Tony Smith Announces Retirement
• We want to take this opportunity to send our very best wishes to our longtime friend Tony Smith, VP of Promotion at Hollywood Records/Disney Music Group, who announced his impending retirement, effective May 19, capping off a stellar 44-year promotion career.
“Having spent over 21 years with the Disney Music Group I consider myself extremely lucky to be surrounded by amazing and talented people and to have worked with the best promotion team in the business,” Smith remarked. “The first single I worked was BBMak‘s ‘Back Here’ and the last was ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ from the Encanto soundtrack. In between these releases I was part of the team that broke huge artists and many who continue to have successful careers today — Jesse McCartney, Hilary Duff, Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato and crossing Rascal Flatts to Top 40 radio. Disney is a special place and I was proud to be a part of growing the music side all these years. Special thanks to Ken Bunt and Scot Finck.”
Prior to joining Disney over two decades ago Smith held VP posts at EMI and Mercury Records. Early in his career Smith was a local rep with Polydor and Capitol Records and was also part of the team that launched Mediabase in the late ’80s in Detroit.
In closing, Smith said, “The friends I have made in this industry will forever be a blessing I keep. There have been so many special moments, and maybe I will save that for the book I need to write. One thing is for sure — I could not have had 44+ years in promotion without the support of my family, and especially my wife Donna.” Your good wishes can be sent to Tony at Tony.Smith@disney.com; after May 19, he can be reached at thetonemansmith@gmail.com.
