Musical Chairs -- Week 25 2021

USA

The Recording Academy, has appointed Valeisha Butterfield Jones and Panos A. Panay as Co-Presidents, effective Aug. 16, 2021. They will be part of President/CEO Harvey Mason jr.'s leadership team, alongside Chief Operating Officer Branden Chapman and Chief Industry Officer Ruby Marchand. Butterfield Jones, who was Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer for the Academy, will continue to oversee the organisation's diversity, equity and inclusion efforts along with people and culture, membership, awards, advocacy, and related initiatives. Panay will also serve as Chief Revenue Officer and is be tasked with "driving business growth across the entire organisation to further expand the service offerings for our members and the industry." He was Senior Vice President for Global Strategy and Innovation at Berklee College of Music and is a fellow at MIT Connection Science. Prior to that, Panay was the founder and CEO of artists discovery platform Sonicbids. "Both Valeisha and Panos are incredible leaders who have a proven record of progress, and together with the rest of the team, will continue to push the envelope at the Recording Academy and shape the organization to better serve, protect and celebrate the music community," said Mason.

The Board of Directors of news platform ProPublica has elected Robin Sparkman, founding CEO of StoryCorps, as President and co-CEO. She succeeds RichardTofel, who will retire on September 8. Sparkman, 52, is credited for more than doubling nonprofit media organisation StoryCorps’s annual revenues to $20 million. Previously she served as editor-in-chief of The American Lawyer from 2010–2014. PaulSagan, chairman of the Board of ProPublica, said Sparkman was "the right business leader to take ProPublica to even greater success. Robin combines business savvy, deep editorial understanding, a fundamental commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and a passion for journalism that spurs change.”

Warner Music Group (WMG)'s Label and Artist Services division WEA has promoted Ernst Trapp to President, Global E-Commerce & Retail. He was CEO of merchandising company EMP, which was acquired by WMG in 2018, a position he will continue to hold. Based in Lingen, Germany, he reports to WEA President Maria Weaver. At WEA, Scott Cherkin has been appointed to the newly created role of SVP, Audience Strategy overseeing the company's Global Audience Engagement & Insights.  

US copyright lawyer Sarah Al Howes has been appointed Director of Government Affairs (DGA) at the Directors Guild of America (DGA). Howes has worked in the past for SAG-AFTRA, and the Copyright Alliance, among others.

FRANCE

Bruno Crolot has been promoted to Head of International, Music at Spotify. He was Managing Director of Spotify France and Benelux since 2016. He reports to Jeremy Erlich, co-head of music at Spotify. Antoine Monin, who joined Spotify in 2019 as head of music of Spotify France et Benelux depuis 2019, will take over Crolot's position on an interim basis.

Universal Music France CEO Olivier Nusse (pictured, below) has been re-elected President of the board of French neighbouring rights society SCPP for a three-year mandate. SCPP represents some 3,500 French labels, included the three major companies.


French director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade has been re-elected President of SACD for a one-year term (2021-2022) by the board of directors of the Paris-based collection society for drama authors. He is the co-founder of TV production company Maha Productions. SACD's Board is comprised of 24 members. Choreographer Régine Chopinot was elected first vice-president and succeeds author, actress and director Denise Chalem. 

Phlippe Couderc, founder of French label Vicious Circle, has died at the age of 54. The cause of the death was not disclosed. Couderc was the founder and President from 2010 to 2020 of the National Federation of Independent Labels (FELIN) and was also very active within the Syndicate of Contemporary Music (SMA). "Philippe leaves a great void, which we will try to fill by keeping his combative state of mind and his pugnacity, and by endorsing all the causes that he has strongly defended," said FELIN and SMA in a joint statement. Emmanuel de Buretel, President of the independent labels' collecting society SPPF, said Couderc "defended with fervor and passion the values embodied by independent labels."

French-owned music streaming and downloads platform Qobuz has beefed up its global management team. Ritch Sibthorpe has been appointed Managing Director for the Northern Europe and Australasia region. Based in London, he will oversee the business in will oversee markets including the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Australia and New Zealand. He was most recently head of global marketing and PR for Chelsea Football Club’s digital ventures unit. Fabian Sautier has joined Qobuz as Chief Brand Officer, overseeing global marketing campaigns covering Brand, Digital, Media, PR and Creative. Sautier was Head of Marketing for Under Armour in France and Southern Europe. Additionally, Pierre Largeas becomes Managing Director of Southern Europe, managing commercial and operational activities to support revenue growth in France, Italy, Spain and affiliated markets. Largeas has previously held positions at Airbus, Henkel, Jumia Group and iziwork. All three executives report to Qobuz CEO Deputy GeorgesFornay. 

Electronic music performer and composer Jean-Michel Jarre was awarded by French President Emmanuel Macron the insignia of Commander in the order of the Legion of Honour, one of France's highest accolades. The French artist also played a show at the Elysées Palace on June 21 for the Fête de la Musique festival, in a bill that included Irène Dresel, Glitter, Cerrone and NSDOS. “After so long apart, it was wonderful to spend a special evening with a real-life audience," said Jarre.


UK

Universal Music UK has appointed Simon Johnson as Managing Director of strategy, growth and eCommerce, overseeing company's customer engagement, community retail and analytics. He joins from Amazon, where he has been for the past six years in charge of the vending platform's books and Kindle businesses in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. “Simon brings his strategic vision alongside incredible experience in management, retail, data and analytics to this new role, but above all he is a creative and innovative thinker who shares our belief in the huge potential for eCommerce and finding authentic new ways for our artists to build their markets and audiences,” said Universal Music UK chairman and CEO David Joseph.

US independent label AntiFragile Music has opened a UK office, which will be headed by Dutch music industry executive Wally van Middendorp. His brief is to "help expand global marketing initiatives, develop artists and further cement the footprint for AntiFragile Music in the UK and rest of Europe." Based in Le reports to AntiFragile Music founder and CEO Tom Sarig. Van Middendorp worked previously for label such as Eleven Seven Music Group Europe, Roadrunner Records, Sony Music Netherlands and Play It Again Sam in Benelux.

PPL has appointed Tomi Oyewumi as the British music neighbouring rights society's Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Partner. In her newly-created role,  Oyewumi will "support PPL in delivering its long-term strategy of addressing EDI issues within the company and the wider music industry" and "lead on the day-to-day actions required to ensure PPL fulfils its pledge to deliver the Black Music Coalition’s five calls to action and the UK Music Diversity Taskforce Ten-Point Plan." She reports to Kate Reilly, Director of People and Organisational Development.