Tori Amos has left Atlantic Records and is not signed with Epic Records, which is owned by Sony. You can read various stories about this that have been posted to the Dent below. You can read about Tori's first 2002 album for Epic, called Scarlet's Walk, on this page on The Dent.

• If you check out the official Epic Records web site, you will see Tori listed as one of their artists now!

• If you check out the newly redesigned ToriAmos.com web site that appeared online on March 8, 2002, you will see the Epic and Sony Music logos at various places, which pretty much proves that Tori is now with Epic Records. (Epic is part of Sony.)

• New York Times article from February 3, 2002: There was an article that appeared in the New York Times newspaper on February 3, 2002 entitled, "Spit Out by the Star-Making Machinery" by Jon Pareles. (Thanks to Richard Handal and Peter for telling me about this.) It talks about Mariah Carey being bought out of her record company contract and the about the music business in general, stating that in the current climate, "you're considered an artist exactly as long as the hits keep coming. Otherwise, you're a write-off." Here is the part that mentioned Tori no longer being with Atlantic Records.

  Although Ms. Carey had the splashiest parting with her label, she's not the only big-name musician to be shown the door lately. Rod Stewart and Tori Amos are now on their own, and David Bowie, another former Virgin act, announced he would release his own music rather than seek another major-label deal.

• Entertainment Weekly article from February 8, 2002: The February 8, 2002 issue of Entertainment Weekly (#638) also included an article on Mariah being bought out and the record business in general. (Thanks to Mike Fisher, Prince Adam, Micah Westfall, Rory and Sean Robinson.) It appeared in the News Notes section with the title "Money Honey". Part of the article says the following:

  "...labels suffered their biggest sales downturn in 18 years. As a result, music bosses are looking to cut costly, underperforming acts from their rosters. Atlantic recently parted ways with Tori Amos, Rod Stewart, and Colletive Soul..."

  They make it sound like it was Atlantic who rejected Tori when in fact it was a mutual decision!

• Billboard Magazine article from November 24, 2001: Tori has indeed left Atlantic Records. This was verified in a November 24, 2001 Billboard Magazine article that you can read here. The decision to leave was described as "mutual" between Tori and Atlantic. This article also reveals that Atlantic appears to be planning to release a Greatest Hits album at some point in the future. At this time, we don't know if this will definitely happen, or if it will happen before or after Tori's first Epic release.

• Tori has apparently signed with Epic Records. Tori mentioned in her conversation with Ann Powers on January 12, 2002 that she was signing with a new record company, but she did not reveal their name. She said she went with her new record company because she likes the woman who runs it and she called her, in a complimentary way, "a motherfucker". Many assumed she meant Epic, who is currently run by a woman named Polly Anthony. But Tori did not name Epic during that interview. Tori also explained during the Ann Powers interview why she went with a big label and not with an Independent one, although once again she did not name the label.

• In early January 2002, HollywoodReporter.com added a Power 100 List to their site where they listed the most influential female executives in the Entertainment Industry for 2001. Polly Anthony, President of the Epic Records Group, was #15. (She was #14 the previous year.) In the section about Polly called "Next Up", they state that there will be a new Epic release from Tori, although they do not give a timeframe or more details. (Thanks Robert Schrader!)

• Starting in early Feburary 2002, it was noticed by several people that ToriAmos.com moved servers and is now located at http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/ToriAmos/. They also have a new forum that you can sign up for but not use yet. Since Epic is part of Sony Records, this was one of the first things we saw that proved that Tori is part of the Epic Records family now.