John Mayer is launching Sob Rock Records, a new imprint in partnership with Universal Music Group's Mercury Records, named after his 2021 album and confirmed Thursday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The announcement lands the day before his first new single in years, "Tom and Jerry," drops on Friday. The press release notes that the path from "creative vision to execution has never been easier or more rewarding," which is the sentence every label announcement is written around. A label named after the sound the room makes when the guitar player cries. That is the most honest branding in pop music, and the only question is how fast the logo ends up on merch.
Mayer left Columbia in 2022, and Columbia had signed him in the early 2000s and released every record he made since. So the arc is: two decades of albums under one roof, then a new imprint named after crying, launched alongside the label that also holds Noah Kahan and Morgan Wallen. Mercury's statement calls him "one of the greatest artists of all time," and the announcement never once explains what the new label is actually for.
He told THR earlier this year that he is "investing all my time and energy into making a record," and his next run of shows starts in April at the Sphere in Las Vegas. By then the Sob Rock logo will be on a t-shirt, the t-shirt will be on a resale site, and the resale site will have a price.
YOUR TURN: first Sob Rock signee, or is the crying reserved for in-house artists?
PAPER TRAIL
- The announcement: THR
- Rival coverage: Rolling Stone
- The album the label is named for: Sob Rock (2021)
- The cover story: THR philanthropists piece
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