![]() “My favorite thing in this entire job is getting a song from an artist that’s just incredible - that excites me more than anything else,” Perry says. He also brings an artist’s pure passion for music to his position as Columbia’s lead decision-maker. It helps that he’s a musician himself, as well as a producer and songwriter - he even landed production and writing credits on BTS’ Columbia-released 2021 megahit “Butter.” “He’s the only major-label chief who’s also a musician and truly in the studio,” Gray says. Though label veterans like Adele, Beyoncé and Styles predate the duo at Columbia, Perry and Mallory have helped to expand those artists’ reaches and keep them vital to the contemporary pop mainstream, while also signing artists like LAROI, Lil Nas X, “Boyfriend” breakout Dove Cameron and recent Latin Grammy album of the year winner Rosalía, developing them to new levels of stardom.ĭescribed by his staff as a master of A&R, Perry is known as an executive with a unique understanding of artists’ perspectives. But to see both of those things happening simultaneously - turning new young talent into household names, and then finding superlative moments for the world’s biggest stars - are equally gratifying and exciting for our team.”Ĭaptaining that team are chairman/CEO Ron Perry - installed in the position in 2018 to take over for his mentor Rob Stringer after the latter’s move to run parent company Sony Music Entertainment - and Jen Mallory, the label’s executive vp/GM. “We don’t control the timing of the calendar, or the tides or the moons or the stars - the material flows as it flows, and we’re certainly happy to deliver it as it comes. “We’re always focused on two things, really: One, breaking new artists, and two, elevating the careers of superstars,” says Peter Gray, executive vp/head of promotion at Columbia. And the label kept an eye on the future, aggressively signing up-and-coming sensations like Nicky Youre (“Sunroof”), Megan Moroney (“Tennessee Orange”) and Yahritza y Su Esencia (“Soy El Unico”), helping those acts get footholds in the industry following their early TikTok virality. Meanwhile, the gains Columbia made in 2021 with The Kid LAROI and Lil Nas X - artists who had found commercial success before Columbia signed them, but who the label helped establish as A-level hit-makers - carried over, with the radio success of their respective chart-topping singles “Stay” (with Justin Bieber) and “Industry Baby” (with Jack Harlow) spilling well into the new year and helping Columbia earn Billboard’s Top Radio Songs Label distinction for 2022. Each debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and Top Album Sales charts during the same weeks that their respective lead singles (“Easy on Me,” “Break My Soul” and “As It Was”) also led the Billboard Hot 100, as part of their combined 27 weeks atop the chart. An album of the year win seems especially likely for the label, with Adele’s 30, Beyoncé’s Renaissance and Styles’ Harry’s House considered the three front-runners to take home the award, according to betting site GoldDerby.īeyoncé, Adele, Harry Styles Help Columbia Lead Labels in Big Four Grammy NominationsĪnd the albums’ commercial performances easily matched their industry plaudits. ![]() Columbia claims three of the most-nominated artists for the awards in February 2023: Adele, Beyoncé and Harry Styles, who have a combined 22 nods. The monoculture may be long dead, but Columbia delivered a pretty convincing flashback to it in 2022.Įvidence of the label’s all-encompassing impact was on clear display during the Grammy nominations announcement in November. As listeners’ ever-evolving consumption habits pulled them every which way - and rarely toward the same handful of releases - the label dominated in a way that could be described as old-fashioned: with acclaimed full-length albums from established superstars that spawned massive hit singles and sold lots of physical records. With TikTok entrenched as the industry’s most effective (and maddening) marketing tool, streaming services continually democratizing listening and dulling the impact of conventional singles, and songs from years (if not decades) earlier resurfacing as contemporary hits, it’s increasingly rare to see new releases rule over all sectors of the pop landscape.īut this past year, that very rarity was the norm for Columbia Records. Popular music in 2022 is more diffuse than ever.
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