Two execs quit Sony BMG Music in power struggle

LOS ANGELES, June 2 (Reuters) Corporate drama continued at Sony BMG Music Entertainment on Thursday with the resignation of two top executives at its Sony Music Label Group U.S., home to stars such as Beyonce and Gretchen Wilson.

Music industry veteran Don Ienner, who in March added chairman to his title of Sony Music Label chief executive, and Michele Anthony, who only became president and chief operating officer last December, both resigned, effective immediately.

Rob Stringer, a 20-year veteran of Sony Music, was named president of the U.S. label group, effective Sept. 1.

Sony BMG, the world's No. 2 recording company and a joint venture between Germany's Bertelsmann AG and Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp., has been shaken in the past year by an executive power struggle.

The departures of Anthony and Ienner, credited with helping steer the careers of artists Whitney Houston and Kenny G. and initiatives at Sony such as revitalizing its Nashville labels, mark the latest management shakeout at the company.

Sony Music Label Group U.S., which includes Columbia Records, Epic Records, Sony Music Nashville and Sony Urban Music, will be run in the interim by Tim Bowen, Sony BMG's chief operating officer.

Ienner, who in 1989 became Columbia's youngest president at the age of 36, began his career in 1969 in the Capitol Records mail room while in high school, and worked at Arista Records alongside record mogul Clive Davis, now chairman of BMG U.S.

A lawyer who has represented acts from Sony and Bertelsmann said Sony BMG pitted the two executives against each other.

''Clive was Ienner's mentor and then when Ienner left, they became competitors. The rivalry goes back a long time,'' said Owen Sloane, a music industry attorney.

''It's been a power struggle in the U.S. between the two companies. I think the powers that be wanted to consolidate the company and had two massive legends competing, with Clive Davis on one hand and Don Ienner on the other,'' said Sloane, who represents Chris Daughtry, an American Idol finalist who recently signed with a Bertelsmann label.

Management trouble began when Bertelsmann grew dissatisfied with how Sony BMG was run, and Sony ultimately agreed to a swap at the top this year. Sony BMG CEO Andrew Lack, who had run Sony Music, took the less-hands-on position of chairman, while former BMG CEO Rolf Schmidt-Holtz moved from chairman to CEO.

REUTERS CS DS1146