Studio Report Card: Sony Music
Sales sweet for Sony Music
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Much of Sony Music's good fortunes during the year came on the back of diminutive Canadian diva Celine Dion, who not only was the bestselling pop artist but also warbled the year's biggest ballad, "My Heart Will Go On," on the year's biggest album, Sony Classical's "Titanic." Sales of the disc were largely fueled by the awareness of Dion's track, which in turn helped boost sales of her solo discs, all of which counted sales bumps during the year. Sony Music's success also highlighted the importance of a stable management team at both the conglom level and at the individual labels. Save for the implosion late in the year of Crave Records, the Mariah Carey-led label, there was almost no turnover in Sony's exec suites. This dearth of corporate intrigue allowed its chieftains to concentrate on internally growing their businesses, rather than relying on splashy, expensive acquisitions designed to capture market share. The execs did, however, significantly outbid competitors on a number of high-profile deals, such as the $3 million payday for the rights to the soundtrack to Fox TV's "Ally McBeal." Sony Music ended 1998 with the industry's two bestselling albums: "Titanic" and Dion's "Let's Talk About Love," a first-time achievement in the SoundScan era. Its nearly 17.5% current-album market share for the year topped competitors. In addition to the 26.5 million worldwide units sold for "Titanic" and the 25.5 million tally for "Let's Talk About Love," Sony also scored with Carey's "Butterfly" at 8.4 million units and her self-titled album at 7.6 million units. On a worldwide level, SME revenue has tripled since 1989; and for the first nine months of 1998, SME had record revenue. This succession of bests resulted in Sony Music chief Thomas D. Mottola landing two significant promotions, a bump from prexy to CEO, the latter a rare title in Japanese-run firms, and more recently an ascension to chairman. Sony rose from its third position in 1997 in the albums category, and fourth in singles, to take the lead in both lists in 1998, besting EMI, which led the albums category, and Polygram's reign in the singles company, in 1997. "This has been our best year ever, across the board," Mottola told Daily Variety. "From breaking such new artists as Dixie Chicks, Lauryn Hill, Korn, Savage Garden and Will Smith, to having the world's two biggest albums ... this was our year. Nobody had a greater presence on the charts, radio and television than we did in 1998, regardless of territory, and the stability of our management team was a key factor. We consistently led the industry in crossing artists over from one territory to another."
