Warner Bros. Records Taps Robert Kraft to Lead Soundtrack Revival
Former Fox Music president Robert Kraft will be a consultant on soundtracks for Warner Bros. Records, charged with identifying, developing and executing soundtrack opportunities for the label’s artists. He will be looking for film, TV, video games and Internet opportunities. Kraft will be responsible fr expanding WBR’s existing relationships with film studios, TV production houses and broadcasters. Furthermore, Warner Bros is looking to Kraft to bring together WBR artists, score composers and film directors to foster new types of creative collaboration.
Kraft was president of Fox Music from 1994 to 2012, where he supervised the music for more than 300 feature films. As a recording artist, he has released four albums, while Bette Midler and Roberta Flack, among others, have covered his songs.
Under Kraft’s leadership, Fox Music garnered 11 Academy Award nominations for Best Score and/or Best Song, winning four Academy Awards. Among the films he is credited with music supervising are: “Titanic,” “Moulin Rouge,” “Romeo + Juliet,” “Garden State,” “Walk the Line” and “Slumdog Millionaire”. He’s also worked on soundtracks for Fox shows including “24” and “The Simpsons”. He was nominated for an Academy Award for “Beautiful Maria of My Soul” for the 1992 film, “The Mambo Kings,” and shared a Grammy Award for the soundtrack to the 1992 Disney film, “The Little Mermaid”.
Warner Bros. Records chairman and CEO Cameron Strang said in a statement, “His instinctive understanding of what makes a powerful soundtrack, combined with his deep knowledge of the creative progress and his wide-ranging network of media contacts, will make him an invaluable champion for our artists and their music.”
“Soundtracks are an area that I know and love, and this great opportunity comes at a time of renewed excitement about music for visual media,” says Kraft. “WBR’s legacy includes many landmark soundtracks, from “Purple Rain” to “The Matrix” and “The Dark Knight,” so I’m delighted to help grow the label’s reputation as the pre-eminent player in the soundtrack arena.”
Source: Billboard
