A&R vet Michael Caplan, who has spent the past year as senior VP of A&R for Sony Music Label Group, moves over to Columbia Records in the same capacity.
In addition to his new responsibilities, Caplan will also serve as president of One Haven, a new imprint headquartered at RED Distribution’s New York offices that will be distributed through both RED Distribution and Sony BMG Sales Enterprise. Caplan has signed, and will develop A&R strategies for, several emerging artists including Endeverafter, Ryan Shaw, This Is Me Smiling, Copeland and others.
During his tenure as president of Or Music, a RED distributed indie label, which he co-founded, Caplan signed Los Lonely boys and Matisyahu, each of whose debut albums were released first by Or and later in cooperation with Epic Records. Prior to launching Or Music, Caplan had served as senior VP of A&R at Epic Records from 1998-2002.
Caplan first joined Epic in 1983 as associate director of adult oriented rock promotion, and in 1986 became the company’s director of talent acquisition/East Coast. In 1989, he became VP of A&R at Epic, where he signed and developed Living Colour, Bad Brains, Ginuwine, Godfathers, Peter Himmelman, the Allman Brothers Band, October Project and others.
In January 1993, Caplan revived the OKeh label, where he signed and developed G. Love & Special Sauce, Keb’ Mo’, Alvin ‘Youngblood’ Hart, Little Axe and Popa Chubby.
From 1996-1998, he served as senior VP of A&R at 550 Music, and from 1998-2002, worked as senior VP of A&R for Epic Records.
