A&M RECORDS HISTORY 1990-1999
1990
The sale of A&M to PolyGram became effective in January and PolyGram Canada finalized its buyout of A&M Records Canada. On April 2, Gil Friesen resigned as President of A&M Records and Jerry Moss took over day-to-day operations. On April 6, Jeff Gold, VP Marketing and Creative Services, A&M Records resigned. A&M closed its Vendetta Records label after only two years.
In May, Al Cafaro, a long-time A&M executive, was promoted to Senior Vice President/General Manager of A&M and in November he was appointed President of the company. Cafaro was only the third president of the company, succeeding Jerry Moss and Gil Friesen.
A&M was reported to have lost $8 million in the first year of the PolyGram takeover. On October 29, 1990, A&M laid off 25 employees in LA, New York and Chicago. Nearly 50 employees left the label that year as the label transitioned into the PolyGram conglomerate. Al Cafaro called the move a consolidation and said it was warranted to align the staff size to the label's volume of business. He told Billboard that A&M would not share functions with PolyGram but would remain autonomous.
1990 brought A&M's first songwriting award at the Grammys in Julie Gold's "From a Distance." Suzanne Vega's Days of Open Hand won for Best Album Package. Seven artists had one album each on the Billboard Pop chart and Janet Jackson had four singles on that Billboard chart. There were 12 RIAA gold certifications. Eight of them went to Janet Jackson and seven of them were for her singles. Seduction earned two gold records. Of the four platinum records, Janet Jackson won three including the 5M sales of Rhythm Nation 1814.
1991
By February, PolyGram announced that it would sell bonds to help finance its purchase of A&M Records and Island Records. Later that year, PolyGram claimed that it overpaid for A&M. However, PolyGram also had its most profitable year. A&M contributed to the profits with hits from Bryan Adams, Extreme, Amy Grant and Sting.
From their inception, CD packages had been 6 x 12" (called a CD longbox) so they fit into the vinyl album rack at retail. In January, Sting's The Soul Cages introduced a cardboard package to replace the jewel box. Called DigiTrak, it was a cardboard case with two plastic tracks inside to hold the CD until the outer package was folded to fit the CD. Only the first 200,000 copies of The Soul Cages were in the longbox format. At the time, the industry did not see the U.S. going to the jewel-box only package that was the standard around the world.
A&M Records began a distribution agreement with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis's Perspective Records. The contract also allowed Perspective use of the creative services department at A&M.
Signficant departures: On March 11, Janet Jackson accepted a $60M contract with Virgin Records. In August, Delos left its distribution agreement with A&M Records.
Al Cafaro was named VP of PolyGram Holding, Inc. and assigned to oversee the development of Mercury Records while also running A&M Records. Cafaro had been key to PolyGram's reorganization of A&M and was asked to bring those talents to Mercury's operation.
A&M won three Grammys by individual artists. It was A&M's third highest year for RIAA gold records, receiving 11 of them. Bryan Adams got three golds and Extreme won two gold records. It was also A&M's third best year for platinum records, again winning 11 awards. Four platinums went to Bryan Adams while the Carpenters, Amy Grant and Sting each received two awards.
1992
The A&R Department ceased reporting to Jerry Moss and began reporting to Al Cafaro.
A&M created limited edition packages for Soundgarden and Blues Traveler albums that included a free EP hoping to generate a larger audience and first time sales and additional sales among fans who would want the EP in their collections.
A&M, for only the third time, did not win any Grammy awards. Of its eight RIAA gold records, two each were given to Cece Peniston and Aaron Neville. 1992 was A&M's top year for platinum records. The label received 16 awards, with three for Cat Stevens including 3M in sales for his Greatest Hits and two each for Bryan Adams and Amy Grant.
1993
On June 18, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss left A&M Records which now operated as a division of PolyGram. They were midway through their five-year agreement with PolyGram to remain at A&M. PolyGram had installed its choice of executives and integrated the records into its lines and its stock numbers. A&M ceased to have its own company identity. It appeared that PolyGram was pulling out of its agreement to allow Alpert and Moss to continue to run A&M autonomously.
A&M and Perspective signed a long-term deal. Perspective would market A&M's R&B product and A&M would market crossover product. Employees from A&M's Urban Division transferred to Perspective and Perspective added its own choices for executive talent. The deal allowed Perspective to double its number of releases per year.
A&M's one Grammy, Best Video, Long, was for Ten Summoner's Tales by Sting. This was the only Grammy A&M won for its video work. Three gold records and four platinum records were given to A&M. Sting received two platinums to commemorate the million and two million marks for Ten Summoner's Tales.
1994
A&M reorganized its sales staff and its sales strategies to focus on local and regional market needs. A&M began to "coordinate its sales, marketing, tour, radio, press, video and publicity efforts on a specific, market-by-market basis." (Billboard, April 30, 1994, p18) hoping that marketing efforts customized for each region would create national success.
Sheryl Crow won three of the four Grammys presented to A&M artists. She won the coveted Record of the Year, Best Pop Vocal and Best New Artist awards. Of the 11 gold records, Bryan Adams, Sheryl Crow and Barry White each won two. Among the sixteen platinum certs were four for Bryan Adams whose So Far So Good reached 3 million; Soundgarden's Superunkown also hit 3 million, and the Gin Blossoms went platinum and hit 2 million with New Miserable Experience.
1995
A&M signed a three-year deal with producer Ric Wake to form DV8 Records. A&M would provide distribution, marketing and promotion in the US and Europe.
Soundgarden's Alive in the Superunknown and Monster Magnet's I Talk to Planets were A&M's first multimedia releases in CD Plus. The discs were designed to play on CD and CD-ROM and contained music, videos and games. CD Plus packages included a diagnostic and driver disc since many computers would need software to play CD Plus.
Blues Traveler brought home the only Grammy this year for Best Rock Performance by Duo or Group. Blues Traveler and Janet Jackson each received two gold records accounting for half the certs. Out of 14 platinum records, Sheryl Crow and Blues Traveler each received three while Amy Grant and Janet Jackson each received two certifications. Crow's Tuesday Night Music Club attained an all-time record for sales with 5 million.
1996
In March, Al Cafaro was named Chairman/CEO of A&M Records. Only Jerry Moss had held this position.
In one of the largest artist controversies in A&M's history, Wal-Mart banned Sheryl Crow's self-titled album because the retailer disagreed with Ms. Crow's anti-gun lyrics.
A&M sent artists Billy Martin and Patty Griffin on Jann Arden's 25-date tour, and had the three make daytime appearances in Borders Books & Music stores. This was the first time A&M sent three artists into Borders.
On September 4, A&M Records Nashville closed. The operation was begun in 1994 as Polydor Nashville but was renamed A&M Nashville in March 1996. Shortly after the renaming, the two top executives left and A&M was unable to find a strong executive to replace them. Artists were transferred to Mercury in Nashville. Nineteen staff people lost their jobs.
In September, Perspective laid off 27 of its 28 employees. In December, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, founders of Perspective, decided to continue on only with their existing acts, otherwise inactivating the label.
Sheryl Crow won Best Female Rock Vocal and Best Rock Album, the only Grammys for A&M artists. Blues Traveler's three gold records made them top artist for gold records. There were 13 platinum albums. Two awards were given to Bryan Adams, Blues Traveler, Sheryl Crow, Soundgarden and Sting. Crow's Tuesday Night Music Club attained 6 million in sales.
1997
In corporate changes, A&M reorganized its black music division, bringing back John McClain as the Senior VP A&R of Urban and hiring Dave Rosas as Senior VP of Urban Promotion. The black music division would have eleven employees. And, A&M entered into a distribution arrangement with Flip Records.
Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss received the Grammy Trustees Award for "Inspiring music executives to artist-oriented philosophy." Burt Bacharach and Hal David also won the Trustees Award for "Eloquence and style on songs transcending their time." Sounds of Blackness received two of the eight gold records. Twelve platinum awards were also given. Blues Traveler, Sheryl Crow, and Amy Grant each won two of them. Crow continued to set all-time sales records. Tuesday Night Music Club had now sold 7 million copies.
1998
Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss sued PolyGram claiming they were shorted $3.63 million in earnings in 1994 and $2 million in a Canadian tax refund.
Seagrams, then owner of Universal Music Group, acquired PolyGram for $10.4 billion. Universal took control on December 10. On December 28, The New York Times reported that Universal would sell property, lay off 3,000 employees, release artists, and take other actions to save $300 million a year. A&M Records was to be "collapsed" into Interscope. A&M entered into a distribution arrangement with Shaquille O'Neal's record label T.W.Is.M.
Sheryl Crow won A&M's two Grammys for her Globe Sessions, Best Rock Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. Of the ten gold records, the Carpenters and Styx each won two. It was a record year for platinum records. A&M received 20 certs. Thirteen of the platinum awards were for ten different Carpenters albums. Their The Singles: 1969-1973 tied Sheryl Crow with 7 million in sales.
1999
On January 22, 1999, 170 A&M employees were fired as part of the merger of PolyGram and Universal. It was also reported that A&M's artist roster would be cut from 65 acts to 20. Universal then created a music division composed of Interscope, Geffen and A&M. The Los Angeles Times Business Section quoted Herb Alpert: "It's certainly sad to see what is happening today, but to tell you the truth, you could see it coming once A&M became part of the [conglomerate structure] at Polygram," Alpert said Thursday [January 22, 1999]. "I saw that train coming...the sharp contrast between the independent world and the corporate. I don't think their bottom line has much to do with music or artists. It's very black and white."
"I'm not speaking for all corporations, just my experience at PolyGram. It seemed like they were so bottom-line conscious that it was hard to make a decision like we used to...just from the gut, based on feeling, not whether an artist might be able to sell oodles of records."
Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss asked to enjoin Universal Music in their pending law suit against PolyGram and sought damages of $200 million. Alpert and Moss claimed that Universal breached their sales agreement with PolyGram that contained an "integrity clause" through the year 2009. The clause allowed Alpert and Moss to maintain control of A&M Records image for 20 years after the sale. The two argued that Universal's actions had a negative impact upon them personally and affected how they could operate their current businesses. The judge agreed with Alpert and Moss and included Universal and the requested additional damages in the lawsuit.
In October, Universal closed A&M Studios. Universal completed its dissolution of A&M Records when it sold the lot and facilities to The Henson Company.
SOURCES:
1. A&M Records the First Ten Years (a Fairy Tale). Chuck Cassell. 1972. A&M Records, Inc.2. Billboard. A&M Hikes LP By Full Dollar. August 27, 1974.
3. Billboard. 3-Inch Compact Disk. November 21, 1987.
4. New York Times. Changing Face of Record Distribution. Marc Kirkeby. February 18, 1979.
5. Rolling Stone. Changing Times at A&M. Michael Goldberg. May 16, 1991.
