Seymour Stein, record exec who signed up Madonna, dead at 80

NEW YORK (AP) — Seymour Stein, the brash, prescient and highly successful founder of Sire Records who helped launched the careers of Madonna, Talking Heads and many others, has died at age 80. He was known for his deep knowledge and appreciation of music and would prove an astute judge of talent during the era of New Wave, a term he helped popularize in the 1970s. Stein signed Talking Heads, the Ramones and the Pretenders. His most lucrative discovery happened in the early 1980s, when he heard the demo tape of a little known singer-dancer from the downtown New York club scene, Madonna.