WMG's Cohen Takes Fearless Approach

Lyor Cohen

While the last few years have brought some scary times to the major music companies, under the leadership of Chairman/CEO LYOR COHEN, the only "Panic" at the WARNER MUSIC GROUP has been "At The Disco."

Following an encouraging uptick in the numbers at WMG, COHEN answered some questions for the LOS ANGELES TIMES' CHARLES DUHIGG, and touted his company's new structure. "Right after joining WARNER, I asked for special funding to start an incubator system to build relationships with young executives outside the company," said COHEN. "That's how we found PANIC! AT THE DISCO. The band's manager, a guy in his 20s named JOHN JANICK at the FUELED BY RAMEN Co, is one of the best record execs I've ever met. I expect him to be an integral member of our management team, but in today's music industry, we wouldn't have discovered him if we didn't try this experiment."

Experimenting and taking risks is part of the culture at the new WMG, according to COHEN. "My background lets me teach my executives not to fear mistakes... There's going to be a lot of dead ends and embarrassing mistakes. But, we have to take risks if this industry is going to thrive."

COHEN added, "The only way to encourage risk-taking is to take risks yourself, which means sometimes you'll fail, or people will say you are too aggressive or controversial. But someone needs to jump in the pool first for a party to get really great. I've always been willing to be that guy."

Read the entire article in the LA TIMES by clicking here. 

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