In July 2020, it was announced that Simon Cowell had walked away from his Syco Music record label, and while it was never disclosed as to what his reasons were for ditching the company, it’s not all that shocking considering how most of his biggest acts had already bailed n the company before the mogul’s exit was revealed to the public.
Cowell, who is worth $600 million, sold Syco Music to Sony Music in 2005 but carried on with an executive position under its new ownership - but over the summer, the 60-year-old distanced himself entirely, with many wondering whether his decision in doing so was brought upon by the fact that the company had lost a tremendous amount in value.
Most of the artists who were once signed to the record label had complained about their deals with the music mogul, which either saw them making little to no money from their contracts; they were overworked, while many had also complained about creative differences concerning the music they wanted to release.
How Did Syco Music Build Its Negative Reputation?
One of the best examples to use in this case would be the signing of One Direction in December 2010. The boys - Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, and Liam Payne - signed a $1.3 million deal with the company and released their debut album, Up All Night, the following year.
The record was a worldwide hit, selling over five million units and spawning the hit singles What Makes You Beautiful, Gotta Be You, One Thing, One Thing, and More than This.
Then, in November 2012, the band released their sophomore record, Take Me Home, which performed just as well on the charts, shifting another 4.4 million copies worldwide, making it evidently clear that One Direction was a force to be reckoned with in the industry.
But what many didn’t know was that its stars, who were making plenty of money, were overworked and didn’t have much of a say to the music they were putting out on a year-to-year basis.
The group, who openly admitted to feeling exhausted following their split at the end of 2016, had no control over the creative direction of their sound and image, which was apparent after Zayn Malik, who left the band in 2015 told Fader how he deemed their music as “generic as f**k.”
“That’s not music that I would listen to,” he told the publication that year. “Would you listen to One Direction, sat at a party with your girl? I wouldn’t. To me, that’s not an insult, that’s me as a 22-year-old man.
“As much as I was in that band, and I loved everything that we did, that’s not music that I would listen to. I don’t think that’s an offensive statement to make,” he continued. “That’s just not who I am. If I was sat at a dinner date with a girl, I would play some cool shit, you know what I mean? I want to make music that I think is cool shit. I don’t think that’s too much to ask for.”
When the boys pursued their solo careers, none other than Louis Tomlinson decided to renew their contracts with Syco, which spoke volumes in itself, but in July 2020, the latter decided to part ways with the company, too.
Popular girl group Little Mix, who ditched the firm back in 2018 - just days before the release of their fifth album LM5 - also complained about their destructive relationship with the label, which has since caused an ongoing feud between them and Cowell.
The X Factor UK contestants, who won the series in 2010, claimed they had several run-ins with the wealthy mogul and his label in the midst of putting together the record, which consequently left them with no choice but to walk away from the firm entirely.
“We did a little bit but we had a switch of labels during the LM5 process and that really f***ed us over,” Jae Thirlwall told The Sun.
"[It] was probably one of the hardest parts of our career, but it was necessary. It came at a bad time, as we were releasing new music. We were so close to the people that were there with us every day.”
Other former artists who have complained about Syco Music and Cowell include the likes of James Arthur, Leona Lewis, Cher Lloyd, Louisa Johnson, and Ella Henderson, just to name a few.
By the look of things, it’s probably a wise idea that Cowell is distancing himself from Syco Music, with all of its current artists expected to merge over to different record labels associated with Sony, which include RCA and Epic.