Aaron Bay-Schuck: ‘Warner Records cares about having the right artists, not having the most artists.’ Aaron Bay-Schuck’s fist is gripped into a ball, knocking home his points as if applying a hammer to a nail. “There’s a fire that is just unmatched here,” he says. “We can’t rest on our laurels, we can’t rely on 10 established superstars to pay the overhead. “We have to deliver for the new artists that we are signing: we have no other choice.” Evidently, Bay-Schuck’s sense of purpose has crystallized in the past year. On October 1, 2018, Bay-Schuck officially became a major record company CEO for the first time at Warner Bros. Records (now Warner Records). Following his departure from Universal’s Interscope to join Warner Music Group, the A&R specialist spent a full 12 months on what the British euphemistically call “gardening leave”. This was a tough experience for Bay-Schuck – an exec who’d garnered a solid reputation for keeping his finger on the pulse of Stateside A&R trends. Happily, he had age on his side: today, at 38, he is notably youthful for a record company boss, especially in the United States. And, perhaps, in hindsight, he’s even grateful for the chance to recharge his batteries. Because ever since Bay-Schuck joined his coChairman, Tom Corson, at Warner Records, their pace hasn’t let up. MBW joins Bay-Schuck in Warner Records’ sparkling new warehouse-chic Downtown L.A offices (white walls, polished concrete, floor-to-ceiling artist canvases). The exec reveals that, since his first day at the label, his
team have cut over 50% of the previous regime’s roster from the label’s books; in the plus column, they’ve signed over 30 new artists. Many of these fresh acts, as you might expect in the modern US industry, broadly sit within the boundaries of hip-hop – a cultural affiliation which was arguably lacking at then Burbank-based Warner Bros. Records under BaySchuck’s predecessors. Pleasingly for Bay-Schuck and Corson, the New Class of Warner Records are starting to gain real traction. Saweetie’s My Type and Wale’s On Chill (feat. Jeremih) recently scored the No.1s at Urban and Rhythmic Radio in the US. Elsewhere, platinumselling NLE Choppa followed his breakthrough single Shotta Flow with latest hit Camelot; Ali Gatie, a young artist from Toronto, has amassed over half a billion streams; and Ashnikko’s STUPID feat. Yung Baby Tate has gone viral via TikTok. There’s also been Grammy success (with 2018’s Best New Artist, Dua Lipa), as well as massive hits like Bad Bunny x Drake’s MIA (over 750m Spotify streams) plus Marshmello x AnneMarie’s FRIENDS (over 800m), and album successes from OVO’s Top Boy to established stars like The Black Keys and Gary Clark Jr. According to Bay-Schuck, Warner Records’ roster now spans over 90 artists (with circa 60 having survived the Great A&R Cull). There has been an influx of new executive talent, too: Bay-Schuck says he and Corson have “built an A&R team up from three people to 30”, which includes the likes of exCapitol exec Nate Albert, now
EVP of A&R at Warner Records. In their quest to modernize the company, Bay-Schuck and Corson have also inked a number of recent JV deals with external industry talents, including R&R Records, Masked Records , Katie Vinten and Justin Tranter’s Facet Records, and Pat ‘The Manager’ Corcoran. Bay-Schuck’s industry career began 20 years ago out of Columbia University, where he studied Political Science. Following his graduation in 2003, he returned to Los Angeles and landed a job as an Assistant working for Martin Kierszenbaum at Interscope. A year later, he joined Atlantic Records as an A&R Assistant before stepping up as a fully-fledged A&R exec under Mike Caren, John Janick and Craig Kallman. At Atlantic, Bay-Schuck discovered, signed and developed Bruno Mars – still a huge global priority at that label today. The exec also worked with the likes of CeeLo Green and Trey Songz, in addition to A&R’ing and co-writing worldwide multiplatinum hit, Right Round, by Flo Rida feat. Kesha. After 10 years at Warner’s biggest label, Bay-Schuck joined fellow ex-Atlantic whiz, John Janick, at Universal’s Interscope Geffen A&M. There, Bay-Schuck operated as President of A&R, where he worked with the likes of Imagine Dragons, Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani, Selena Gomez, Maroon 5, X Ambassadors, and Zedd. Having agreed terms of his latest gig with Warner Music Group’s global CEO of recorded 21
