As Warner Music Group pushes further into embracing digital opportunities ranging from YouTube to MySpace, the company is turning to an executive hailing from the social networking business to oversee the way it markets music to fans.
WMG has tapped Dan Pelson, the former founder and CEO of Bolt.com, to serve in the newly created role of senior VP of global consumer marketing.
Pelson is based in New York and reports to Alex Zubillaga, Executive VP of Digital Strategy and Business Development for WMG.
“The digital transformation of the music industry has completely recast the relationship among artists, labels and fans and requires us to think differently about our interactions with consumers,” said Zubillaga in a statement.
Pelson will work with both the recorded music and music publishing divisions to coordinate marketing efforts across the globe. He will also be responsible for running WMG’s market research efforts, developing direct-to-consumer technologies and consumer databases, and expanding the company’s advertising sales efforts.
Most recently, Pelson co-founded uPlayMe, Inc., a music-focused social networking site geared around music discovery. Prior to that he was the founder and CEO of Bolt, a specialist in teen social networking. Pelson sold Bolt in 2004. Universal Music Group recently sued the site for alleged copyright infringement connected to viral video swapping by its users.
Other highlights on Pelson’s resume include stints as chairman and CEO of Concrete Media, a developer of ecommerce sites, including BOL.com; senior VP of New Media at Icon CMT Corp., and a sales and marketing executive at Sun Microsystems.
Pelson says that in the near term he looks to start taking ownership of the marketing end of WMG’s relationships with the likes of YouTube and Brightcove, among other initiatives.
“Consumers are clearly [online],” he says. “We have a huge opportunity to leverage that in ways that we haven’t begun doing yet.”
