Musical chairs -- Week 14 2021

 USA

Andrei Iancu, the former US Patent and Trademark Office Director under the Trump administration has returned to private practice. He has joined Irell & Manella in Los Angeles as a partner in the law firm's intellectual property litigation practice.

Content licensing platform Soundstripe has hired Zach Diaz as Head of Streaming. Diaz worked previously for Red Bull Records, Sony Music Entertainment’s RED Distribution and The Orchard. Based in Los Angeles, he reports to Jay Harren, VP Music at Soundstripe, who said his "knowledge of the music streaming landscape and strong relationships within the industry promise to further accelerate Soundstripe’s audience growth on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and other platforms. Soundstripe provides access to unlimited royalty-free music, stock video, and sound effects for use in videos, podcasts, and other media projects.


Independent publisher Prescription Songs has strengthened its A&R team with the arrival of Chris Martignago as a senior member of the A&R team, and the promotion of Rachel Wein to A&R manager. Both executives report to Katie Fagan, Head of A&R Nashville. Prior to joining Prescription, Martignago worked at Atlantic Records where he developed the A&R research department as Director of A&R and Research. Wein joined Prescription Songs in 2017 as the first hire under Fagan.

CANADA

Françoise E. Lyon, President and Managing Partner of DGC Capital, is joining the board of directors of Canada-based on-demand music sync licensing service Bopper. Lyon comes to the board of Bopper with over 25 years in the finance industry, working for Merrill Lynch in Canada, for the National Bank of Canada and the Pembroke Wealth Management. “I like the fact that Bopper is remediating inequality when it comes to connecting musicians to sources of income in the advertising industry,” said Lyon. “I think it’s fair pay for fair service. What I see in Bopper’s business model is an innate equality in the way they’re ensuring artist compensation, with little or no regard for their level of notoriety.”

NETHERLANDS

Universal Music Group has appointed Robbert Baruch, the former head of Public Affairs at rights society BUMA-STEMRA,  to the newly created position of Senior Vice President Public Affairs, Europe. Based in Hilversum, Baruch will have responsibility for public policy and government relations across Europe, including the European Union. Baruch will report to New York-based UMG Executive Vice President, Public Affair Eric Berman. He starts in his new position on May 1 after nine year with BUMA-STEMRA.

AUSTRALIA

Universal Music Australia (UMA) has officially launched Virgin Music Label and Artist Services in the country. The new unit will take over from Caroline Australia's infrastructure, with general manager Timothy Janes becoming MD of VML&AS Australia.