Mariah Carey talking to other labels
Pop diva Mariah Carey got $28 million (20 million pounds) to walk away from her gig at music giant EMI Group last month, but now the suitors are lining up for her hand. According to record industry sources, Carey has been discussing potential deals with several major labels, including Island Def Jam, RCA and Elektra, who are interested in capitalising on her star power despite her flameout with EMI.
"Mariah is talking with several companies," a spokeswoman for the star said, refusing to elaborate further. Officials for Vivendi Universal, the parent of Island Def Jam, and AOL Time Warner's Warner Music Group, parent to Elektra, declined comment. Officials from Bertelsmann AG's RCA were unavailable.
Carey's lawyer, Donald Passman, told Reuters in January that recording companies had shown interest in the star ever since speculation of her breakup with EMI began circulating weeks late in 2000. Industry sources speculate her next deal will be valued at far below the estimated $80 million to $100 million EMI originally agreed to pay her only to see the singer's new album, "Glitter" and a film by the same name bomb.
Under the buyout pact, Carey got $28 million to walk away and retains another $21 million previously paid to her when the EMI contract was first signed in April 2001. "She doesn't need a lot of money at this point. She just needs someone to distribute her music. People still think she's a very marketable brand," said one record label executive.
Carey's fallout with EMI has come to symbolise the dysfunctional state of the music industry, which has paid huge sums of money to a few acts that have failed to live up to their value in a year when sales have slid, online piracy has increased and pop stars railed against industry accounting practices.
The news also topped a turbulent year for the singer who suffered an emotional and physical breakdown and has figured prominently in gossip columns since the end of her marriage to Sony Music Entertainment chief Tommy Mottola, who discovered her as an 18-year-old waitress.
Other artists have recently gone on to bigger and better things after being let go by EMI's Virgin. After recording two albums for Virgin, reggae star Shaggy signed to MCA Records, where his 2000 album, "Hotshot", was one of the best-selling releases last year. And the Wallflowers recorded one little-noticed album for Virgin in 1992 before being let go and landing at Interscope, where their 1996 album, "Bringing Down the Horse", sold 6 million copies worldwide. MCA and Interscope are units of Vivendi Universal. (Reuters) Many thanks to Mariah Crybaby.
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