Lou Pearlman
Louis J. Pearlman is a music producer from Flushing, Queens, New York, USA. He is the first cousin of Art Garfunkel.
While in aviation business with Trans Continental Airlines, Pearlman founded Orlando, Florida based Trans Continental Records after supplying a charter for the New Kids on the Block in 1991 and discovering that they reached over $1,000,000,000 in record, tour, and merchandise sales.
His first boy band was the Backstreet Boys, who sold over 85 million units worldwide after a two year $1,000,000 investment, followed by *NSYNC, who sold 40 million units worldwide. Subsequent groups include LFO and O-Town (from Making the Band).
He is the author of Bands, Brands, and Billions with Wes Smith.
Lou Pearlman was parodied by Jon Stewart on an episode of Saturday Night Live.
While many of Pearlman's companies were successful, others have been surrounded with controversy.
The Backstreet Boys sued Pearlman because they felt their contract, under which Pearlman collected as both manager and producer, was unfair, and by *NSYNC, who wished to be able to change record labels. Both suits were settled out of court.
Talent scouting scandal
In September 2002 he purchased Options Talent, allegedly without being informed by Options Talent CEO Mark Tolner about the criminal pasts of some of that company's officials. [1] Since then Options Talent went through several name changes, like Trans Continental Talent TCT, Wilhelmina Scouting Network WSN (now Web Style Network) and Fashion Rock. The latest company name in this line, Talent Rock, is hosting talent search events, workshops and a web based database.
WSN/TCT got banned by the New York State Consumer Protection Board due to many consumers complaints [2]. In Florida about 2000 complaints were filed and a law suit was in preparation by Assistant AG Jackie Dowd, but after her replacement by John MacGregor the inquiry was quietly discontinued. [3]
Pearlman company Fashion Rock (CEO Tolner) has filed civil suits and started a campaign against some websites that contain criticism on his ways of conducting talent search businesses. [4]
References
- ^ Tim Barker, "Scouting network's history troubles Pearlman," Orlando Sentinel, Oct. 5, 2003
- ^ Model Agency Labeled a Scam
- ^ local10.com: State Ends Probe Into Pearlman's Former Model-Scouting Company
- ^ Orlando Weekly: Pearlman's jihad
External links
- Trans Continental Companies, a Lou Pearlman company
- Lou Pearlman's website
- CBSNews.com: The Idol Maker ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 6, 2002
- Lou Pearlman Fan Site
- CBS4 Talent Scouting Agency Investigation
- BBB about WSN