Sony’s new boy

SOME highly paid executives at Sony Music Entertainment are dreading April 1, when Doug Morris, 78, steps down as CEO. New CEO Rob Stringer (inset), 54, younger brother of former Sony Corp. boss Sir Howard Stringer, is said to be a fiscal conservative.

“There will be a lot of changes,” one insider told me. “Doug is one of the most honorable and loyal people in the music business, and he’s been protecting some people for many years.” Epic Records CEO LA Reid and Epic’s president Sylvia Rhone are ex- pected to face tighter purse strings, even though the pair climbed 15 slots on the Billboard Power 100 list to No. 39 for 2017, because of hits with Meghan Trainor, Fifth Harmony, Future, Travis Scott, DJ Khaled and A Tribe Called Quest.

But another source, who remembers when Epic had Michael Jackson, Pearl Jam and Céline Dion, said, “Epic is worth nothing now. They poured tens of millions of dollars into the label with no results.” The Gucci-loving Reid, a judge on the first two seasons of “The X Factor,” ended 2016 by moving Epic cross-country into new headquarters in Los Angeles.

Rhone has followed Morris from label to label for decades and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle.

Stringer is expected to slash perks, and he could go further.

“Stringer may even close Epic altogether,” says an industry vet.