Wow. It is entirely true. What's your beef? Sony have been and actively sabotaging Michael for twenty two years to be exact. Perhaps longer. Sony were going to ditch Michael because he said that he was going to sign with someone else or go independent when he was done with his contract. On top of that some other Asian company said that they would sign and take him so Sony backed out of not working with him any more instead so as to not loose the money making opportunities he was still capable of which were phenomenal and astronomical to the point of being pioneering in his field of work as well as not just the music industry but the entire entertainment industry.
Michael did not want to do a greatest hits in 1995 but was convinced otherwise. He even apologized to the fans in 1997 for making them have to purchase the same songs over again. (On a side note concerning their lack of interest Sony said a title track to it did not matter but Michael insisted which was brilliant and became one of his best recordings, that being the "HIStory".) Michael his own remixes to be released on "Blood On The Dance Floor - HIStory In The Mix" but Sony instead forced him to use remixes that they came up with instead.
"HIStory: Past, Present, And Future - BOOK I" was not promoted to the extent that it could and or should have been. Sony have never acknowledged the actual worldwide sales of all his releases both total and individually. They dictated to the press what to report and what not. The story was that "he did not sell like he use to", "the projects were failures", "the l.p.s did not sell as well as they had hoped", "other recording artists were doing better", and so forth. Hence was part of the practice of Tommy Mottella that he would destroy an artist's reputation significantly enough to devalue them so that they could not sign a better contract with someone else. So yes it was with the entire company of Sony and not just Tommy Mottella. Mottella was an employee and he was actively destroying their highest paid employee. They could have stopped that a long time ago. You do not let another employee destroy other people in your business unless you want it to happen. Mottella did this to George Michael, his ex-wife Mariah Carey, and his "friend" Michael Jackson. The excuse that Tommy "stepped down" was and is a lie and it is SO sad to hear and see fans such as yourself (if that is even true) believe it hook line and sink.
I won't even get into how they sabotaged "Invincible" doing no "short promotional films" (a.k.a.: "music videos") or a trailer like "Dangerous" and "HIStory: Past, Present, And Future - BOOK I" had. Mere having so few singles. Mere less it selling eight million copies in the first few months after debuting at number one in the U.S. and worldwide in 11 other countries. The idea that people on some level did not know about it because of 9/11 happening is just false as can be THOUGH the general public did not because of the lack of promotion. There was also the lie that they spent thirty million dollars promoting it. That was just false through and through. There is virtually no artwork or photos in it in terms of what they could have done.
It was the standard in the industry that an artist does not promote a project on their own if the record company either does not or holds back from doing so themselves. Otherwise it was understood that the artist would have been agreeing with the actions (or lack there of) of not promoting the project so therefore that was the only reason Michael "had a hand in it's outcome" concerning all of that and promotion that could have been done more so by him. In this case according to his contract he was obligated to do certain promotion of which he did and that was why nothing more happened by him. According to both Janet and Rodney Jerkins Michael found out right before "Invincible" was released what was not going to happen so he pulled off the versions of songs he was going to have on it.
There is no misconstruing of information. Who are you and who do you work for? You seem highly invested and motivated to defend Sony.
Why does this not "register" with you?
I'm anti-Sony myself, but HIStory had hella promo, LOL.
I'm going to be honest I didn't read everything you said, but saying that HIStory got no promo or was promoted to little just ain't true, and may make some people disregard everything else you say.
I personally am anti-Sony because I can't turn a blind eye to what Michael said, and also to the messed up stuff I know happens behind the scenes of the music industry and the entertainment industry as a whole.
It's a much darker and grimy business then many want to admit.
Either way though, and regardless of how it came about I'm glad Invincible exist because I couldn't imagine not being able to listen to Butterflies, Unbreakable, Break Of Dawn, etc.
It's a highly slept on album, but in recent years it's got a good amount of attention which I'm happy about.
I also don't think Sony is the reason for the MJ was washed up campaign.
The media hated MJ, and wanted to take him down, so I think that the lie of MJ being washed up was created and perpetuated by the general media not Sony.
And if it makes you feel any better Invincible still did pretty damn good sales wise, even though the media was on an "MJ is washed up campaign, and regardless of what went on behind the scenes with Sony.
Edit: Oh and since this thread is about Dangerous 25 I just figured I'd say that for the most part at this point I don't think it's happening.