LA Reid is leaving Sony Music.
The legendary record executive is stepping down as chairman of imprint, Epic Records.
Reid has been responsible for bring a number of acts to Sony including Future, DJ Khaled, and Fifth Harmony, as well as Mariah Carey, who’d previously signed with Reid at Island Def Jam.
Variety reports that Sony has yet to announce who will replace Reid or what the veteran music exec plans to do next.
Reid joined Sony Music in 2011, turning around the label, which had been in a bit of a slump. Prior to his position there, Reid formed LaFace Records with Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, where they launched the careers of Usher, TLC and Pink, and acted as CEO of Arista Records before moving to IDJ.
Reid is responsible for overseeing some of music’s biggest albums including Carey’s The Emancipation of Mimi and Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.
The exec has also done projects outside of music. He did a brief stint as a judge on Simon Cowell’s X Factor and released a New York Times best-selling autobiography in 2016, Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who’s Next.
With such enviable music legacy, Reid next move will likely shake the music industry.
We can’t wait to see what he does next.