Sony Corp hired Andrew Lack to run its music unit, choosing an executive with more than two decades of experience in television news to replace Thomas Mottola, who resigned yesterday.
Lack, 55, has been president and chief operating officer of General Electric Co's NBC television unit since 2001 and previously ran NBC News for eight years. Before that he was a producer at CBS News, where he worked for former CBS executive Howard Stringer, now chief executive of Sony Corp of America.
Lack must find a new strategy for Sony Music, analysts said, as unauthorized swapping of music over the Internet cuts into its sales. He comes from outside the music business to replace Mottola, who brought acts such as Jennifer Lopez and the Dixie Chicks to Sony.
Lack "doesn't have a music industry background," said David Kathman, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. "Maybe that's what Sony is going for, because the music industry is changing so rapidly. The young people that they're trying to reach are downloading the music for free. It's really a problem they have to address."
Mottola worked for Sony Music for 14 years and previously managed artists such as Hall & Oates, Carly Simon and John Mellencamp. He said yesterday he plans to start his own record label in partnership with Sony.
The American depositary receipts of Tokyo-based Sony fell US$0.43 to US$42.88 at 4pm in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The ADRs, each representing one ordinary share, have fallen 9.8 percent over the past year. General Electric shares fell US$0.25 to US$25.65.
While sales at Sony's music business, which accounts for a tenth of the company's overall revenue, rose 4.8 percent in the 12 months ended March 2002, operating profit fell 1.6 percent.
US compact-disc sales declined 8.8 percent last year, the second consecutive year that album sales fell, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks US retail sales of music.
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