Branson Ready to Start New Music Business, Spokesman Says

Flamboyant British entrepreneur Richard Branson is looking to reenter the music business, 3 1/2 years after selling his Virgin Records label for a cool $853 million.

“Richard’s spoken to a number of people in the industry, and he’s decided, ‘Yes, we’re going to look at it,’ ” spokesman Will Whitehorn told Reuters in a telephone interview Tuesday.

“I think over the next six months we’ll shake out what we’re going to do,” he said.

Branson, founder and chairman of the Virgin Group, which had its origins in selling records, last week recruited a high-level executive from Sony Records to help him explore the possibility of launching a new label, Whitehorn said.

Last week, “Jeremy Pearce, who worked for Sony Records in Europe, has resigned from Sony and gone to work for Richard,” Whitehorn said. Pearce was managing director of Sony’s European music license division.

“You don’t hire someone of Jeremy’s caliber unless you’re serious,” Whitehorn said.

Branson, who has said he regrets having sold Virgin Records, which had its first big success in the 1970s with “Tubular Bells” by Branson’s friend Mike Oldfield, has made no decision on whether he would seek to start a new label on his own or in a joint venture.

“Whether we would work alone or not, it’s certainly likely we would have an independent label and use the majors for distribution,” Whitehorn said.

He said a joint venture would be a possibility.

Recent expansions of the Virgin Group have largely been done through joint ventures. In June 1995, it purchased the British MGM cinema chain, last month it bought EuroBelgian Airlines, and last year it launched the Virgin Direct personal equity plan.

Branson would be able to draw on the skills of various Virgin units to build a music company.