“This year’s Grammys were supposed to be a return to normal. Then came The Slap

Bill Werde, director of the Bandier Program in the Newhouse School, was quoted in The Los Angeles Times story “This year’s Grammys were supposed to be a return to normal. Then came The Slap.” Werde, an expert on the music industry after a long career at Billboard, explained that this year’s Grammys will be different since the event is moving to Las Vegas. The move means that the traditional Grammy Week of events, which includes smaller concerts and industry networking, will no longer operate at full scale.

Werde typically attends Grammys Week to network with the next generation of music industry leaders , but not this year. “That layer of the music business — the folks just under the CEOs of major labels — a lot of them aren’t gonna go to Vegas,” Werde said. “It’s a way less interesting proposition for someone like me.”