Former MCA Chief Azoff Gets New Warner Bros. Label

Warner Bros. Records announced Tuesday that it will fund a recorded music and publishing company headed by Irving Azoff, who resigned as chairman of the MCA Music Entertainment Group on Sept. 6. The as-yet-unnamed company will begin operation as of Jan. 1.

The financial details of the Azoff-Warner deal were not disclosed.

For months before Azoff resigned his MCA post, rumors had circulated within the recording community that he was seeking a joint venture with a major record company, with speculation lately focused on Warner Bros.

Azoff--one of the record industry’s most highly profiled and powerful executives--had longstanding relationships with Warner Bros. Records and its international WEA distribution through his time as head of Frontline Management, where he guided the careers of such artists as the Eagles, Steely Dan and Dan Fogelberg. Still, most observers said the announcement came more swiftly than had been expected, and Azoff was unprepared Tuesday to shed much light on any specific plans for his company.

“I only got out of MCA on Sept. 6 and just got this deal made,” Azoff, 41, said from an office on the MCA Universal City complex. “The next part is to put the staff together and then start signing artists.”

Azoff had not even determined where his new venture’s offices would be located. But industry observers seemed confident in his prospects.

Harold Vogel, entertainment industry analyst for Merrill Lynch and Co. in New York, pointed to Azoff’s background in management and his reputation as a deal-maker. “There’s always a need for experienced people who can bring together the capital and the relationships with the artists,” Vogel said.

In his six years at MCA, Azoff was credited with turning the music operation into a successful unit. “The charts speak for themselves,” said Smith Barney analyst Mara Balsbaugh when Azoff left MCA. “My impression is he single-handedly engineered a turnaround.”

During Azoff’s MCA tenure, the company’s market share rose from as low as 1.5% to more than 11%, earlier this year holding down the top three album slots on the Billboard chart with Bobby Brown, Fine Young Cannibals and Tom Petty. Country and black music--MCA, together with Boston Ventures, purchased Motown in 1988--were particular areas of growth.

While at MCA, Azoff had showed increasing interest in non-music endeavors, becoming more involved with film projects and with the MCA/Spectacorp management of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. (Azoff will continue to represent MCA in those matters for the time being.) When he left MCA, he said that the new company he hoped to start would be involved in film and sports as well as music.

But on Tuesday he stressed that the new venture is for now limited to music recording and publishing.

“The most important thing in my life now is the label start,” he said. “I’m not ruling out other ventures in the future, but right now this is plenty on my table.”

David Geffen, whose Geffen Records has since its founding in 1980 had an arrangement with Warner Bros. similar to Azoff’s, encouraged Azoff to go out on his own, Geffen said on Tuesday.

“I started in 1980 with just three employees,” said Geffen, who has successfully moved into the film and theater areas as well as records. “By comparison, he’s starting with a big company for an independent. Over the years it will grow. Knowing Irving, he’ll probably try to do everything.”