As reported this week, Mr Davis has been replaced with Zomba label chief Barry Weiss, who has enjoyed chart success with the likes of Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Chris Brown. I find it non-coincidental that this has happened in the SAME WEEK and after the announcement of Leona's album sales. I have no doubt in my mind they were expecting her to sell at least DOUBLE the amount than she did, especially with the large amounts of money that was spent going into her large promotional campaign to break the States. And with her Oprah appearance, they were expecting her sales to go through the roof. Getting to no 1 on both accounts simply wasn't enough, as great an achievement as it is. For them, it is all about the sales. On many accounts, artist's first week sales usually imply whether the record company will recoup back all the money that was spent on high-budgeted promotions. And they were in for a nasty shock when Nielson Soundscan figures were enclosed. Clive and Simon Cowell may have bitten off more than they could chew when they touted Leona as this generation's Mariah Carey since Leona didn't come through despite the large amounts of hype. And things don't even stop there either. It gets worse. How will this shake-up affect Whitney Houston, and worse of all; the lukewarm sellers on the label such as Mario, Monica and Fantasia? Because as far as far as I'm concerned Alicia Keys is the ONLY artist on that label making the record label their paper. And with Kelis being dropped from the Zomba label a couple of months ago, Barry Weiss seems like the kind of man who doesn't take further chances than he should.
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