Cutting Edge Group buys Varèse

Well, the first release seems to be the score for Soderbergh's film Side Effects, with music from Thomas Newman. A good start!

It somehow always struck me as a piano. Now that I see it up close, don't ask me why.

It's an ink blot. FACT! It can be what ever you want it to be. There is no wrong answer when it comes down to an ink blot.

-Erik-

YUP!

Varese's releases have been slowing down gradually for a while and at one point recently they had literally nothing in their "upcoming releases" section, for the first time ever, so it seemed likely that things were not that well. I hope this move works out well for all concerned.

I hope they do some more re-recordings!

-Erik-

From the last quote in the article where Moross calls film scores "highly undervalued properties," it's difficult to tell whether he's talking about looking back (ie, continuing the trend of FSM, Intrada, LLL), or looking forward (more aggressive cross-platform releases of a wider variety of current scores). Either way I suppose it's a win, but I'm really intrigued by what kind of audience they'll find since the core appetites of film score fandom are so fickle and ephemeral.

Exciting news! Maybe they'll reintroduce the purple spines?

Nice to hear. Because it was very sad to see varese having only the new djawadi and jablonsky score only in their upcoming releases list.

"...the Cutting Edge Group, a company in London that provides and invests in music for the screen, and its partner Wood Creek Capital Management acquired a well-known purveyor of soundtracks: the Varèse Sarabande record label..."

This statement rings alarm bells in my mind. Companies that invest money/capital in an acquired company are only interested in one thing and that is to make money or to mould the acquisition from the "bloated and inefficient" entity that they bought into a "lean and attractive" product that is of interest to potential buyers (i.e., other soundtrack record labels).

The same thing happened to the company I used to work for. The company thought it would be a great idea to have an injection of capital that investment companies could provide so they went down that route. The investors brought in their own people - whose role was to get the company in a position to be sold on at a profit within the shortest period of time possible. That meant that long-term focus was halted and goals were set for short-term gain, with return of investment as quickly as possible being the only goal.

The optimism of the original management evaporated quite quickly as emphasis changed. The original management soon evaporated and money people set targets and objectives, weeding out all that was seen as being an obstacle to improving the worth of the company.

I can see a similar thing happening with Varese. An initial optimism from within which will ebb away over the next few months. Their product will become that which provides them with the greatest profits: live concerts (aren't concerts one of the ways to make the most money in the rock/pop industry?), mainstream movies (movies in which the parent company have already invested in to provide the music that the filmmakers want) and song tie-in releases.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few months. Maybe CDs will fall by the wayside altogether with Varese?

http://www.cuttingedgegroup.com/

HAH! You only just beat me to it Jim

A more commercial streak through this merger means fewer albums arranged C&C for the niche, which means more albums with potential for me! Yay!

Where exactly did you get this idea from?

-Erik-

It was a joke (with a hopeful grain of truth).