TOPLINE FROM THE DESK OF FOUNDER, RECORDS LLC Barry Weiss In his first interview as a “major-label refugee,” the former Jive boss on his deal with SONGS, data-driven A&R and Adele “I never feel like I’m beyond learning. You always have to evolve,” BY SHIRLEY HALPERIN says Weiss, photographed Dec. 21, 2015 at his office in New York. PHOTOGRAPHED BY JAI LENNARD ARRY WEISS’ ROOTS IN THE In figuring out the next steps after exiting Adele’s 25 broke the record previously music business run deep. His Universal, what was your thinking? held by ’N Sync while you were running Bfather, Hy Weiss, was among That I wanted to get back to the music and Jive. Did you see that coming? the industry’s more colorful early the artists. I realized that this is my passion, Absolutely not. It’s a miracle, an players, producing and releasing hit records but it’s also my hobby — I don’t play golf, otherworldly scenario. She is touching in the 1950s and 1960s and eventually and how much can you exercise? I love people who haven’t bought music in selling his Old Town label to Atlantic in this, for better or for worse. I took a lot of probably 10 years. It’s like Barbra Streisand 1970. Son Barry also saw a music company meetings and was thinking about how to reinvented overnight on steroids. I wish we grow firsthand, joining Zomba Publishing re-enter in a somewhat unconventional could say a rising tide lifts all boats, but I founder Clive Calder in launching Jive manner so I’m not just another record guy. 1 Dan Charnas’ hip- don’t know where it goes from here. Records in 1982 at the age of 23. Some 15 hop history The Big Payback adorns a table years into Weiss’ tenure there, the BMG- What did you see in SONGS? in Weiss’ office. Weiss Did your dad pass down pointers that backed label would have off-the-charts Matt Pincus and Ron Perry. Matt is super credits “many years of you still apply? success with such acts as Britney Spears, smart and strategic, and Ron is a great experience in rap music Lots. Don’t have the ego, let the artist be and dealmaking” for Justin Timberlake and Chris Brown, creative guy — they’re young, fresh and signing ILoveMemphis. front and center; a hit record is like a tennis even breaking the album sales record with doing things differently. Also, SONGS is 2 A gift to commemorate ball in water — you can’t keep it down; stay the 25th anniversary of ’N Sync’s No Strings Attached in 2000 — a the closest thing I’ve seen to what Zomba A Tribe Called Quest’s close to the music and the artist. feat that held until Adele’s 25 in 2015. was, but they didn’t have a recorded-music debut album, People’s Instinctive Travels and Anything you miss about the majors? In 2004, BMG merged with Sony, and component, like Jive did. Still, there is a the Paths of Rhythm. seven years later, Weiss exited the Sony very active publishing company with strong 3 RECORDS’ work-in- The infrastructure — [how] you pressed a system and moved to Universal, where he A&R there that really adds value. progress offices are button and everything moved. But I never shared with SONGS, oversaw East Coast operations for Island which received these had a problem doing heavy lifting or rolling and Def Jam. But three years after taking The music industry is more data-driven gold plaques from the up my sleeves. I could be macro or micro. than ever before. How does that affect Canadian performing- the job, he left a free agent or, as he says, “a rights organization I’m finding this cathartic, challenging and major-label refugee.” Newly independent, the way you do business? SOCAN. energizing at the same time. 0 the 56-year-old married father of two Data is being used for A&R purposes — grown sons (the younger, Michael, works both pre-emptively, in terms of what to for Spears’ manager Adam Leber at sign, and as a postmortem evaluation of a Maverick) decided to launch RECORDS, project — but it doesn’t change a joint venture with New York-based the fact that you have to apply SONGS Publishing (Lorde, The Weeknd) gut instincts and ears in the announced in February 2015 that has process. Data should be part of scored hits with Nelly’s “The Fix” and your analysis. 12 ILoveMemphis’ “Hit the Quan,” which reached No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. How is RECORDS’ approach to A&R A small but nimble operation of six full- different from that of the majors? time staffers with the distribution might There’s oversigning and overmarketing at of Sony RED, RECORDS has no job titles the major-label level, and it’s hard to focus (“David Geffen-style — politics pollute on that amount [of acts]. I don’t know how the creative process,” says Weiss) and much can really fit in the pipeline. It’s an considers itself still “in beta.” He adds: inventory approach, and we’re trying to “I’m in the game and feel optimistic, but I avoid that here. Our goal is quality over won’t be gratified until we have real critical quantity: Work fewer records with longer- 3 mass with a great artist roster.” term tenacity. 16 BILLBOARD | JANUARY 16, 2016.