IB history lesson

MUSIC-BIZ HISTORY LESSON: In his latest column, which you can find in the new print issue and online, our own I.B. Bad provides a thumbnail history of Sony Music’s last quarter century, from Yetnikoff and Mottola to the present day. Taking Mottola’s place, I.B. points out, was longtime TV exec Andy Lack, who tapped Don Ienner and Michele Anthony to oversee the Sony labels. Ienner moved Steve Barnett from heading Epic to running Columbia, while putting Charlie Walk in charge of Epic. Lack helped engineer the 2004 BMG merger but couldn’t figure out how to get the combined companies to work together during his three years at the helm. In 2006, he was replaced by BMG veteran Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, who reorganized both units, forcing out Ienner and Anthony and replacing the Sony chief with Rob Stringer, who was brought over from the U.K., while making Barry Weiss the head of BMG, moving Clive Davis sideways and getting rid of Davis’ right-hand man, Charles Goldstuck. But like his predecessor, Schmidt-Holtz failed to bring the culturally divergent merger partners into harmony. It wasn’t until Doug Morris took over SME in 2011 that the two companies finally began to function in tandem. And yes, several of the above-named execs are still very much in play. (10/14a)