20 Biggest Record Company Screw-Ups of All Time
Blender magazine has an excellent feature on the 20 Biggest Record Company Screw-Ups of All Time.
Some of my favorites:
Thomas Edison having his record company diss Jazz in favor of foxtrots and waltzes.
Berry Gordy selling Motown for $60 million in 1988. Five years later the new owners sold it off for $325 million.
Warner refusing to release Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, then having a subsidiary buy the best-seller back after giving them the masters with their walking papers.
A Decca executive passing on the Beatles because he was annoyed that the line of kids was so long outside the Cavern Club in Liverpool, where he had come to see them. Hundreds of kids were gathered outside the club in the rain, pushing at each other to get in, and he decided it wasn't worth the trouble because "Groups with guitars are on their way out."
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