2007 meeting of the American Bar Association on handling substance abuse problems in clients or company settings, the panelists discuss how accounting and reporting regulations apply to disclosure and confidentiality issues surrounding what lawyers discover about substance abuse in the workplace, and how they affect the legal and business dimensions of disclosure decisions.
