Warner Music Group CEO Max Lousada has given an insight into his future plans for the company in a new interview with Music Week.
Lousada, who was presented with The Strat by Dua Lipa at last week's Music Week Awards and graces the cover of our latest edition, said establishing a "clear identity" was crucial to the label.
"I want Warner to be seen to create a rich offering that is very dynamic and different from our competition," he said. "The definition of success will be that we have a very clear identity.
"The fact that we’re privately owned and can buy, build and change at our own speed and to our own agenda means we’re uniquely placed."
Asked where he wanted Warner's business to be in five years' time, he said: “I want to be known to be able to really influence culture as a music company and to have the ability to service the aspiring beatmaker or guitarist or singer-songwriter and have a global solution to get his or her music and art shared. And to be with them for the rest of their career in whatever guise or relationship they need."
Lousada, who addresses the ever-unfolding digital revolution here, stressed the need to guard against complacency at a time of rude health for the business.
“Complacency is always a challenge when a narrative is about continuous growth," he said. "Because yes, subscriber growth is [constant] but that isn’t always replicated in value. You want your partners to be making money and to be healthy and futureproof.
"We want a diverse pool of partners, we don’t want a monopoly or two or three. We want to establish the value that we have in our deals to our artists and that is something that we’ll continue to work on. But the enthusiasm to bring in a new skillset and a new breed of digital-first executives, it’s wildly exciting how they can influence the make-up of the company. That’s thrilling, because there was a period of time when great people didn’t want to be in the music industry. But our ability to track some of the brightest minds in the world is now huge.”
Subscribers can read the full Max Lousada Music Week interview here.
