A WACKY WEEK FOR GAGA
Seven days after Lady Gaga and Troy Carter parted ways—as the countdown to her ARTPOP album(Streamline/Interscope 11/11) continued—no official meetings had yet taken place in the search for her next manager.
The divorce isn’t yet final; according to a piece by media reporter Ben Sisario in this morning's edition of The New York Times, Carter has reportedly remained involved in the marketing of the new album, and it is unclear whether a separation agreement between them has been fully negotiated. That jives with what we're hearing, which is that Carter’s team is involved in the day-to-day handling of management responsibilities through the launch and will remain in play until she establishes a new team.
The focus of Sisario's piece is on the management coalition being assembled by Scooter Braun, and the writer reiterates what HITS' I.B. Bad wrote in his column posted 8/29—that Carter is a key piece of Braun's growing management empire.
When the candidates are summoned to begin their sit-downs, they’ll be making their pitches to Kenny Meisalas in Allen Grubman’s offices. But there may also be an X factor in the mix: Gaga’s father, Joe Germanotta, who receives 50% of her earnings under their LLCs Team Love Child and Mermaid Music—a mega-generous arrangement that’s been compared to Col. Tom Parker’s deal with Elvis Presley.
According to a November 2011 New York Post profile written by Gaga biographer Maureen Callahan, Germanotta was a frustrated rocker from Jersey who made his fortune in hotel Wi-Fi, becoming wealthy enough to buy a duplex on the Upper West Side and send his daughters to the Convent of the Sacred Heart, where yearly tuition averages $35k. When daughter Stefani announced her career goal, he used his money and connections to hire the best producers, to book studio time for a demo and to get the future Lady Gaga in the room with record execs. Since 2008, Joe has worked as an artist manager, though none of the acts in his stable has yet to break. Stefani/Gaga remains his most successful investment.
The final week of the ARTPOP setup had its share of seemingly unplanned melodrama, as Gaga, costumed in what appeared to be her idea of grunge wear tearfully wailed the ballad "Dope" during last Sunday’s YouTube Music Awards, immediately causing several thousand eyeballs to look elsewhere for amusement. The next morning, we reported the split with Carter, after which some speculated that there must’ve been a connection between her bizarre performance and the apparent end of their six-year relationship.
Meanwhile, some pundits began asking out loud whether the 350k first-week projection for ARTPOP is reachable—but digital pre-orders are now north of 100k, an encouraging sign. Lead single "Applause" has also performed reasonably well: it’s still Top 5 at Pop after 12 weeks and has moved 1.8m units, while the video has passed 100m views, along with 45m views of the audio and lyric clips.
Interscope President/COO John Janick reportedly has Gaga’s ear. He built a strong relationship with her during the recording process and speaks to her on a regular basis. It was Janick as much as anyone who was responsible for keeping the ship on course through some recent choppy waters.
But the rollout kept rolling, and Gaga gathered herself in order to execute the plan—a complex worldwide promotional launch of the album that will occupy her for the next two weeks.
