Seymour Stein, the record executive who co-founded Sire Records and who discovered a number of great artists, has died. Stein’s daughter Mandy tells The New York Times that Stein died of cancer yesterday while at home in New York City. Stein was 80.

Seymour Stein was born Steinbigle in Brooklyn, and he got his start working as an intern at King Records, the R&B label that released music from James Brown and Hank Ballard & The Midnighters, in the late ’50s. Stein also worked as a clerk at Billboard, where he was part of the team that first instituted the Hot 100 in 1958. From there, Stein went to work for King Records full-time in the early ’60s. In 1966, Stein and the record producer Richard Gottehrer started Sire Promotions, which eventually became Sire Records.

At Sire Records, Seymour Stein signed some of the most important, influential bands from the punk and new wave eras of the ’70s and ’80s. In 1975, the same year that Richard Gottehrer parted ways with Sire, Stein signed the Ramones and Talking Heads. Later, Stein also signed the Pretenders, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, the Cure, the Smiths, the Replacements, Ice-T, Echo & The Bunnymen, Ministry, and Seal, among many others. He was also influential in marketing “new wave” as a genre, as opposed to “punk.” Most famously, Seymour Stein signed Madonna when she was a dance artist on the periphery of the New York punk and hip-hop scenes.

Seymour Stein also served as vice president of Warner Bros. Records. Stein was part of the group that founded the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and he was inducted into the Hall Of Fame in the lifetime-achievement category in 2005. He published his memoir Siren Song: My Life In Music in 2018.