Sony Music Entertainment said Friday it is eliminating 1,000 jobs in a move that had been expected as the company seeks to become more efficient.
The cuts come to about 10 percent of Sony Music’s worldwide work force of approximately 10,000 people.
Roughly 600 of the cuts will come from the company’s U.S. operations, specifically its manufacturing and corporate and label businesses, a source close to the company said, adding that the rest of the reductions will be overseas and no other cuts are expected.
This is the latest in a series of changes at Sony Music. Tommy Mottola resigned as chairman in January after 14 years at the company to start a new label. He was succeeded by former NBC president and chief operating officer Andrew Lack – a newsman with no background in the music industry.
Sony enjoyed several high-profile, multiplatinum hits last year from acts including Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and the Dixie Chicks. But Sony is third among the five major music labels in terms of market share; it had 15.24 percent of the album market in 2002, a dip from 15.83 percent in 2001.
Sony Music had sales of $4.8 billion for the fiscal year ending March 2002. It is a subsidiary of Sony Corp. of America, the North American arm of Japan’s Sony Corp.
