Sony Music Hires CEO Who Has Admitted He Doesn't Know How To Run A Modern Record Label

Back in 2007, we wrote about a rather stunning interview with (then) Universal Music CEO Doug Morris, done by Wired Magazine, in which he happily admitted that he was totally clueless on all issues important for running a record label in the modern world. He insisted that offering anything for free meant "someone, somewhere, is taking advantage of you." But the key part of the interview -- the really telling part was the following:

"There's no one in the record company that's a technologist," Morris explains. "That's a misconception writers make all the time, that the record industry missed this. They didn't. They just didn't know what to do. It's like if you were suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove his kidney. What would you do?"

Personally, I would hire a vet. But to Morris, even that wasn't an option. "We didn't know who to hire," he says, becoming more agitated. "I wouldn't be able to recognize a good technology person -- anyone with a good bullshit story would have gotten past me." Morris' almost willful cluelessness is telling. "He wasn't prepared for a business that was going to be so totally disrupted by technology," says a longtime industry insider who has worked with Morris. "He just doesn't have that kind of mind."

Think about that for a second. Here is the guy in charge of the largest record label in the world, telling a reporter that not only was he so clueless that he couldn't understand where the market is headed, but on top of that his own level of cluelessness was so entrenched that he wouldn't even know how to hire someone to help him understand where the future is. What shocked me was that he kept his job. I mean, if you were the board of directors of Universal, and the guy in charge of your company not only admitted that he didn't know what to do with the company, but then went on to admit that he didn't even know how to hire the right people to deal with the future, how do you let him keep his job?

Morris did finally step down a few years later, replaced by a guy with a similar philosophy. However, back in January, we heard rumors that Morris was headed to Sony Music -- and now it's official, as Morris has been named CEO of Sony Music.

Once again, I'm left scratching my head. So not only does he keep his job for years, but now another major record label hires the same guy who happily admitted he's not even remotely qualified for the job of running a major label? Nice going Sony.

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