Playground Music Scandinavia marketing executive Kai Lofthus and head of promotion Elin Rekdal have exited in a restructuring at the independent company’s Norwegian division.
Jan Krogh continues as the Oslo unit’s sole marketing and promotion executive, and his work will be complemented by independent promoters.
Stockholm-based Playground is label home to Finnish rock act the Rasmus, Sweden’s CDOASS and Strip Music, and Norwegian acts Ricochets and Draumir.
With immediate effect, Lofthus has launched an integrated label/management/marketing firm, which functions under the working title Mr. Lofthus. It is expected that he will continue to work with Playground on a project-by-project basis. The label-management structure will come into shape over the next six months, Lofthus says.
Mr. Lofthus’ first independent venture is with the Stockholm-based music video provider Musicbrigade, for which the executive serves as content & programming manager for Norway, reporting to Musicbrigade VP of content & programming Simon Gooch.
Musicbrigade was launched in 1999 by Wille Wendt and boasts the world’s second largest music video archive behind MTV.
Formerly Nordic bureau chief for Billboard Information Group, Lofthus joined Playground in August 2002 as label manager in Norway for Edel and Kontor. For the past year, he has served as marketing and promotion executive in Norway for Playground-represented labels such as PIAS, Domino, Beggars Group, TVT Records, and Scandinavian artists such as Timbuktu.
Rekdal will continue to operate outside the music industry.
