Maverick (company)
Maverick was an American entertainment company founded in 1992 by Warner Music Group and run by recording artist Madonna, as well as Frederick DeMann and Veronica "Ronnie" Dashev. It included a record label (Maverick Records), a film production company (Maverick Films), book publishing, music publishing, an adjacent Latin/Spanish language record label (Maverick Música), and a television production company.
For the management group founded by Guy Oseary, see Maverick (management). For other companies, see Maverick § Organizations.Industry
The first releases for the company were Madonna's 1992 coffee table publication SEX, and its accompanying studio album, Erotica (released simultaneously); the book, notably, drew harsh criticism towards Madonna herself, despite the book's intention to be read as an erotic and irreverent “poetry journal” with artistic, vintage-style black-and-white photos, and a telling of fictional romantic escapades.
Journalist and biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli considered the existence of Maverick Records to be an "anomaly", as Madonna became one of the first female artists to head a real record label, and one of the few women to run her own entertainment company.[1]
DeMann was bought out of the company for a reported $20 million in 1998. Guy Oseary increased his stake in the company and took control as chairman and CEO, thus Madonna was no longer the head of Maverick. Madonna and Dashev left in 2004 after a lawsuit between Maverick and Warner Music Group, in which Maverick had accused parent label Warner of not providing sufficient operating funds to compete against other, bigger labels for music acts. Since 2009, the label has been defunct; some of its acts were transferred to Warner Bros. Records, directly. In 2014, the brand was revived as a management group, founded by Oseary, in-partnership with Live Nation Entertainment.
History[edit]
Beginnings[edit]
Maverick Records launched in April 1992 as a unit of the Maverick entertainment company. It was a joint venture among Madonna, Frederick DeMann, Veronica "Ronnie" Dashev and Time Warner,[2] and its name was combined from the names of three of the founders; Madonna, Veronica and Frederick. The company had divisions for recording, music publishing, television, film, merchandising and book publishing. The venture was part of a $60 million recording and business deal between Madonna and Time Warner. It gave her 20% royalties from the music proceedings, one of the highest rates in the industry, equalled at that time only by Michael Jackson's royalty rate established a year earlier with Sony.[2]
At the time of its launch, the company was bi-coastal, with offices in New York City and Los Angeles. The record company division of Maverick also consisted of sub-label Maverick Musica (a Miami, Florida-based satellite label focusing on Latin-American music) and Maverick Music Publishing. The first releases for the company were Madonna's 1992 coffee table publication, Sex, and her studio album Erotica, which were released simultaneously to great controversy.[3]