Atlantic Records is in a hot mess.
Last week, four main promo execs were laid off. But they weren’t alone. I’m told the company was gutted with 30 to 40 laid off throughout the staff.
This really hurts because Atlantic has had one bright spot all year: Alex Warren’s song “Ordinary,” which has stuck in the top 3 on the charts for weeks and weeks.
But that’s it for Atlantic. A new blow is a single drop last Friday by rapper Cardi B. “Imaginary Playerz” has only gotten as high as number 15 on iTunes. It hasn’t registered at all on Apple’s Top 100 Streaming list, or on Spotify. The song largely samples an old Jay Z hit called “Imaginary Players.”
Prior to this single, another one, called “Outside,” has amassed just 21,400 downloads, plus streaming that takes it up to over 400,000. But that doesn’t bode well for Cardi B — whose second full album (first in 7 years since her debut) — is coming on September 19th.
Ten months ago, Atlantic already slashed a huge number of executives as it fell under the control of Elliot Grainge, whose father is the legendary Universal Music chief Lucien Grainge. Elliot and his team promised lots of hits, and so on, but so far none of that has come to pass.
Atlantic is part of the Warner Music Group, which has its own problems overall and promises of more layoffs throughout the corporation. Warner Records itself has had more luck breaking acts — with Sombr coming up this Friday — but is still living on legacy acts. Two weeks ago Warner Records laid off and reorganized in the face of shrinking sales.
But what can these companies do? Streaming has eaten downloading and CDs, the latter destroyed. Sales are minimal. Releases are few and far between, with no headlining making artists other than Taylor Swift.
But what
