Seymour Stein, the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame member who was the co-founder of Sire Information, the previous vp at Warner Bros. Information and, a few years in the past, started his storied profession within the music trade at The Hollywood Reporter sister publication Billboard, has died.
His daughter, filmmaker Mandy Stein, instructed THR that her father died Sunday morning in Los Angeles from most cancers.
Stein signed such music legends as Madonna and The Ramones at Sire. However when he was simply a youngster, he started working as an assistant to Tommy Noonan, then head of charts at Billboard, the place Stein sat in on conferences to resolve which new information to evaluation and helped to compile the then just-launched Scorching 100.
“I used to be simply 16, working at Billboard after college. From the time I used to be 9 years previous, I knew I wished to be within the music enterprise,” he stated in an interview printed in 2015.
“I have a look at my education as, partly, my early years at Billboard,” he instructed the journal. “[Former editor] Paul Ackerman invited me to attend these music evaluation classes on Wednesday nights and even offered me with a due-bill to remain at one of many inns near the Billboard workplaces. … That method I may stand up and take the subway to Lafayette Excessive College in Brooklyn.”
Stein’s tenure at Billboard lasted till 1961, after which he took his first label job, working for Syd Nathan and King Information in Cincinnati earlier than transferring again to New York with a stint at Crimson Fowl Information, owned and run by George Goldner and the songwriting/manufacturing crew of Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber.
Stein co-founded Sire with Richard Gottehrer in 1967 as an impartial file label, however joined forces with Warner 9 years later, in 1976. Stein as soon as instructed Billboard the primary artist he signed was “Steven Tallarico, who later turned Steve Tyler from Aerosmith. He was in a bunch known as Chain Response” on the time.
The legendary roster at Sire included Madonna, The Ramones, The Smiths, Speaking Heads, The Pretenders, The Treatment, Depeche Mode and plenty of, many extra.
Of first bringing Madonna to Sire, Stein stated, “I signed her as a result of I believed in Mark Kamins, who I believed was the best DJ, and he wished to be a producer. So I gave him some cash to deliver me an artist and the third or fourth factor he introduced me was Madonna. And sure, I used to be very concerned at first. Then I noticed, ‘This girl is smarter than all of us. Simply get out of her method.’”
In 2005, Stein was inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame, within the lifetime achievement class.
In 2012, he was honored as Billboard‘s first recipient of the Icon Award, which acknowledges the lifetime achievements of trade executives and was offered to him on the annual MIDEM trade gathering in Cannes, France.
In 2016, he was given the Richmond Hitmaker Award on the Songwriters Corridor of Fame ceremony, and in 2018, he obtained the Recording Academy’s prestigious Trustees Award.
Stein penned the autobiography Siren Music, which was printed in 2018 by St. Martin’s Press.
This story was first printed on Billboard.com.
