SOMETIMES, THE TAIL WAGS THE DOG: It's always nice to hear of a record company reluctantly having to admit that, actually, they'd be nothing without their artists, so the recent events at Avex Records in Japan are cheering, especially since it'll send a small shiver along the spines of everyone who works in management at a label.

Avex's board, concerned at falling sales, tried to bounce Masato Matsuura out of his post as senior managing director. Unfortunately, Matsuura was popular with the employees and artists of the label - like Koda Kumi - threatened to go elsewhere.



When it became clear that the label stood to lose a sizeable chunk of its top artists (Hitomi put messages of support on their website, Hiro from Exile announced that he wanted to work with Matsuura), the board was forced into a panicky fire-fighting exercise. Shares in Avex fell, and Matsuura was invited back, with a brief to manage the company in his way. Sometimes, musicians are more than just the content makers.