Antonio L.A. Reid has found himself in hot water after being accused of mishandling many of his label’s biggest projects during the last year. The Island Def Jam CEO has reportedly been facing pressure from Lucian Grainge, the new Universal Music Group CEO, following his rampant spending and the incredibly low sales of Mariah Carey and Rihanna’s recent releases. Moreover, Reid’s recent efforts to sign Jennifer Lopez (who has not had a hit record in years) have made him the target of serious media criticism.

Reid was scheduled to answer questions from fellow industry moguls regarding the issue at the Billboard 2010 Music & Money Symposium at the St. Regis last week but failed to make an appearance after one of his sons mysteriously fell ill. To date, Carey’s ‘Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel’ has sold just short of 500k units since it’s release in September while Rihanna’s ‘Rated R’ has only shipped 2.5 worldwide compared to the 2.6 million that her ‘Good Girl Gone Bade’ album sold in the US alone

http://thatgrapejuice.net...hs-albums/

The WHOLE record industry has been in shamples the whole past year save for Susan Boyle.

It just goes to show you that folks are fed up with the 1/2 assed fluff that record companies feed to the public with the arrogant attitude that they WILL buy it.

Anything without substance will end up flushed down the toilet no matter how FANCY it looks.

So no, Elaina 'Baldie' Reid ain't the only one floating on her own shit....

no one is selling quite like they use to, so i don't think he or anyone should soley be the blame. Mariah Carey was trying her best to be everywhere and promote the hell out of it. she had a hit that reached i think #11 or maybe top 10. so the public knew she had an album out. they just didn't want to buy it.

Rihanna didn't necessarily need big publicity for her album, especially after the year she had. again, i think it was just a matter of their albums not being well recieved for whatever reason. it's still one of my favourite albums of the last year.

Same for Jennifer Lopez. though i personally love her new songs, people just haven't picked up on it or could care less. and i think even though there are reports of her being dropped from Sony, i don't think it's that cut and dry. besides they'll milk her upcoming hits collection for what it's worth. i'm sure there are still some things to work out contractually.

or maybe he didn't put forth the effort. reardless; the way the music 'industry' is tanking in sales and what not, i don't think it would matter. however i wasn't aware that Mariah's album sold that poorly. ouch.

Timmy84 said:

wrong!

CHIC0 said:

No it's appropriate.

I liked the Rihanna album but it was a hard commercial sell - there weren't alot of upbeat pop songs. And the Mariah Carey album was just horrible - a difficult product to sell. I think there are many factors at work here.

I can't remember the last time I listened to Mariah album.

NoVideo said:

Exactly there are many and just saying "LA u blew it" is a scapegoat. there are tons of reasons. For Rihanna, lets face it, her albums have always sold slower and slower, but this record early on was WAY too soon after the incident, and the image change, scared people and honestly the first few singles kind of stunk, other songs were better and now the image is being adjusted to sell.

As for MARIAH, people, can we just accept this now, she is 41, trying to do music that will sell to teens, i mean like her or hate her you cannot deny that she is NOT catering to what will get her played regardless of material being good or bad. The fact is MC still sells pretty well for her age with a loyal base, she is just past her radio hit days, accept it, the time has passed, live with it, so many others do.
[Edited 3/10/10 18:57pm]

CHIC0 said:

Since when have selling 500,000 units become a failure.
In the 70's and 80's artists were happy to have a gold
album. I guess with all the bullshit promotion and fluff
that are put into artists today,the labels and the industry
consider it a failure if you have a gold album. Not to say
Mariah's album is good or bad but her output has been bad
lately.

lastdecember said:

yup, Mariah needs to reinvent herself. She can continue her career for a long time, she has the talent, but she can't put out throwaway crap like this album and expect it to do well.

phunkdaddy said:

Well thats the point, everyone is thinking with 90's and early 00's thinking and also cant let go of there fave artist selling 10 million of one album and comparing everything to that. Like said artists like Elton and Stevie and Bowie and so many others PRAYED for a gold record, todays artist and public is jaded

lastdecember said:

It's one thing to blame LA Reid for the poor album sales by Mariah and Rihanna; unless you're a country artist or older adult contemporary artist, no one is selling albums like they used to. And while hip-hop and R&B dominated the charts in the early to mid part of the 2000's, they have taken the biggest hit in sales the past few years. Mostly because much of the material released has been crap, but also because they have focused mainly on singles and ringtones, which can be easily downloaded legally and illegally.

Now as far as spending is concerned, the higher-ups at Universal music have a reason to be concerned about spending wildly for artists who are providing diminishing returns. The record companies were already suffering financially in the last decade - much of it self-inflicted damage - but with the global recession reaching into just about everything, every CEO is looking at their bottom lines like hawks. And unless you're a bailed-out Wall Street bank, no one is going to be spending money on anything unless it is sure to guarantee some type of financial return on investment. So if LA Reid is still spending money like it's the late 1990's, he's going to find himself with a pink slip and pushed out on the street really soon.

Mariah flopped and dropped from the charts. Rihanna didn't. Rated R is a consistent saler and "Rude Boy" seems to be doing fine on the charts, radio and iTunes.

I know one thing if my artist was doing around 500,000 or more I'll be happy, if that artist was still below it after a full year, I'll be worried. Rihanna's safe, Mariah isn't.

lastdecember said:

Exactly.

Mariah in yesterday's news.

Whitney can't sing anymore.

Madonna is running low on the botox supplies.

Janet is still regrouping musically.

Kylie wants to retire, but her fans will not let her.

Christina is an unrestricted free agent with no recording contract.

Britney sober up too little too late.

Jennifer/J.Lo is not start enough to take the independent route as an artist (and I say "artist" loosely).

Beyonce is on a 1-year vacation.

Rhianna has over stayed her welcome on the dark side of the force.

Alicia is f***ing boring!

Fergie is consider a joke even when she does anything right (and I say "right" loosely).

And last but not least.....The Pussycat Dolls have broken up, meaning that there is no female group for the American media to force on at all, never mind that The Spice Girls & Girl Aloud are not available.

In other words ladies & gentlemen, Lady Gaga & Ke$ha are THE only two female artists that matters right now. THIS is their time to shine. And they have no worthy rivals.

Sad but true.

EDIT for spell check
[Edited 3/11/10 1:40am]

bottom line for me is, i don't care who sells a million albums or if they sell 1 album. as long as the music i want to hear from the artists i want to hear is available to me.

and i have both Mariah Carey's & Rihanna's albums. and somebody had better release Jennifer's!!

Sade and Maxwell sold. I'm happy.

and they're still boring.

Madonna is running low on the botox supplies.


!!!!!

Tony, ya killin' me!

Translation from Def Jam: "We've used you as much as we could and now we think you are useless to us, so buh-bye! Consider this the start of the groundwork to get your ass outta here.

This is pathetic. it's not about good music anymore. that's why most of these industry acts are no longer selling lots of records.

Harlepolis said:

Didn't 'chu know he spends too much time planning parties and bullying event planners for his spoiled asshole of son to be concerned with the craptastic music he's been putting out lately as an overseer?


I wonder how long before he goes the way of a bull-headed ego maniacal Tommy Mottola

how many times is this going to happen before people stop putting L.A. Reid in charge of anything?

midiscover said:

okay, I feel better now

Shit in.....shit out.

LA and Quincy really lost their touch...

However they are NOT to blame. LA Should have definitley asked Mariah twice not to do this to her album...but that was her call and the audience have spoken..nobody wants that mess...having the Dream produce her WHOLE album...lost her mind. Not sure if she cares about her career status musically. People tired of Hip Hop.

Timmy84 said:

Didn't we tell Mariah that already Timmy? I mean, Releasing album after album after album , she is everywhere and overexposing herself yet she didn't sell 1 million records since September , stop releasing an album every year if you are not selling well, and I say, disappear for at least 4 or 5 years