Executive Turntable: Sony Publishing Names Creative VP, Symphonic Fills C-Suite Roles
Also this week: A Warner Recorded Music veteran is promoted to EVP, media operations and Verve Label Group installs a marketing SVP.
Sony Music Publishing promoted Thomas Krottinger to vp of creative. He was previously director of A&R.
Out of the company’s Los Angeles office, Krottinger will be responsible for overseeing U.S./international songwriter relations and facilitating collaboration across the company’s global roster. He will continue to support creative development and discovery initiatives.
Krottinger joined SMP in 2017 as senior manager of international A&R. During his time there, he has worked alongside songwriters and producers including BURNS (Lady Gaga’s “Rain on Me”), Plested (Lewis Capaldi’s “Before You Go”) and Fran Hall (Lauren Spencer Smith’s “Fingers Crossed”). He additionally helped sign Salem Ilese (“Mad at Disney”) and Elie Rizk (Bella Poarch’s “Build a B**ch” and “Inferno”).
Most notably, Krottinger serves as the A&R rep for Olivia Rodrigo, whom he helped sign to SMP last year; he also provided instrumental support for the singer during the creation of her breakthrough album SOUR.
Related
Before SMP, Krottinger worked at Prescription Songs, where he co-signed FRENSHIP and rose to A&R manager. He previously worked in the music department at CAA.
Symphonic Distribution promoted Nick Gordon to chief partnership officer and Randall Foster to chief creative officer.
In his new role, Gordon will continue focusing on client growth via organic development, strategic partnerships and acquisitions and oversight of Symphonic’s Web3 and NFT strategy.
Gordon boarded Symphonic as chief client officer and general manager, New York in 2018. In that role, he built a global A&R and client development team, recruited key executives and spearheaded brand development and optimization of Symphonic’s client value proposition, leading to 40% year over year growth and the company’s recently announced $37 million Series B funding round. Gordon was previously vp of client services at The Orchard, where he worked for eight years.
Foster will continue to spearhead acquisitions and distribution deals, strategic partnerships and oversight of rights management at both Symphonic and its music publishing wing.
Foster opened Symphonic’s Nashville offices in April 2019. Since that time, he has grown the company’s footprint and headcount in the city by hiring a head of client marketing and head of YouTube and UGC in addition to other key marketing and client management positions. He also oversees Symphonic’s sync licensing arm, Bodega Sync, along with its YouTube and UGC monetization efforts. Prior to Symphonic, the 20-year industry veteran was senior director of creative sync and licensing at ole Music Publishing (now Anthem Entertainment).
Brigette Boyle was promoted to executive vp of media operations at Warner Record Music. She previously served as senior vp of media operations, a role she filled for more than a decade. Prior to that, she was vp of media operations, a role preceded by her work on the editorial team at WMG for 10 years.
In the role, Boyle will oversee 10 departments that support production, studio operations, release management, catalog ingestion and more for Warner Recorded Music labels and affiliates. She’ll also continue to lead the evolution of the company’s supply chain and systems, directing the strategy and implementation of all wholly-owned and distributed content and products.
As an enthusiastic supporter of women’s issues, Boyle helped create Women of WEA, a quarterly summit of women in the workplace.
Warner Recorded Music executive vp and CFO Matt Flott, whom Boyle reports to, said in a statement, “Brigette is an exceptional, highly-regarded leader with deep knowledge and technical skills. Under her guidance, we’re overhauling our supply chain, centering it around development to help us reach our operational goals faster. I’m looking forward to seeing her continue to excel in this new role.”
Boyle added, “The transformational progress we’ve made in the past few years has been an incredible journey. Media operations is essential to the success of our physical and digital supply chains, ensuring our music and content is in every channel that consumers use. We have ambitious plans for this next chapter, and I’m grateful to Matt for his support and dedication to amplifying our efforts around the world.”
Rachel Stoewer Poston joined Verve Label Group as senior vp of marketing for Verve, Impulse! and Verve Forecast Records.
In her new role, Poston will oversee the marketing team and day-to-day functions across all three labels while reporting to Jamie Krents, head of Verve, Verve Forecast and Impulse! Records.
The New York-based Poston was most recently a vp at Sony Music’s The Orchard, where she helped launch the company’s artist & label services division for the U.S. and developed and led a more than 20-person team across all label functions. She previously worked at Cooking Vinyl and Glassnote Records, both out of London, as well as Sony Music’s college marketing department and Republic Records’ radio promotion department.
Andrew Hampp was named senior director of music and consumer partnerships at Variety.
In the role, Hampp will oversee all partnerships between Variety and companies, talent and events in the music industry.
Before joining Variety, Hampp founded the consultancy 1803 LLC in 2018, where he worked with blue-chip clients across the media, advertising, music, data and nonprofit fields. His roster included Variety, where he contributed the Songs for Screens column from 2017 to 2021 and consulted on partnerships for events including Music for Screens and Hitmakers from 2018 to 2020.
Based in Berkeley, Calif., Hampp reports to Variety CEO Michelle Sobrino-Stearns.
“We are thrilled to be adding Andrew’s considerable experience and talent to the Variety team,” said Sobrino-Stearns. “Music partnerships are a vital part of Variety’s strategy and we very much look forward to Andrew’s contributions on that front.”
“Having worked with Andrew while we were both editors at Billboard, and later at Variety, where he consulted on brand strategy for our tentpole music events, I know it’s not just an experience to collaborate with him, it’s a privilege,” added Variety executive editor of music Shirley Halperin. “As deputy editor Jem Aswad and I head into our fifth year at the company, I can think of no better person to guide Variety’s music business. We’re all thrilled to welcome him to the team.”
Audio-everywhere company Raedio hired Christina “Xtina” Prince as general manager of label + publishing.
In the role, Prince will be tasked with seeking out new music and talent opportunities; managing the growth of the company’s label and publishing divisions; creating synergy among A&R, marketing, promotion, production and ancillary businesses; and focusing on the growth of publishing revenue streams and ancillary commercial opportunities.
Prince has worked as an artist manager, entrepreneur, major label A&R and operations executive for nearly a decade. She was most recently senior director of A&R at Republic Records and head of operations at Republic’s distribution entity Imperial Music. Prior to that, she worked as director of artist management at Advanced Alternative Media Limited.
In 2014, Prince launched artist partnership company The Blind Youth, with a roster including Duckwrth, Alex Mali, LATENIGHTJIGGY, G.L.A.M. and Ghetto Kids Music Group.
Benoni Tagoe, president of Raedio, called Prince “an amazing executive that we are proud to have helm important verticals within our ecosystem. Xtina’s proven track record developing and supporting artists as they build their careers on both independent and major label sides is unparalleled. As a company with the goal of being ‘audio everywhere’ it’s important to have top tier talent executing the vision – Xtina is just that!”
“The music pendulum is shifting, and opportunities are broadening in a beautiful way for black music and Raedio has been at the forefront of that for the last few years,” added Prince. “I have always channeled my passion for music toward helping aspiring and often overlooked artists by providing the resources and guidance I wish was available to me when I was an artist. So, I am excited to join Raedio’s brilliant and likeminded team to expand those resources to support even more underrepresented talent.”
Kevin Breuner was named CD Baby’s senior vp of artist engagement and education, a newly created role. He was previously senior vp of marketing, artist brands at the company, where he’s worked since 2006.
The artist engagement and education team, to be led by Breuner at launch, will focus on the mentorship of emerging artists.
“We want to be a resourceful guide through an increasingly fractured and complicated landscape,” said Breuner in a statement. “By investing in and uniting everything from our blogs, podcast, conference, and community, we hope to empower musicians with practical know-how and, hopefully, inspire them to pursue their musical ambitions and achieve success on their terms.
“Kevin has used the DIY Musician podcast and blog, as well as our annual conference, to demystify distribution, monetization, and promotion and help make success in this atomized music economy—however an artist may define it—accessible to all artists, regardless of whether they use our services or not,” said CD Baby president Joel Andrew. “Because we’re all artists ourselves, we see our mission as sharing what we know as broadly as possible. Now we’ll be able to bring even more energy to empowering and uplifting the diverse international community that CD Baby serves.”
Bruener has hosted CD Baby’s DIY Musician podcast since 2007. He started his career as a guitarist in the band Smalltown Poets, which was signed to EMI’s Forefront Records.
Better Noise Music promoted Melanie Rodriguez to vp of label management and Aisha Aga to vp of internal communications. Additionally, Trish Sterling was hired as senior label manager.
Rodriguez, who was previously senior director of marketing, will take the lead on some of Better Noise’s key projects, including the rollout of a new album from Nothing More and the soundtrack for Better Noise Films’ horror-thriller feature The Retaliators, which will feature music from Five Finger Death Punch, Asking Alexandria, Bad Wolves, Nothing More, All Good Things, Ice Nine Kills and more.
Aga joined Better Noise in 2021 to manage the executive office of founder and CEO Allen Kovac. Since that time, she’s played a pivotal role in organizing company-wide initiatives around priority marketing efforts. She’ll continue helping to improve the efficiency of Better Noise’s internal workflow and human resources processes.
Sterling previously worked in roles at Roc Nation, Def Jam and Downtown Music. In her new role, she’ll oversee upcoming projects including new albums from Five Finger Death Punch, The HU and Classless Act. She will also be responsible for Better Noise artists including From Ashes to New and Fire from the Gods, both of whom are in the midst of finishing new studio albums.
Nettwerk Music Group announced multiple promotions in its A&R department. Rachel Cragg was elevated to vp of A&R and strategy and Sameer Sadhu and Angus Blair were promoted to vp of A&R.
Cragg’s Nettwerk roster includes Mallrat, NEIL FRANCES, KALI, dee holt, Hermitude, young friend, St. Lucia, Flower Face, Mokita, Jaguar Jonze, Bay Ledges and Lostboycrow. Prior to joining the A&R department, she worked in management at Nettwerk and at Silva Artist Management with artists including Sarah Mclachlan, Dido, Stereophics, Jimmy Eat World, The Mars Volta and Beastie Boys. She’s currently on the board of directors for Music BC.
Sadhu’s roster includes Andrew McMahon In the Wilderness, Miami Horror, Miya Folick, Tim Atlas, Vacations, altopalo, cehryl, Elliot Moss, Harmless, Wild Rivers, Abby Sage and Danny Dwyer. He’s also a partner at the Singapore-based label services and publicity firm Secret Signals.
Blair joined Nettwerk’s U.K. office five years ago, with a focus on U.K. and international talent. He has signed LEISURE, Matt Maltese, Himalayas, Mega, Seafret, Bad Sounds and Rhodes. Before Nettwerk, he served in roles at labels and publishers including Island Records, Chrysalis, Global and London Records.
The U.S. music division of artist management company YMU promoted Taren Smith to senior manager.
Smith, who joined YMU in 2017 as associate manager, kicked off her career at a boutique artist management company in 2012. She later worked at FOUR80 Music in 2013 before moving to Deckstar Artist Management in 2017.
The New York-based Smith, who was a 2022 Billboard Women in Music honoree, oversaw 3LAU’s NFT auctions, which have earned over $20 million in sales. The success of that initiative led to the creation of YMU Arts, where she signed digital artist Slimesunday. She additionally manages Norwegian DJ duo KREAM and Dubstep producer/DJ Sullivan King.
Smith will report to YMU executive manager of U.S. music Andrew Goldstone.
The U.K.’s Association of Independent Music (AIM) named Esta Rae senior events manager.
In the role, Rae will “drive vision and strategy” for AIM’s events and conferences, including the AIM Independent Music Awards, AIM Connected, AIM Sync and Future Independents, according to a press release. She will additionally oversee the organization’s involvement with outside industry conferences, including partnership events like this year’s Liverpool Sound City and The Great Escape.
Rae has worked with major brands including leading U.K. grime and hip-hop outlet and entertainment platform GRM Daily on its podcasts and flagship events, including the 2017 and 2018 Rated Awards and the 2020 and 2021 GRM Galas. She was also a key mover in launching The Originals Festival and has additionally worked on the BET Awards and Island Records talent show Da Come Up. She also runs her own indie talent and event management business, No Limit Management.
ALIBI Music – which provides music and sound effects for license in ads, trailers, programming video games and more – hired Rab Bradlea as East Coast music supervisor.
Based in New York, Bradlea will work with head of sync A&R Julia Trainor in Los Angeles and music director Paul Ortiz in London to support ALIBI’s global client base.
Before joining ALIBI, Bradlea spent nearly a decade in video production and editing. He was most recently a freelance producer and video editor working on short films, trailers, TV spots, sales reels, podcasts and web content (including for ALIBI). He has also produced, edited and written TV and film trailers for Vibe Creative and Open Road Entertainment. He started his career as a video editor at Rabble Rouser Media.
More From Pro
