Recent A&R moves
It’s been a fairly active and as always interesting last couple of weeks in the A&R, Publishing, Film/TV/Video Game, and Studio Worlds. The main news has been the addition of the new A&R staff at Sony. Shawn ‘Tubby’ Holiday joins Columbia from RCA and Isaac Green has been promoted to Sr. VP A&R. Publishing veteran Shalik Berry joins Epic in Los Angeles and Michael Klein joins Epic in Los Angeles as A&R Operations. Tayla Elitzer joins Capitol in Los Angeles as well.
In New York, Matt Darduini joins Mercury as Sr. VP A&R. In the UK, Pino Pumilla exits Polydor to join BMG/Chrysalis and Hugo Bedford exits Atlantic. Also of note, veteran A&R executive Max Gousse has formed Artistry Worldwide with Virgin/Universal. Industry veteran Dick Wingate has formed a new artist management label BHi Music Group and the label’s first signings were the blues/rock act Jon & the Jones and rock trio AM Aesthetic. Former Interscope Geffen A&M executive Greg Marella joins Kemosabe Records as Executive VP. Universal Music Publishing Group has signed Miley Cyrus to an exclusive worldwide publishing administration agreement, extended its agreement with Keith Urban, and also signed Julian Bunetta and Mike Einziger to exclusive worldwide publishing agreements.
Warner/Chappell Music has signed publishing agreements with Slash and Dave Mustaine and BMG Chrysalis has signed Rascal Flatts songwriter and producer Jay DeMarcus to a worldwide publishing agreement. Grammy-nominated songwriter/producer and Co-Founder of Cherrytree Records, Martin Kierszenbaum is partnering with Kobalt to launch Cherrytree Music Publishing. And, of course, the other big news was the $30-Million deal with Live Nation purchasing Principle Management (U2 and PJ Harvey) and Maverick Management (Madonna). Guy Oseary will take over the day to day running of management for U2 within the new company while Paul McGuiness (Principle) will be CEO. BMG Chrysalis taps Chris Oglesby as VP Creative for its Nashville Office. Oglesby previously launched Oglesby Writers Management which later became part of 19 Entertainment/CKX.
Source: A&R Registry
