(Clive Davis)


April 18
Link

Legendary music executive Clive Davis has been replaced by Barry Weiss as chairman and chief executive officer of the BMG label group.

Parent company Sony BMG announced the move Thursday. The 74-year-old Davis will become chief creative officer of Sony BMG. Two other BMG executives also departed in the label shakeup.

The 49-year-old Weiss oversaw several labels as president and CEO of the Zomba Label Group. He helped grow Jive Records from a small imprint to a major force with such blockbuster acts as Britney Spears, Usher, the Backstreet Boys, Justin Timberlake and 'N Sync. Recent successes include teen sensation Chris Brown and singer-songwriter T-Pain.

As head of BMG, Weiss will oversee RCA Records, Jive, J Records, LaFace, Arista, Volcano, Verity, GospoCentric and Fo Yo Soul.

Sony BMG said that Davis will continue to work with top artists in his new position as chief creative officer Sony BMG Worldwide.

Weiss, through a representative, declined comment on the promotion, and a representative for Davis was not immediately available when contacted by The Associated Press.

The company also announced that Charles Goldstuck, Davis' close associate and president and chief operating officer of the BMG label group, as well as Tim Bowen, Sony BMG's chief operating officer.

Davis became BMG's label group after successfully starting J Records and Arista Records; decades earlier, he was head of Columbia Records.

Davis has been credited with helping to launch the careers of acts like Whitney Houston, Janis Joplin and Bruce Springsteen, and breathing new life those of acts like Rod Stewart and Santana.

Alicia Keys, whose latest album "As I Am" has sold more than 2 million copies, was among his finds and recent protege Leona Lewis debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart this week with more than 200,000 copies of her album sold in the first week.

Davis has also been influential in the careers of the winners of "American Idol," guiding their albums to mostly platinum successes. Last year, however, he disagreed with the direction of Kelly Clarkson's "My December," and she publicly criticized him; the album was a flop, and she later apologized.

BMG label group is overseen by Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, CEO of Sony BMG Music Entertainment.

This doesn't sound like retirement. A Blender article about f-ups in the record business ranked Clive first being let go from Arista (and then they had to crawl back and buy J Records?). Looking at his very recent successes in a business that isn't all that successful...people be dumb! The first time I heard about this Leona Lewis, I assumed she would go nowhere but they managed to put that song out at the right time and with good promotion and the same with the album (they almost made people wait for it).

[Mariah]Bye Bye[/Mariah]

They all can go to Fucking Hell !

Vinny, Clive didn't get to do what he had done for Whitney when it come to Bore-ona. If you on Oprah, you're guaranteed to do 500K, but that shit only did 205K coming in and Mariah's release will definitely get 500K if not more NEXT week.

Anyway, fuck Clive. For real. Fuck him.

Timmy84 said:

No, you aren't.

No one gets 500k by any default anymore. Mariah's getting it because she's on EVERY show. If she'd just done Oprah and nothing else there's no way in hell she'd shift 500k. But you can't escape the bitch.
[Edited 4/18/08 9:46am]

VoicesCarry said:

LOL, well that means Clive didn't do his job right. Mariah's actually more entertaining than Leona just because she's so fucking quirky.

Timmy84 said:

Nah, he did his job right. 205k is nothing to sniff at these days and she has massive downloads and a #1 single with a pop ballad. Doesn't happen too often, particularly with a British artist.

VoicesCarry said:

You're right on those regards.

Timmy84 said:

I'm not getting why you are so mad at Clive. I think if he can push a snooze fest Euro pop artist to sell even 100K with an Oprah appearance, that's pretty good. 500K is not something to be sneezed at anymore, especially from someone who may not having any staying power like Bore-na.

Mariah should sell that much just based on her name, the single's sucess and her last album. If she doesn't, that will be shocking.

VinnyM27 said:

LOL, I'm just fucking around. I don't REALLY hate the old man, lol.
[Edited 4/18/08 13:22pm]