Thomas Mottola Resigns as Sony Music Head
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Record mogul Thomas Mottola, who helped guide the careers of veteran acts like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen while overseeing the rise of Jennifer Lopez and ex-wife Mariah Carey, “resigned” on Thursday as chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment to start his own label.
Mottola’s contract with Sony had been set to run for another two years, but rumors of his departure had circulated following a reported fallout over his contract renewal amid a prolonged slump in the music industry.
Mottola reportedly had earned $7 million a year plus a percentage of Sony Music’s revenue.
His exit comes after a turbulent year punctuated by the settlement of a bitter contract dispute with the Dixie Chicks, leading to release of their hit album and Sony’s biggest commercial success, “Home,” and a highly publicized rift between Sony and pop star Michael Jackson. Mottolla, 52, spent much of the past several months preparing Sony Music for an overhaul that he envisioned would take the label into the talent management business. He recently announced a promotional venture with Pepsi, a marketing deal between Celine Dion and Chrysler and the acquisition of veteran rock band AC/DC’s catalog.
The recording industry veteran, who signed Carey and then married her, will resign his posts, effective immediately, to launch a new venture to be formed in partnership with Sony Music, a unit of Sony Corp., the company said.
Mottola, now divorced from Carey and married to Latin recording artist Thalia, was highly regarded as a talent spotter who ran his division at Sony with a tight-knit circle of hand-picked executives.
“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 in a statement.
Sony said it expected to name a successor within the next few days.
Potential candidates cited by industry sources included Bob Pittman, former chief operating officer of AOL Time Warner Inc. , and Warren Lieberfarb, former president for AOL Time Warner’s Warner Bros. home video. Daily Variety reported another possible successor was Doug Morris, chairman and CEO of recording rival Universal Music Group, a unit of Vivendi Universal .
Sony, which ranks third in the U.S. music market behind Universal and Bertelsmann, incurred operating losses exceeding $100 million in the past year. Earlier Thursday, Bertelsmann’s RCA Music cut about 50 people from its staff.
HELPED LAUNCH STARS
Mottola helped revive Dylan’s career in 1997 with key support for the Grammy-winning “Time Out of Mind” and brought Dion and Barbra Streisand together the same year for a Christmas duet on an album that became a big hit.
Mottola also scored a coup when he bought rights to the soundtrack to the hit film “Titanic,” which became the hottest-selling soundtrack of the decade.
But perhaps his greatest single success at Sony was Mariah Carey. According to music industry legend, Mottola listened to Carey’s demo tape in his limo on the way home from a party and was so taken by it, that he doubled back to track her down.
Mottola’s stormy relationship with another icon, Michael Jackson, also grabbed headlines last year when the self-described “King of Pop” denounced Mottola as “racist” and “devilish.” Sony responded at the time with a statement saying it was “deeply offended by the outrageous comments.”
Mottola first joined CBS records in 1988 at age 37 as president and a year later was named president of Sony. He was named president and chief operating officer of Sony Music in 1993 and chairman and chief executive in 1998.
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