Warner Records Is Iconic Again Under the Leadership of Aaron Bay-Schuck and Tom Corson
variety.comJem Aswad Executive Editor, Music “It was pretty dire,” says Warner Records co-chairman-COO Tom Corson of his first few months at the label.
A veteran executive who’s held senior roles at A&M, Capitol, Columbia, Arista and J Records, Corson came to Warner after a very successful run as COO of RCA Records.
But even he was daunted by the task at hand, and his partner in leadership at the label, co-chairman/CEO Aaron Bay-Schuck — who he barely knew — was still under contract to Interscope Records and couldn’t start for another 10 months. “I started in January of 2018, and in the first month, I realized it was going to be a much heavier lift than I imagined,” he recalls. “The label had been under different management many times in the last 10 or 15 years, and there had been a couple of hits but no real throughline in terms of an identity.
It was going to be a long-term build.” He and Bay-Schuck — Variety‘s Hitmakers Executives of the Year — can look back with pride, as the company has been on a hot streak for the past two years, with hits from Zach Bryan, Dua Lipa, Benson Boone, Teddy Swims, Linkin Park, Dasha, NLE Choppa and others.
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