According to the New York Times, Perez Hilton, a.k.a. Mario Lavandeira, the man who has made photoshopping squiggly boogers and drool marks on hapless celebrity heads into a cultural touchstone, is now set to become a highly-paid A&R rep with his own imprint for Warner Bros Records. "The talks are preliminary," says the Times, quoting unnamed sources close to the negotiations, "and an agreement is not certain, but Mr. Lavandeira could receive $100,000 a year as an advance against 50 percent of any profits generated by artists he discovers and releases through Warner Bros."
With an estimated 2.8 million visitors per month, perezhilton.com is undeniably a platform of influence. But is this just one more example of the music-industry’s current desperation? While Lavendeira appears to be a genuine music fan and even, at times, an admirably early adopter, especially for European artists, the bulk of his power lies in the size of his readership, not his crystal-ball ability to anoint unsigned artists.
That’s been great news for Mika, the Gossip, and Amy Winehouse,among others — it’s hard to argue he hasn’t had a part in wideningtheir audience. But that has very little to do with genuinelydiscovering and developing new musicians, which is the actualdefinition of A&R. And which, by the way, is a full-time job, notsomething one squeezes in between posts from his infamous "office" atan L.A. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Labels can pay him to spread theword on stuff he loves, but why would they when he does it already forfree? And if he starts pulling play-to-pay shenanigans on the site,readers will smell it and react accordingly.
Either way, good on him and his $100K retainer, but it’s difficultto see him becoming a force of original music to be reckoned with;instead, he should enjoy his squiggle pen and still-legit-for-now"tastemaker" role for as long as it lasts. Hopefully, he’ll maintainthe uncompromised enthusiasm of a true music fan. Once that goes, sowill his readers’ trust — and their interest.
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wish he would sign me! http://www.myspace.com/josedeloza
i couldn’t agree more. great article leah. my other question would be – can he be unbias in picking these artists? let’s say he signs an artist and he/she goes off the deep end? would he give her the treatment on his website that he gives to, say, britney spears? or would he spare her? either way, i think he’s getting himself in trouble…
I don’t blame Perez for taking the $100,000, but Warner Brothers is basically throwing throwing that money away. As the article says, it is one thing to say you like a certain artist, it is a completely different thing to discover new music and develop them. Still, if a major label offered me a lot of money based on my musical taste, I would take it too.
$100K a year is nothing for HIM…according to articles I’ve read about him, based on his ad revenue, he’s bringing in over a $1mil a month…(even more than Britney makes)…I used to read Perez all the time, but not much anymore…just kinda burned out on him…I don’t follow his music, and I’m tired of him trying to make Barak Obama look bad (perhaps I’m just sick of all politics right now)…anyway, good for him for marketing himself, I hope he does well…but I could care less about his music choices, personally…
Maybe now he can afford to get his hair done all in one colour, instead of looking like the unfortunate victim of a hairstylist with multiple personality disorder.
I let out an audible “Aww, she’s cute” when you called what he doodles “squiggly boogers and drool marks.” Are the walls of your bedroom covered in Carebear posters? Let me know.
Warner Bros. is on the ropes. their stock is trading below about $6/share. They need SOMEBODY TO DO SOMETHING, so why not him? I don’t particularly care for the unknown artists that he pushes — most are Spanish or European or gay, but who know– it’s better than nothing for Warner.
that shack in montana is looking more and more appealing. except i need broadband.
i totally agree with leah. sure, he champions talented musicians, but it is simply because of his traffic. and, he hears music first only because record labels “leak” their artists music to his site to get an early buzz of how it will do. so he does have several unfair advantages that dont exactly make him qualified for a job that requires a good amount of time and energy.
The success of Perez Hilton is one of the surest signs of the decline of civilization.
I have no doubt he’ll be a terrible A&R guy. True, he knows how to exploit other people’s talent and abilities for his own gain, but working for a record label requires actual work. I doubt he can pull it off.
Wait, aren’t the Warner Bros, Time, DC, EW and AOL all part of the same company? Why not give a few bucks to the popwatch staff and make A&Rs out of them?
Popwatch, got me into Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, MIA, the Killers, Lady Sovereign and a few other bands. If not for the likes of Whitney P, Josh Rich and Simon Volk-Levinson pimping these singers and bands, I would have likely never found out about many of them. Imagine if we could comment on new unsigned bands here every now and than. My assumption’s that Perez is going to do something similar on his blog.
Maybe Perez’s site gets more visitors than popwatch, but if the whole thing is done “in house” wouldn’t that cut down on costs? Feh, just a thought.
Perez Hilton has made his living on mean comments, rumors, forcing people out of the closet and immature gossip. So I guess that qualifies him for a career in the music biz? Honestly, I’ve found better music from the recommendations on PopWatch, iTunes and Amazon than I ever did on his site.
HEY! I agree with Leah’s article, and I think most of the comments here make complete sense, HWOEVER, the talks are RUMORS & lets be honest, in today’s day & age, anything can be mis-reported & believed once it hits the net! Maybe Perez is talking to WB, but who’s to say he’s going to be an actual A&R guy, maybe they do see him more as a Record Promotor, or maybe the imprint they’re going to give him is to release European artists in the U.S? I think I read somewhere that despite their stock plummeting in the past few months, WB hasn’t signed or nurtured new acts in almost 2 years? Is that actually right? I am a fan of his, but I’l be the first to admit, he is highly biased, but as a gay 29r. old with a steady diet of pop culture, many of his musical selections do resonate with me. Does this make him fit for an A&R position? No, but as everyone else has stated, WB can’t sink much lower & once Madonna pops out this final album for em in April, they really have no FLAGSHIP artists left..
What actual talent does this man have? Other than snarkiness? What qualifies him to “find new music”? I have never listened to any of his suggestions and I am not going to start now. This is what is wrong with the internet!!! Guess we can expect a new reality show any day now… American Producer!
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Hi,
Nice and inspirational article.
Thanks.
why can’t you all just leave celebrities alone OKAY!!!! gosh their going through enough without all of u STUPID paparatzi pissing them OFF!!! JUST LEAVE THEM ALONE!!! HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF U WERE A CELEBRITY AND THE MEDIA WOULDN’T LEAVE U ALONE!!!! yeah bet u cn’t picture how bad that would be!!!
Does Leah really not know what those white squiggles are supposed to represent? If not, I find her belief that they are supposed to be boogers and drool refreshingly innocent.
I do hate to see anyone’s 100 K flushed away ( even a record company) in this economy but they should have known better.