Dickon Stainer, head of the Decca Records Group, has been telling Billboard why he brought the label back from the dead and what he plans to do with it.
No more crossover, says Dickon: ”We’re not decrying the attraction of crossover but we need to pay attention to the classical music which is filling concert halls the world over.”
And no quick-fix solutions, either: ”Building a career like Pavarotti’s takes decades. That long-term planning can’t exist within the mentality of needing a hit in six months.”
All good news, right? He gets the point that classical music has its own dynamics and needs to be treated as a special case. Then he spoils it by saying “The classical industry can learn from digital innovation in the pop world, and the speed with which artists are being broken in pop needs to be mirrored, at least.”
Which must be why Decca is signing competition winners like Bezhod Abduraimov and breaking them overnight – not to mention footballers like the saxophone playing Tyler Rix, pictured with Dickon below.
Anyone spot a contradiction?
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