Having Columbia Artists on your side will not automatically make everything turn out all right.

Her representatives at Columbia Artists said, "Ms. Battle has withdrawn, and there will be no further comment."

However, Columbia Artists asked them to play in 10 concerts, then they were offered 80 concerts.

In January she was taken on by her first major manager, Columbia Artists.

Mr. Weinhold joined Columbia Artists as general sales representative in 1935, three years after the company was founded.

Given the close-knit structure of the industry, other artist managers would not speak openly about the changes at Columbia Artists.

What Columbia Artists is not, he said, is merely a booking agency.

In 1956, he married Janice Roberts, who worked at Columbia Artists.

Columbia Artists is also facing a rising challenge from an unlikely source: a sports marketing and management giant barely a dozen years in the music business.

Her manager, Janice Mayer at Columbia Artists, said the cause was cancer.