Lyor Cohen, YouTube's Music Head, Faces Down A Doubtful Music Business

[AlphaKing]

Fear is not an emotion typically attributed to Lyor Cohen. This is the former music industry exec, after all, whose imposing swag and steely visage made him as formidable a figure as the major rap stars whose careers he helped launch and lord over (from Run-DMC to Young Thug) during hip-hop's 40-year rise to the top of the charts. So when Cohen copped to a fear of public speaking during one of two recent conversations we had in the weeks preceding the long-awaited launch of YouTube's newly announced streaming subscription services, YouTube Music and YouTube Music Premium, it seemed like an unlikely admission from a person known for crushing competition at all costs.

"I tackled a lifelong fear of mine. I dragged it to the ground and I stomped on it," Cohen said, in near glee this March, recounting the SXSW keynote address he had just given to a ballroom of hundreds in Austin. "I said to myself: 'I'm on the back half of my life, and I'm going to tackle every one of my fears.' " In his speech, he positioned his many career pivots (from road manager to leading Def Jam to head of Warner Music Group) as a sales pitch for the music industry to embrace change.
YouTube

Lately, Cohen's been inducing fear into the traditional music industry he defected from two years ago to become YouTube's global head of music. Brought on board in 2016 to repair YouTube's soured relations with major labels and wrangle new agreements, he found himself waging a public power struggle of sorts with label heads critical of a value gap loophole that allows YouTube to capitalize on artists' content while offering some of the industry's lowest royalty payments.

Being the bad guy has its benefits, especially in the rap world where he's been equally venerated and denigrated. (Dame Dash notoriously labeled him a "culture vulture"; Yaasin Bey characterized him as the "tall Israeli [who's] running this rap s***," in a lyric meant as cultural critique.) Last month, the man who's been known to shoot the camera a middle finger got harangued online for flashing a different hand sign. Apparently, it's easy to misinterpret Cohen's go-to signage (the classic three-finger OK sign, a shout to the label he founded, 300 Entertainment) with the alt-right's adopted white-power hand gesture when you're in a photo smiling next to a red MAGA-hat wearing Kanye West. Cohen eventually released a statement through his spokesperson, explaining, "I went to listen to music and see Kanye. He is someone I care about. I don't abandon people. With great music comes great pain and stress. The music is incredible!" His spokesperson followed up with further clarification: "The hand gesture made by Lyor Cohen is representative of the company he founded, 300 Entertainment, and absolutely nothing more."

Now, well into a storied career he haphazardly fell into at 22, he's still as protective as ever of hip-hop, even in the era of #MeToo, as well as the reputation of his baby, 300 Entertainment, after facing criticism from former marquis signees Migos. Ever one to wield control, conversational or otherwise – at one point in the interview, he turned the questions on me – he's also wistful about his fears of a future beyond his control.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I think most people would be surprised to hear that Lyor Cohen has fears.

Yeah, you know, I wake up, too, and go to the bathroom and I eat. That's part of the problem is people, especially in this day and age, forget that we're all human beings first and foremost, you know?

You became the first major-label exec to sign a licensing agreement with YouTube in 2006. What did you fear most about entering that territory at that time?

Always, the greatest fear is around precedent when you're running one of these companies. Are you setting a precedent for something that you will not be able to get out from underneath? Are you going to further hurt the ecosystem? A lot of great people were starting to lose their jobs, man. I didn't want to make a deal that ultimately was going to be bad all the way around.

What was the state of things at Warner Music Group at that time?

The credit goes to a colleague of mine named Alex Zubillaga [former WMG Executive VP of digital strategy, who has since founded the venture capital firm 14W]. He was in charge of thinking through the transformation from physical to digital. He was the one who said, "I want you to close your eyes and think of an industry that is free of a physical good." Of course, he got me at the right time. I was feeling good and had a mind to go with it. It brought a smile to my face.

Being on the label side for the bulk of your career, I'm sure you understand why label owners, who are in the same position that you were then, feel like they're getting the worst end of the deal in negotiating with YouTube.

How about this: Breaking an act is impossible. It's like, an impossible act — and that's where most record people want to focus. So when you ask them to think about the possibilities of the future, and you have to tell them that there's a lot of pain that you're going to experience in the present, it's really tough. Because you're trying to break an act, you're trying to keep your company sexy and alive, and then you have to have a lot of trust in the future. We're more equipped to try and understand how to break an act than actually think about the possibilities of the future.

So that's when you get scared and you act defensively and you protect the future. You protect the present. And then you get sloppy. You get sloppy because you're not giving enough attention to the seismic changes that are happening right underneath your feet. I would say that we weren't — as an industry — so elegant in the transition between physical and digital.