Warner Music Group has hired Kareem Chin as senior vp head of investor relations effective immediately. Chin arrives at WMG from iHeartMedia, where he served in the same role.
Chin, whose appointment follows WMG’s recent IPO, will lead the company’s investor relations efforts and work closely with the company’s finance and corporate communications teams. He will also oversee key events, including quarterly earnings calls and attendance at investor conferences.
At iHeartMedia, which he joined as it was emerging from bankruptcy, Chin developed and built out the company’s investor relations function as it explored listing options and later made its debut on the Nasdaq exchange. Prior to that, he was vp investor relations at Viacom, a role that followed over a decade in investment banking.
Music distributor FUGA has made three key senior hires: Craig May, who joins as global head of streaming & marketing services; Manan Vohra, who boards as global head of technology and product; and Rob Webb, who has been brought on as head of product.
May, who is based in London, brings over 20 years of industry experience to his role, including stints at Kartel Music Group, Red Bull Records and Ditto Music. In his new position, he will lead FUGA’s multi-region marketing team, managing the growth, development, execution and measurement of digital marketing strategies in collaboration with FUGA clients.
The Amsterdam-based Vohra previously served as CTO at 7digital. At FUGA, he will be responsible for aligning the product and technology vision and operations.
Webb will report directly to Manan as he manages FUGA’s team of product owners. He was previously vp, digital operations & supply chain at AWAL for four years.
Artist manager Trenton Harrison-Lewis has joined Warner Music UK as senior vp artist and label development, a newly created role that extends to ADA UK, Warner Music UK’s independent label services division.
In the role, Harrison-Lewis will develop new and emerging artists at ADA UK while also collaborating closely with the A&R and marketing teams at Warner Music UK on their work with both developing and established artists. He will simultaneously continue independently managing several of his current artists, including Giggs, Ghetts, Sneakbo, Jesse James Solomon and DJ Target.
Harrison-Lewis launched his music industry career in 1987 working with British hip-hop duo Wee Papa Girl Rappers before being hired as managing director at Rush Management Europe, the artist management wing of Def Jam Recordings. He left Rush Management in 1997 to work with several influential drum and bass artist-producers, including Goldie and Grooverider. In 2009, he joined Metropolis Music Management, where he was part of the team behind Amy Winehouse. Since departing Metropolis, he has worked as an independent manager.
Allegra Willis Knerr has been promoted to senior vp sych licensing at BMG. Willis Knerr will report directly to Stephane Hubert, chief of staff for BMG North America, and work alongside Jonathan Palmer, BMG’s senior vp creative synch in the U.S., as well as the company’s international synch licensing teams.
Willis Knerr joined BMG in 2011 after the company acquired Bug Music, where she worked in film and TV licensing roles for two years. Over nearly a decade, she has led teams in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto in growing BMG’s synch licensing business.
Digital music distribution and publishing admin company TuneCore has hired Maria Ho-Burge as global communications director. Ho-Burge will jointly report to TuneCore chief marketing officer Andreea Gleeson and Segolene Moreau, chief communications officer at TuneCore’s parent company Believe.
Ho-Burge arrives at TuneCore after working as an independent PR and marketing consultant for recording artists and lifestyle brands. She previously spent 11 years as vp global corporate communications at Universal Music Group, where she worked across all UMG divisions and labels on both external and internal communications. Prior to that, she headed up communications at Jive Records and Zomba.
Los Angeles-based music management firm Friends At Work has promoted Jessica Breslow to A&R manager.
In her new role, Breslow will work closely with Friends At Work managers to shape the company’s roster and lend her song development expertise to a wide range of projects.
Since joining Friends At Work in 2013, Breslow has served as day-to-day manager for Lindsey Stirling and worked with Ruthanne, Frawley and Speelburg. She also placed songs on John Legend’s most recent album, Bigger Love.
Breslow started her career at Pulse Music Group, where she worked with Starrah, Matoma and Kaytranada. She later moved to Warner Chappell’s pop A&R department, where she worked with Ian Kirkpatrick, Scott Harris, busbee and Cheat Codes.
Triller has tapped an all-woman lineup of music executives to serve on its first advisory board. They are: Lionfish Entertainment’s Rebeca Leon, Spotify’s Rosa Asciola, Columbia Records’ Jenifer Mallory and Phylicia Fant, APG’s Elyse Rogers, EMPIRE’s Tina Davis, Sal & Co./Maverick’s Dina Sahim, Prescription Songs’ Rhea Pasricha, Live Nation’s Allison Maccio, Emagen Entertainment Group’s Ebonie Ward, Heads Music’s Madeline Nelson and Last Kings Records’ Kaily Nash.
“Triller’s core audience actually leans about 70% female, and when we took a look at our investors and our leadership team, we saw mostly men,” said Triller chairman Bobby Sarnevesht in a statement announcing the advisory board. “How can we speak to our female audience if we aren’t also looking at it from the perspective of a female? I am thrilled to bring in Kaily Nash to help us put together this dynamic list of women based on her connections and foresight into who would best integrate with Triller.”
“These women were not only picked because they are gamechangers within the industry, but picked for who they are as people outside of the industry,” added Nash, who helped recruit the advisory board’s women members. “We wanted to showcase diversity across various segments of music, and give these women a voice within Triller. We are honored that each of these incredible women said yes to helping push Triller forward into its future.”
Male executives will be brought onto the Triller advisory board in the coming weeks.
Ariel Rechtshaid’s commercial synch company Heavy Duty Projects has tapped Maura Gaudio as director of business development (a newly created position) and Sebastian Ade as associate producer. They are both based in New York.
Gaudio will lead business development, strategy and partnerships at Heavy Duty, while Ade will join the company’s team of producers as they broaden their work with blue chip brands and agencies.
Gaudio most recently served as founder and managing partner at experiential and marketing studio Happening Entertainment, where she brokered partnerships and produced on behalf of festivals, artists and brands including Bumble, CAVA, Participant Media, Focus Features, Hypebeast, Calvin Klein for Something Special Studios, Time’s Up, Moncler and All Things Go Festival. Prior to that, she worked on partnerships for Cara Lewis Group and at MAC Presents and had a stint on the agency side of IPF Mediabrands. Her past work incudes Uber’s “Road to Best Nominee” Grammy commercial featuring Khalid and the Foo Fighters’ Cal Jam music festival.
Ade has worked in various production roles in advertising and entertainment, including gigs at Saatchi & Saatchi, The Webby Awards and Ogilvy, where he facilitated synchs for Ikea, Xfinity and IBM’s Grammys spot. He is also a music artist.
Super Hi-Fi, which uses AI to amplify the digital listening experience by embedding personalized content between songs, has brought on Tristan Jehan as a strategic advisor on music science and technology matters.
Jehan previously co-founded Echo Nest and later served as principal scientist and head of research at Spotify.
“The future of audio experiences goes well beyond the playlist,” said Jehan in a statement. “Super Hi-Fi is showing the way by deploying intelligent AI production tools and technologies, including content programming and smooth content transitions.”
Super Hi-Fi most recently formed partnerships with Sonos, Play Network and TouchTunes and won the Midemlab Startup Competition in June. Its AI platform currently executes over one billion audio transitions per month for its clients.
Synchtank, the SaaS platform for managing entertainment assets, metadata and royalties, has hired three new executives to work with its recently launched royalty accounting platform IRIS. They are: Janet Landrum, who joins as royalties specialist; Dr. Nick Beitner as lead architect; and Carlos da Costa as senior developer.
Landrum, who will lead the development of the IRIS platform, spent over two decades at 20th Century Fox, where she most recently served as executive director, royalties. In that role, she worked with the studio’s extensive catalog of film and TV music and processed income and outgoing publishing royalties. She has also worked at Windswept Pacific and BMI.
A 25-year veteran in engineering end to end software database systems, Beitner spent the last eight years designing and architecting a fintech services platform. Da Costa specializes in large scale technical web architecture and development.
