Pitchfork

[Posted Tuesday, November 4th, 2003 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

No matter how much money the record industry claims to be losing in its ongoing war against consumer apathy and the popularity of file-sharing music, they can always cough up a little change to buy each other out. Billboard magazine reported last week that Universal Music Group, the largest label group in the biz, has reached an agreement to acquire Dreamworks Records for around $100 million from its parent company, Dreamworks SKG. Interestingly, if the transfer comes to pass, it will be the third David Geffen-started label to be absorbed by Universal, following the mid-'90s megamerger that resulted in much of the rosters of Geffen, DGC and A&M; being dumped while lucrative acts like Nirvana, Beck, Weezer, Hole, Sting and Sheryl Crow remained. Insiders fear that many Dreamworks artists will meet the same fate if the label is folded into the current Interscope/Geffen/A&M; umbrella.

Dreamworks was originally modeled around a small, artist-oriented roster that included Elliott Smith, Rufus Wainwright, Jonathan Fire*Eater, Morphine and Creeper Lagoon. Label principals Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker, who had guided Warner Bros. Records through some of its most profitable and artistically fruitful periods, saw Dreamworks as an opportunity to stick by idiosyncratic artists and grow their careers gradually, in stark contrast to the sign 'em-and-screw 'em ethos that reigned at Universal. But Dreamworks didn't score any hits until landing more mainstream artists like Nelly "I'm Like A Bird" Furtado and pickup-truck patriot Toby Keith, as well as radio-friendly acts of lowest-common-denominator quality (I'm talkin' Alien Ant Farm and Papa Roach bad). The label has also had mild success with soundtracks to Dreamworks films including Shrek, American Beauty, and Almost Famous.

The current Dreamworks roster includes an all-over-the-place array of talent and lack thereof, ranging from the luminous crunch of Sparta and Rye Coalition to emo heroes Jimmy Eat World and Saves The Day to the complicated pop of Elliott Smith and Eels to avant hip-hoppers Q-Tip and Floetry.