DDEX names Universal Music Group's Kim Beauchamp as its new Chair of the Board

By Emmanuel Legrand

Music industry's international standards-setting organisation DDEX has named Kim Beauchamp, Senior Vice President Process Innovation & Advanced Operations at Universal Music Group, as its new Chair of its Board. She succeeds Jeff King, the former Chief Operating and Corporate Development Officer of SOCAN.

  Beauchamp (pictured, below), who becomes the first woman to chair the organisation, has been part of DDEX since 2008, and has been a member of the Executive Board for the past eight years. She has been active in the Working Groups developing the Electronic Release Notification Message Suite (ERN) and the Media Enrichment and Description (MEAD) standards, as well as the newly-published version 2.0 of the Recording Information Notification (RIN) standard. 

  Based in Los Angeles, Beauchamp oversees the Process Innovation, Advanced Operations, and Metadata Modeling and Standards areas for UMG.

Moving the music industry forward in the digital age

  "The work of DDEX is absolutely critical in continuing to move the entire music industry forward in the digital age. I look forward to continuing to work with our member companies representing the entire music value chain, as well as our colleagues in adjacent industries such as film and podcasting, to continue to build a solid infrastructure that supports all uses of music, anywhere in the world," said Beauchamp.

  The remainder of the DDEX Board is made up of executives from the 20 other Charter members of the organisation, which in addition to Beauchamp include: Amazon – Jill Chapman; Apple Inc. – Nick Williamson (Chair Emeritus); ASCAP – Nick Lehman; Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) – Ed Oshanani; Downtown Music Holdings – Scott Williams; Facebook – Dan Simpson; GEMA – Till Evert; Google – Greg Quillard (Executive Board); Kobalt Music – Bob Bruderman; Pandora Media Inc. – Noel Morrison; PPL – Mark Douglas; PRS for Music – Keith Hill; SCPP – Laurent Fradin; SACEM – Paul Cohen Scali (Executive Board); Sony Music Entertainment – Kirit Joshi (Executive Board); SOCAN – Alan Triger; SoundExchange Inc. – Luis Bonilla; Spotify AB – Sung Kyu Choi; Tencent Music Entertainment Group – Roberta Fong; and Warner Music Group – Brigette Boyle.

  DDEX has developed eight families of standards that support the entire arc of digital music operations from initial recording through distribution and reporting as well as other types of business transactions in particular sectors of the industry. The standards are being used by all the major players in the digital music industry as well as most smaller organisations and start-ups.