“Panos’ Brew” is Sonicbids founder/CEO Panos Panay’s weekly (or more) post about whatever happens to be on his mind. Look for musings and observations on entrepreneurship, the state of the music business, his experiences with members, interesting things he’s seen in his travels, or just about anything else.
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I know, I know. You would expect a guy like me to make a comment like this.
On my way back from grabbing lunch with Jeff here, we started talking about a type of personality that’s become extinct in the record business: the swashbuckling entrepreneur, the big personality, the brash young trailblazer that’s loved and feared at the same time. You know, David Geffen. Clive Davis. Chris Blackwell. Richard Branson. Berry Gordy. Sam Phillips. Irving Azoff. Brian Epstein. The people that gave the world the modern record business. 
Here’s a list of artists and music that, had it not been for these guys, most of us may have never heard of: Elvis Presley, the Sex Pistols, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, The Eagles, The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, U2, Bob Marley, and the list goes on and on.
Like in sports, you need personalities for people to care (one reason why soccer in the States has not taken off). Big personalities attract attention, money, other creative types, and yes, they help bolster innovation and growth. Look at any business out there. The oil business had Rockefeller. The car business had Ford. The personal computer business had Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. The search business has the Google Guys. And so on.
The famous management guru, Peter Drucker, says that if you want to gauge the prospects of an industry, take look at its ability to attract top-notch young talent. When I was a kid, everyone wanted to work for a record label. Can you honestly name one person under 20 that genuinely dreams of going into the record business?
If there is to be a record business in the next 10 years (heck, the next 5 years for that matter) the industry needs to desperately work to attract the very kinds of personalities that made it such a fun (and lucrative, and innovative) business for such a long time. We can talk about all the negatives of the industry but can anyone argue with the fact that our shared cultural history would be poorer had Sam Phillips not recorded Elvis, or Chris Blackwell passed on U2, or Berry Gordy ignored a young Michael Jackson that danced for him by his pool?
But I am not taking about the major label world. I am talking about the ability for artists tomorrow to make a living through recorded music. And for that to happen we need innovation. We need entrepreneurship. We need capital. We need risk takers. We need the next generation of big personalities.
Panos
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