DreamWorks Records

History[edit]

In October 1994, four years after David Geffen sold his former record label Geffen Records to MCA Music Entertainment, he joined Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg to form DreamWorks SKG.^[4] SKG stood for Spielberg, Katzenberg & Geffen.^[5] The three partners, mainly Geffen along with Mo Ostin, his son Michael and Lenny Waronker later launched the subsidiary record label DreamWorks Records in early 1996.^[5] Rufus Wainwright was the first artist to be signed to the new record label, in early 1996.


The logo for the label was the last project completed by artist Roy Lichtenstein. The distinctive design, incorporating a musical note in the artist's trademark "dream balloon," debuted on the packaging for Beautiful Freak, the first album from Los Angeles-based band Eels, and the second release from the record company.^[6] The record label's first release, George Michael's Older album, had featured DreamWorks Pictures' logo of a boy fishing and sitting on a moon crescent.^[7]


Henry Rollins (both as a spoken-word artist and with Rollins Band), Tamar Braxton, Nelly Furtado, George Michael, Randy Newman, Morphine, Elliott Smith, Eels, comedian/actor Chris Rock, Powerman 5000, Papa Roach and others were also signed to the label.^[8] The label was presided over by Lenny Waronker and Mo Ostin, who had run Warner Bros. Records until the mid-1990s. Ostin stated at the time: "What you find in the record business is there is more and more a trend toward corporate control, corporate values, and here you’re dealing with a creatively oriented operation."^[9]


Geffen Records distributed DreamWorks Records until 1999, when Interscope Records took over distribution duties (meanwhile, as Interscope and Geffen switched international distribution to Polydor Records, DreamWorks Records followed suit). It was announced on November 11, 2003, that Universal Music Group (the former MCA Music Entertainment, and parent of Interscope, Geffen, and Polydor) reached an agreement to acquire DreamWorks Records from DreamWorks for "about $100 million".^[10] The purchase came at a time when the music business was "going through major changes" as it struggled to "counter falling sales and the impact of unofficial online music sales". Mo Ostin, the principal executive at DreamWorks Records, said: "Despite the challenges of the music business today, Universal is acquiring a wonderful asset and the sale will assure the strongest possible future for our artists".^[11] Under the new deal, DreamWorks Records was placed within the Interscope Geffen A&M label, under the direction of Jimmy Iovine.^[10] After the finalisation of the label's sale to UMG on January 9, 2004, 100 employees were laid off at DreamWorks, as it was folded into Geffen Records.^[12] Notably, the label's A&R staff were kept on to the label.^[12] Polly Anthony joined Jordan Schur as Geffen co-heads in 2004.^[13]


Its country music division, DreamWorks Nashville, which began in June 1997, remained operational until September 1, 2005, when it was shut down by Universal Music Group Nashville following the departure of the label's biggest star, Toby Keith.^[14]