Sony Music Chairman Tommy Mottola Quits

From Yahoo news Tommy Mottola quits Sony. Holy Crap.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...&u=/ap/20030109/ap_en_mu/sony_mottola_resigns

NEW YORK - Sony Music chairman and chief executive Tommy Mottola, who was responsible for building the careers of Mariah Carey, Celine Dion (news) and other superstars, announced Thursday he was leaving the company to start his own music label.


The departure ends Mottola's 14-year tenure at Sony, though the new label is being created in partnership with Sony. Mottola joined the company back when it was CBS Records in 1987. Sony is letting him out of his contract two years early.


"I have been thinking about taking up this new challenge for about a year, and really made the decision to go forward only recently," Mottola said. "I am thrilled that I will continue my long-standing relationship with Sony to create a company that I believe will become a blueprint for the music business in the coming years."


There is no name yet for Mottola's new company, but it will be a partnership with Sony Music. A replacement for Mottola is expected to be named within the next few days, Sony said.


"With all of the changes in the music industry, Tommy felt it was important to him that he return to his great passion for label and artist development," said Nobuyuki Idei, Sony Corp (news - web sites).'s chairman and CEO.


"We deeply appreciate all that he has done to extend Sony's presence around the world, and we look forward to working with him in the future."


Sony enjoyed several high-profile, mulitplatinum hits from acts including Bruce Springsteen (news), Jennifer Lopez (news), Dion and the Dixie Chicks last year; it garnered numerous Grammy nominations on Tuesday, including several in the major categories.


But Sony is third among the five major music labels in terms of market share; it had 15.24 percent of the albums market in 2002, a dip from 15.83 percent in 2001.


Last year, Mottola also was involved in an embarrassing feud with one of Sony's biggest stars, Michael Jackson (news). Jackson, disappointed with below-average sales and a perceived lack of promotion for his album, "Invincible," publicly accused Mottola of being a racist. Several black industry executives spoke in Mottola's defense.


Among Mottola's biggest successes was Mariah Carey; he signed the unknown when he was president of Columbia Records. Carey made her debut in 1990 and went on to sell more than 50 million albums in her career.


Carey and Mottola wed in 1993 and split up after four years. She left Columbia in 2001, expressing dissatisfaction with the promotion of her music there.


Another artist who benefited from Mottola's marketing skill was Jennifer Lopez, who was known as an actress and dancer but not a singer when she was signed to Epic Records by Mottola. All of her releases have sold at least 1 million copies.


In recent months, Mottola had embarked on marketing strategies to link its superstars with brands to boost sales. For example, Dion will soon be featured in ads for Chrysler; Destiny's Child lead singer Beyonce Knowles (news) is the new pitchwoman for Pepsi.

 

Doesn't look like he's running away from them though.

Is it ok to reply to your own post?
Might have to call a gort

 

Why on God's green earth would anyone want to start a new label in THIS environment!!??
Hmm. He must be pretty confident that he'll make something big. Well, wish him luck. He always seemed like a decent and smart guy.
Dan C

 

I'll bet he has a hard time getting a date these days, either. He used to be married to Mariah, remember (whatever you think of her records, she's pretty easy on the eye). Every girl is probably thinking "he's had her, he won't look at me once" and they move on.

Billy Joel, a much nicer chap than Mottola, has the same problem: Brinkley baggage.

 

Don't feel bad: one time I accidentally quoted a very long post--by me!--and had to PM Clav to get it out of there before I looked as dumb as I can be sometimes....

I saw that on the Billboard site about an hour ago. Sounds like he's going to form his own company; must be hungry to get back 'in the game' beyond being a Sony mogul. Do a Clive Davis, maybe? Resign Mariah? . Nah, not likely....but a surprising announcement, all the same.

ED

 

I have this very same problem. I only hope that someone starts a support group.

 

Brinkley baggage!

Al! We want you to post a pic of your ex (laughing)

this was . . .

 

He should name the new label;

Mo[ttola][So]ny

That's MONY!

 

Wow! I hate to see him go. Maria, Celine, J Lo, etc. What gifts he brought to the music business! If we had nothing but talents like that, I'd put my audio equipment on e-bay and live in silence.

See ya , Tommy! I'll really miss ya!

 

Re: Re: Sony Music Chairman Tommy Mottola Quits

Casino:

ROTFLMAO!



Ben

 

hokum

 

Re: Re: Re: Sony Music Chairman Tommy Mottola Quits

Yeah, Ben. Who needs talent when ya got a great derriere (J Lo), a short skirt (Maria) or a screechy, overblown, annoying, vocal style ( Dion and Whitney). The masses know who the talents are, don't they? That's why easy-on-the-eyes fluff like Britney will outsell Petty, Parker, Young, Zevon and Los Lobos every time.

 

I for one, am excited to see what he comes up with! The guy has been in this business for about thirty years or more. I don't know what Steve knows about Mattola running Sony Music, but maybe he is burned out from running it.

Not to hijack this topic, but I'm waithing to see if Clive Davis can pull his magic on BMG.

 

I don't know - whenever I hear Tommy Mottola's name, I think of his namecheck in "Cherchez La Femme" by Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band.

To think this guy used to manage this vastly underrated group AND Hall and Oates.

 

But you can't deny that Hall & Oates were talented and mega-sellers...

 

Mega-sellers has NOTHING to do with TALENT...never cared for H & O.

 

Well, you could not like them and they can still have talent... There are many artists I don't care for that I respect as being talented.

 

Oh. I didn't mean to imply that Hall & Oates was on one end of the talent spectrum and Dr. Buzzard's was on the other. I guess I was trying to illustrate how far Mottola had come.

I love Hall & Oates. "Your Imagination" should've charted higher than #33!

 

Took the words out of my mouth!

- Gabe

 

Mottola put Sony in the black, so in return Sony's going to invest it's money into Mottola's new label even though Sony can barely keep the doors open on it's own labels?

It's official. I will never understand the music biz. So much for my dreams as a record label mogul.
Dan C

edit: Oops, I mean "red". He put Sony in the RED. I don't know anything about money! Maybe I CAN work in the record biz after all!

 

Re: Re: Sony Music Chairman Tommy Mottola Quits