If there were anyone in the music industry I would want to be right now, Rick Rubin would be it. So respected is his ear for music that Sony wants to take a chance on him running the hallowed Columbia Records. This, after Sony’s famed copyright protection debacle and general lackluster sales skewed towards pushing crap records from unworthy artists. The New York Times makes a great case for why Rubin could be the shaman for a new era in the industry, particularly as a business leader who has no formal training and no technical expertise. Bringing art back into music is a gamble.

I, for one, am thrilled to see that there are a few in the upper echelon of the industry that are willing to take a chance on reverting music from a commodity back to an artform. Sad that it took them this long to do something about it. The executive suite must have been pretty well insulated from the sales declines for the last 10 years to have waited this long. Rick seems ready to take on the task, albeit it in the most unorthodox (no pun intended) and decidedly artist directed manner. He’ll have a ton of artists in support, which he will most likely need. I will be eagerly following Columbia’s progress under his helm.

New York Times article on Rick Rubin

Fader article from 2004 on Rubin