EMI Ousts Berry as Label Chief

The corporate shake-up at British music giant EMI Group claimed a second high-ranking record executive Tuesday when the company ousted Nancy Berry, who runs the conglomerate’s Virgin Records division.

Berry is the latest casualty in a shake-up that began a week ago with the ouster of her former husband, EMI record chief Ken Berry. Chairman Eric Nicoli replaced him with industry veteran Alain Levy.

Levy was given a mandate to restructure the management team overseeing the record division, which ranks last in U.S. sales among the five major music companies.

Levy’s new second in command, David Munns, flew to Los Angeles and notified Nancy Berry of the move in a meeting Monday, EMI sources said. Berry, 42, is not expected to be replaced.

Nicoli, Levy, Munns and Berry were unavailable for comment.

The shake-up follows a series of profit warnings and financial woes inside the world’s third-largest music company, including an abysmal sales debut from pop star Mariah Carey, who suffered a nervous breakdown months after signing an $80-million contract this year.

Virgin’s share of current-album sales in the U.S. music market rose from about 3.7% to 4.3% during Berry’s four-year tenure, according to music research firm SoundScan. But the gains often came at the expense of EMI’s bottom line.

EMI’s stock, already battered by weakening global music sales, dropped sharply last month after executives warned that profit could plunge 20% this year. The announcement followed lackluster debuts from R&B; singer Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash Aug. 25, and Carey.

Berry spearheaded Virgin’s costly marketing and promotional campaign for Carey’s latest CD, “Glitter,” which is expected to continue tumbling down the pop chart today when the industry’s weekly sales tabulations are announced by SoundScan.

Carey’s album has sold an estimated 326,000 copies since its Sept. 11 debut--the worst performance of the superstar’s career. EMI outbid several competing record labels to sign the star to a four-album deal.

Berry’s exit also marks an abrupt end to an ascent that made her one of the most controversial executives in the record business. Her rise in the company quickly followed her then-husband’s promotion to the top music job in 1997.

Nancy Berry, who joined the company as Ken Berry’s assistant in the late 1970s, is credited with creating successful global marketing campaigns for such acts as Janet Jackson, the Rolling Stones and Lenny Kravitz. Before joining Virgin, she worked in a record store in Detroit, where she also managed a rock band.

But her management style resulted in occasional embarrassments for the company. In 1997, Forbes Magazine described Nancy Berry as a “former groupie” whose relationships with many performers are “well, let’s just say they’re unusually close.”

In an interview that same year with The Times, Ken Berry addressed industry gossip revolving around his wife’s management style and her personal life.

“Nancy works very hard with the artists, and she is extremely professional in the way she gets things done,” he said. “She is not interested in sleeping with our roster of acts. That is not what she is about.”

Earlier this year, EMI released a Canadian rock act named Custom from Virgin after a run-in between Nancy Berry and a member of the band.

Sources said the band’s lead singer consulted an attorney about filing a harassment claim against Virgin after allegedly receiving a series of threatening voicemail messages from Nancy Berry.

The company agreed to craft an unusual exit arrangement for Custom, allowing the band to put its finished album up for sale on the free market.

The move cost EMI about $750,000 in recording costs. It could appear even more costly should Custom score a hit after its album is released on a competing label in January.