Tech Gains And The Music Industry Loses As Cory Ondrejka Leaves EMI
"Thanks EMI for great year and a half,
time to return to entrepreneurial roots, last day 21 Aug"
– Cory Ondrejka via Twitter
(Updated) With that tweet, recently promoted head of all things digital at EMI, Cory Ondrejka, announced that he would be leaving the company. Only days ago, Ondrejka had named his own team of global digital VP's . He joined the label group just 18 months ago from virtual world Second Life, which he co-founded.It's been a tumultuous time for EMI with former digital head Douglas Merrill leaving the company in March just a year after he had been recruited from Google. Serious questions also remain abut the companiys ability to meet massive debt obligation's. But the internet pundits speculate that a cultural clash is behind Ondrejka's move, and a record label controlled by London financiers is indeed a very different place than a California tech startup.
COMMENTARY: I had the pleasure of a hosting a panel with Cory at MidemNet in January and spending a bit of time with him. He is brilliant, curious and an original thinker; and he will certainly land well. Core re-entering tech is a real loss for the music industry, and while one should not naively believe that Silicon Valley has the answers that will save music, it does not bode well that some of its best and brightest can't seem to find a comfortable place there.
Cory, not Corey.
Loses, not looses.
I am certain you will catch this story sooner or later, but according to SitePro News, Twitters days may be numbered. It is being sued for patent infringement. The Texas based company suing has a pretty good case.
Just because someone is a brilliant and original thinker, doesn’t automatically mean that their experience and talent is transferable to another industry. I saw Doug Merrill speak at NARM last year and he came off as clueless, competely lacking in knowledge about music’s past, present or future, and he flipped his hair a lot. Oh, and he was quite fond of “air quotes”.
Perhaps Cory’s skills in creating virtual social worlds weren’t applicable to a music company – ever thought of that?
Like it or not, most of the people who excel in music have a passion for it and a history in some segment of the business. The non-music companies who have been successful (like iTunes/Apple) have plenty of ex-label people in the mix.
If Rick Rubin went to Second Life, I doubt he’d do any better there than Cory did at EMI. This should surprise no one.
Old Record Guy makes a very good point upstairs.
The general thought prevailing these days is that having an MBA is the only requirement to run a business.
The problem with this assumption is that there is a specific knowledge in every industry that anyone ignores at their own peril.
Cory and Doug seemed like very bright fellows,who would have done a whole lot of good on consulting roles, but being tech-heads, they naturally ignored the bacic rules of the musicbizz.
It´s good to remember that the music business started taking it´s current form 162 years ago , when a french composer named Ernest Bourget had a fight over his bill at a Paris cafe that was playing his songs.
Stop kissing ass. This isn’t a loss for music at all.