It is usually the artists who are the household names in the music business, but there have been a handful of executives who became well known in their own right, such as Clive Davis at Columbia Records and Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic. One of the greats was Mo Ostin, who was renowned as a champion of music and musicians. During his 30-year career with Warner Bros, Ostin, who has died aged 95, was instrumental in building the careers of many of the most highly regarded artists of his era.
After working for Norman Granz’s jazz label Verve in the mid-1950s, Ostin was picked by Frank Sinatra to head his label Reprise. After that was bought by Warner Bros, Ostin helped bring the world the Kinks, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Fleetwood Mac, Madonna and Prince, while Paul Simon, Tom Petty and REM also flourished under his sympathetic regime.
