The Recording Academy has introduced the appointment of Ryan Butler as vp of variety, fairness & inclusion, efficient instantly. He fills a task beforehand occupied by Valeisha Butterfield Jones, who was promoted to co-president final yr, and to whom Butler will report.
Butler leads variety, fairness and inclusion internally and externally for the Recording Academy and its associates. He’s liable for enterprise-wide variety and inclusion efforts and making certain the Academy’s core worth of variety, fairness and inclusion stays embedded all through all elements of the group, together with inside workers tradition, Membership, Awards, Advocacy, and associated applications. He additionally units nationwide and Chapter targets to speed up outcomes for underrepresented communities and creators.
“We’re so proud to have Ryan as our Vice President of DEI,” mentioned Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. “His ardour and management have been instrumental to the massive strides in variety, fairness and inclusion we’ve achieved over the previous two years and we’re excited to see how he’ll proceed to reinforce our dedication to the music neighborhood.”
Butler joined the Academy in 2019 as a key member of the advocacy and public coverage group and later served as director then senior advisor of the range, fairness & inclusion division. In line with the announcement, inside DEI, he’s led varied efforts together with the launch of the Academy’s first-ever Black Music Collective and the podcast of the identical identify, the Girls within the Combine Examine alongside Berklee School of Music and Arizona State College, and the implementation of an inclusion rider for the sixty fourth annual Grammy Awards. Butler additionally was instrumental in launching a sequence of partnerships together with Colour of Change and GLAAD. Throughout his tenure as senior advisor, Butler concurrently served because the founding government director of the Warner Music/Blavatnik Heart for Music Enterprise at Howard College.
He beforehand held roles at Scripps Howard College of Journalism & Communication at Hampton College, 3EE Consulting, Atlantic Data, the RIAA, Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman, LLP, and District of Columbia Superior Courts in Washington, D.C.
+ Def Jam has signed Tanna Leone, a Los Angeles-based artist on Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free’s pgLang imprint, and premiered the signing with two tracks, “With the Villains” and “Fortunate.” Leone follows Child Keem because the second artist to companion with pgLang, and joins Keem on the second leg of his “Melodic Blue” tour, starting tonight (March 10) in Pittsburgh.
“We’re excited to welcome Tanna Leone and pgLang to the Def Jam household as valued companions,” mentioned Def Jam chairman/CEO Tunji Balogun. “I’m fortunate to have been capable of join with Kendrick and Dave in the course of the early levels of my profession as pals and collaborators, and I’m thrilled to have the ability to prolong that relationship right here at Def Jam. Tanna is a dynamic and multi-talented new voice and we’re honored to be part of his growth and success.”
“Tanna is a uncommon alternative to disrupt. We’re excited to companion with my younger n***a,” mentioned Free.
+ Downtown Music Holdings has established a fund to take a position over $200 million to help unbiased artists and entrepreneurial enterprise house owners. The fund, supported by a brand new credit score facility with Financial institution of America, shall be utilized throughout Downtown’s distribution, publishing administration and artist and label companies operations.
The fund successfully permits Downtown to pay advances to its purchasers — artists, labels, distribution purchasers, publishing administration purchasers, and many others.) with out taking any rights. Over the previous couple of years Downtown has refocused its enterprise on companies relatively than publishing or rights-holding. It at present manages greater than 23 million music belongings on behalf of over 1 million artists and enterprise purchasers hailing from 145 international locations from a catalog that spans 100 years of widespread music.
“Downtown Music Holdings has constructed an organization that’s nicely positioned to serve the fast-growing unbiased sector of the music business,” mentioned Randy Hua, head of the Leisure Industries Group at Financial institution of America. “Downtown’s new fund is a strong useful resource, empowering music creators all around the world. Financial institution of America is happy to assist finance this revolutionary sector of the inventive economic system.”
Downtown additionally appointed two new members to its board of administrators: Alison Moore, CEO of Comedian Aid USA, and Kelli Turner, CFO of Solar Capital Companions, to its Board of Administrators. Moore beforehand held senior posts at Conde Nast, SoundCloud, NBC Common and HBO. Turner was beforehand SESAC’s president and COO and held senior roles at RSL Administration Company, Martha Stewart Residing Omnimedia, Time Warner and New Line Cinema.
“Alison and Kelli have been true leaders and trailblazers of their respective fields,” mentioned Downtown Founder & Government Chairman, Justin Kalifowitz. “Alison’s wealth of expertise driving innovation in help of creativity and Kelli’s spectacular monetary and operational background make them each highly effective new additions to our board.”
+ Warner Chappell Music has renewed its world publishing cope with songwriter Nicolle Galyon, in partnership with Affect Media and Songs & Daughters Publishing. Galyon has been with WCM for 15 years and her hits and credit embrace “I Stop Ingesting” by Kelsea Ballerini and Lany, “Minimal Wage” by Blake Shelton, “Gone” by Dierks Bentley, “Half of My Hometown” by Kelsea Ballerini ft. Kenny Chesney, Camila Cabello’s “Penalties,” Maranda Lambert’s “Automated,” Keith City’s “We Have been Us” and Dan + Shay’s “Tequila.”
Warner Chappell additionally named Luca Gentili to the brand new function of vp, operations & business relations at Warner Chappell Music Italy. On this new function, Gentili will proceed to be primarily based in Milan and report on to Santiago Menéndez-Pidal, WCM’s president of Southern Europe. Gentili joined Warner Chappell Music in 2008, serving as first administrative director after which finance director, protecting the corporate’s operations in Italy and Greece.
+ Reservoir has struck a brand new cope with hit songwriter, Ali Tamposi, who has been represented by the corporate since 2017. Her many hits embrace credit on “Havana” by Camila Cabello that includes Younger Thug, “Señorita” by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, “Youngblood” by 5 Seconds of Summer time, “It Ain’t Me” by Kygo with Selena Gomez, “Wolves” by Selena Gomez and Marshmello, “Let Me Love You” by DJ Snake and Justin Bieber and “Break My Coronary heart” by Dua Lipa.
+ Sarah Jones has been promoted to normal supervisor of live performance discovery service Songkick. Based mostly within the firm’s London headquarter, Jones will report back to Benjamin Clean, president of father or mother firm Warner Music’s media enterprise. She replaces Invoice Ashton, who shall be leaving the corporate on the finish of the month after ten years at WMG. Previous to becoming a member of Songkick in 2018, she labored on the BBC for 14 years, the place she headed up its world partnership technique throughout its video and podcast portfolio.
+ The Beggars Group of Labels has introduced a number of promotions: Brandon Becker is now world head of streaming, managing the division worldwide, directing technique in collaboration with the labels and sustaining main relationships with our world streaming companions. He’s primarily based in New York.
Matthew Gawryche joins as U.S. streaming director, after serving as world head of selling technique for FUGA. He’s primarily based in Los Angeles and can report back to Becker.
Marissa Esposito has been promoted to U.S. junior streaming account supervisor, and within the U.Ok., Shaun Delaney assumes sole oversight of all U.Ok. streaming exercise as senior streaming lead, whereas Molly McIntyre shifts from the U.Ok. radio division into the function of U.Ok junior streaming account supervisor.
+ iHeartRadio’s “Elvis Duran Present” advertising and marketing president Steven Levine will deliver his expertise as a media strategist to Bevel, a Los Angeles-based strategic communications agency in fintech, enterprise capital, client manufacturers and expertise. Bevel was based in 2017 by CEO Jessica Schaefer and works with a shopper base that features Public.com, Acorns, Torch Capital, and Titan — which have buyers together with the Chainsmokers, Jennifer Lopez, Will Smith and Jared Leto.
+ Artist Progress, a collaboration platform for labels, artist managers, and artistic groups, has employed Rob Weitzner as government VP of income & development. He beforehand held roles at eMusic, TVT Data, A2IM and IODA, and spent the final 13 years serving as head of enterprise growth, technique & partnerships for the state51 Music Group’s digital provide chain firm Consolidated Unbiased.
