Doug Morris gave a lengthy interview to Billboard in which he gets ample chance to repaint the picture the public might have of him. With much of the stuff he talks about in the first third of the interview he more or less confirms all stereotypes of him being an out-of-touch music business zsar, and Billboard’s Bill Werde really helps him remember the good ole times. But somewhere around halftime Werde gets into last year’s Wired story in which Morris didn’t look good at all. And even though he tries to downplay it, Morris sets the record straight – from his perspective:
“They can write whatever they want. I think they see things differently than I do. My job is to protect artists, the people that work here, the copyrights . . . they have a feeling that I stop technology by trying to stop companies from infringing on our products-that we stopped the growth of all these companies because we don’t like the use of our product without a license. I think that’s their point of view. I have no problem with their point of view. I thought the magazine was funny because it’s supposed to be a professional magazine but then they try to ridicule people to make a point.
They were trying to make fun of me because I’m older and because I come from a different era. But like I told you from the beginning, there’s a couple of things that just don’t change. People don’t get that. They’re so entranced and enthralled by all the shiny, new technology, they don’t understand that it doesn’t work unless you have music that people want. No one’s going to download music they don’t like.
What I take seriously is the fact that we’re people who create art. Whether you like our art or not, it’s what we do. My whole point of view is this problem we’re in, which is caused by technology, will be solved by technology. Some genius on the other side will figure out how to stop the piracy that seems very logical to me. So all these people who come up with these opinions that they should have done this and that, it’s all ridiculous.
Meanwhile, what have they done? We’re running the most dominant company that there ever has been in the industry. We’re trying to do it in a way where we’re really respectful to people, where the people in this company are treated great, where they’re paid properly, where women are working in key positions in the company, where two of our chairpeople are people of color. Our greatest asset in our company is our people.
It’s such a bizarre equation that requires thought to separate what is real from what people would like people to think. I don’t understand. There’s a lot of unreasonable people in the world. You start with that. Frustrated, disgruntled people with their own lives who attack people who have done really important work. And I can judge this company because I’ve been here from day one, hired everyone here, and I know how we’re doing. For me there’s a great level of satisfaction.
I never listen to people. What will affect us is if we make a big mistake and we don’t get any hits and as a journalist I’m happy people write whatever they want to write. Some of the records we’ve put out I hate much more than I did that article, but I’ve held my nose and said they’re entitled to do it.”
