Sony Artists & Managers In The Dark: 'We Found Out The Same Way As Everyone Else'

With the news earlier this week of the sudden exit of Sony Music Australia boss Denis Handlin and a further two executives put on indefinite leave sending shockwaves throughout the music industry, most eyes were on Handlin, his future and a flurry of allegations. But beyond the contentious rumours and industry murmurs, a far bigger narrative was taking shape, largely in the "business as usual" mantra fed to various Sony Music artists and managers.

For many of the artists, bands and management teams, direct communication in the wake of the recent news from higher ups at Sony Music Australia has been sparse; and, for a large portion of acts still operating on the Sony roster, contact has, in fact, been non-existent.

One artist manager, who wished to remain anonymous, advised: “Whilst we have had contact with senior figures at Sony, we really have heard nothing of substance."

Within the last 24 hours, The Music reached out to over fifty artists and managers affiliated with Sony, past and present, unearthing an ongoing thread of uncertainty and a repeated pattern of limited correspondence for those willing to share their stories.

A second anonymous artist manager willing to speak echoed the resounding sentiment that no prior heads up was given ahead of the Handlin bombshell earlier in the week, also attesting to the blanket "it will all be OK" directive raised by others: "Effectively, we found out much the same way that everyone else did. I did speak with one of the members of our team after the news of Denis, and they kind of just reiterated that it’s business as usual."

Where communication was sought or given to artists and their teams from Sony, it has been confirmed by anonymous sources that label partners initially received information about the current situation via a pro forma email from the United States team; but beyond that no significant contact has yet been initiated. 

Speaking with an array of high profile and emerging artists and managers, many wishing to not directly comment on the current situation, the repeated trend continued to be that ultimately the majority of those directly involved discovered the situation and series of events simultaneously alongside the public; or, in some isolated cases, from the media.

For an ARIA-winning Australian artist and their manager commenting anonymously, their Sony history is one lined with poor communication: "We haven't been approached actually," the artist's manager explained over the phone. "Back when they were in the running to win an ARIA, they weren't able to be there in person, and accepted it via a live cross from London. I had been called by someone at Sony and told that the artist should thank both Denis and his son Pat Handlin in their acceptance speech. Neither of the two had been on a single email or phone call with management about the project at any point.

"It was a tough pill to swallow to know I had to ask the artist to thank these people who had nothing to do with their success. Something about that felt wrong. However, what choice did we have, they were in a deal with the label, if they didn't do as Denis demanded, it was clear their career would suffer."

The artist would go on to thank Denis in their acceptance speech, but when it came time for the artist to accept their award via the live cross, Denis wasn't able to hear himself being thanked, leading to the manager being summoned to the bar at the Sony after party by another staff member, where the manager proceeded to wait while Handlin held court with various industry bigwigs.

"When he was ready for me, he started to tear shreds off both the artist and myself because he believed the artist had deliberately decided not to thank him," the manager continues. "[Handlin] berated me, calling the artist a cunt, he said they were shitty/petty people, that they thought they were better than him and the label team. Denis told me that none of what he was saying was about his own ego. He yelled this a number of times. To be clear, the artist 100% thanked Denis, I watched the recording of the awards show the following day to be sure. I asked Denis to call me, as I wanted an apology for the artist. He called, but I didn’t get the apology I wanted, he was sorry if I was upset. Our relationship with the label was weird after that, something had definitely shifted. I should note that it wasn’t Denis or Pat who told me the artist had to thank Denis and Pat, it was staff members at Sony who told me they were under instruction."

At a separate ARIA Awards, the artist in question, who is no longer with Sony, was again required to thank Denis in an acceptance speech. As the artist was unable to attend the ceremony, they had to pre-record an acceptance speech from the US.

"The pre-recorded acceptance speech was sent to our team at Sony, where it went across a number of desks for approval, with each person deferring it to someone more senior. It ended up going all the way to Denis' desk, where he himself had to approve the speech. Specifically, he was approving the way the artist thanked him. The artist chose to thank him by his initials, rather than his full name, which was enough of an issue that no one under him was prepared to sign off on, as they risked losing their job if he wasn't happy with it."

While the subject matter and themes surrounding the current situation has instilled a measured hesitancy among many of the impacted bands, artists and managers to speak openly at this point in time, there appears to also be a growing sense of hope, as summarised by a third anonymous artist manager: "We never really dealt with Denis. But this simply needs to be the catalyst for change. [There needs to be] more diversity at executive level. [We] just want to see more change."

And as the dust continues to rattle before settling at Sony HQ after an explosive couple of days, another positive sentiment has come forward from an additional anonymous manager: "I have real faith in Rob Stringer (CEO Sony Music Entertainment), so [I] see this as a real positive for our artists."

We have reached out to Sony Music Entertainment in the US, who are overseeing all communications in relation to this matter, for a response to the above comments. We were still awaiting a response at the time of publication.

More to come.