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IDJ To Revive Mercury Imprint
April 12, 2007
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| DAVID MASSEY |
By Brian Garrity, N.Y.
Island Def Jam is reviving the Mercury imprint in the U.S. and has tapped veteran Sony Music A&R executive David Massey to serve as president of the division.
Mercury -- which over the years has served as the U.S. home to acts like Bon Jovi, John Mellancamp, Def Leppard, Kiss, Rush, Rod Stewart, Cinderella, Fine Young Cannibals, and Tears For Fears -- ceased operating as a frontline label in North America in 1999 in the wake of the merger of Seagram and PolyGram.
In resurrecting Mercury, IDJ chairman/CEO L.A. Reid says he is looking for the imprint to serve as a "new cornerstone in the IDJ family." Driving the move is IDJ's hire of Massey, a 15-year Sony vet who has been involved with hits from Shakira, Oasis, Franz Ferdinand, Travis and Silverchair, among others. He was most recently executive VP of A&R for Sony Music Label Group U.S., a post he assumed in 2004.
"I see Mercury as a label that reflects the kind of artist I've been associated with in the past," Massey explains. Talks between Massey and IDJ heated up in January as Massey was negotiating a new contract with Sony Music execs -- a deal that was to include transforming his Daylight Records imprint from a wholly-owned subsidiary distributed through Epic Records into a joint venture with offices outside the Sony building.
Sony execs did not return calls seeking comment.
Massey founded Daylight in late 2000 as an A&R center for all of the labels within the Sony Music Label Group. His signings for Daylight included Anastacia, Good Charlotte, Phantom Planet, Cheyenne Kimball and Cyndi Lauper.
"The track record of trust and inspiration he has won from the artists he's worked with over the years ... makes him the perfect choice to pilot Mercury through its latest incarnation," Reid says.
In opting to jump to IDJ Massey is leaving the Daylight name and the core of its roster at Sony.
Coming with him are his two Daylight A&R directors, David Gray and Evan Lipschutz. Recent signing George Simon Stanford, a singer-songwriter from Philadelphia, will also follow.
There is no word yet on Mercury picking up acts from Island or Def Jam. The only other act confirmed for the Mercury roster so far is Duffy, a female act initially signed to Universal Music International. While Mercury has been in mothballs in the U.S. for years, it has remained an active imprint overseas serving as the international home for many IDJ acts as well as international signings.
"It's a very exciting challenge to rebuild a label that from a global perspective has quite a brand," Massey says.
Just how many releases come out this year under the Mercury banner remains to be seen, but the number figures to be around a handful. Massey says the plan is to build the imprint slowly.
Massey will assume his Mercury post on Monday April 16. He is based in New York and reports to Reid and Steve Bartels, COO of IDJ and president of Island Records.
Massey began his career with Sony at Epic Records, starting as VP of A&R in 1991. Prior to joining Epic, Massey was based in London working as an artist manager and heading his own independent record company, Big World Records.
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