Billboard_Magazine_September_2_2017

DWORKIN, NASH, ROBERTS, ROY, RUXANDER: COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP. SPACEY: DAVID GIESBRECHT/NETFLIX. HAUPRICH: COURTESY

OF BMG. KOOKER: COURTESY OF SONY MUSIC. MATTERA: CLAIRE MARIE VOGEL.

MORTIMER: COURTESY OF INTERSCOPE RECORDS. FONSI: AXELLE/BAUER-GRIFFIN/FILMMAGIC. OBERMANN: WARNER MUSIC GROUP. PRINCE: KEVIN MA

ZUR/WIREIMAGE. SINCLAIR: COURTESY OF ATLANTIC RECORDS.

Kobalt does not release specific numbers, “in the

past year, members joining the AWAL platform have

tripled,” says the London-born Dennett, a former

physics major who joined Kobalt in 2006. In May,

market insights from Kobalt’s famously deep data

mining became available via the AWAL mobile app,

which Dennett describes as “creator-friendly and

designed for modern consumption.”

JONATHAN DWORKIN, 42

Senior vp digital strategy and business

development, Universal Music Group

MICHAEL NASH, 60

Executive vp digital strategy,

Universal Music Group

TY ROBERTS, 54

Senior vp/chief technology officer,

Universal Music Group

TUHIN ROY, 49

Vp new digital business, Universal Music Group

OANA RUXANDRA, 35

Senior vp digital strategy and partnerships,

Universal Music Group

In the wake of the multiyear deal

announced in April between Universal

Music Group, the world’s leading

music company, and Spotify, the

globe’s biggest streaming service, and

its earlier agreements with Amazon and Pandora,

the digital team at UMG is looking ahead. Nash,

who recruited his executive roster over the past 15

months, says, “Digital strategy is really central to

the strategy of any music business at this point.” In

May, UMG struck an agreement with Tencent Music

Entertainment Group, the streaming service with

600 million monthly users in China, that will include

creation of Abbey Road Studios China. “You’re likely

to see a creative explosion out of China that’s like

the ’60s and ’70s in the West,” says Dworkin, whose

frequent trips to China helped close the deal. Roy,

the newest recruit to the digital group, has the job of

steering UMG into partnerships from mobile

messaging to virtual reality to anything allowing

entrepreneurs to “nimbly start to create new

products.” Ruxandra brings those partnerships to

contracts. “I get deals done,” she says. “We’re no

longer in a world where we make money at [album-

release] time. It’s about partnerships in the long

term.” Roberts is focused on marketing high-

resolution audio. “We’re calling it ‘highest-quality

audio,’ ” he says of the technology, which all three

major labels endorsed at the Consumer Electronics

Show in January.

KEITH HAUPRICH, 43

General counsel/senior vp business and legal

affairs, North America, BMG

Intellectual property law “has never

faced such a sustained challenge as it

does today,” says Hauprich, who played

a key role in winning BMG’s $25 million

jury verdict in 2015 against Cox

Communications in a landmark piracy case that

tested an internet service provider’s responsibilities

for copyright infringement by its users. In February,

BMG was awarded $8.5 million in fees from Cox. An

attorney who studied public relations as an

undergraduate at Syracuse University, Hauprich this

year also inked Netflix to a deal to administer its

music publishing rights outside the United States,

covering all original content on the video service.

DENNIS KOOKER, 50

President, global digital business and U.S. sales,

Sony Music Entertainment

Kooker guides SME’s worldwide push

into digital music “from a business

development, market growth and

strategy standpoint,” he says. While

encouraged by the growth of

streaming, “driving paid subscriptions — and not

taking for granted that it’s automatically going to

happen — is a big focus for us,” says Kooker. His

global responsibility means the New Jersey resident

and father of two also foresees “meaningful business

in markets that in the past we just couldn’t access,

whether because of rampant piracy or because it was

cost-prohibitive.” As streaming services expand, “if

you’ve got a phone, and you’ve got broadband, you’ve

got the ability to listen to music all the time.”

LARRY MATTERA, 51

GM/executive vp commerce and marketing,

Warner Bros. Records

The efforts of Mattera and his team to

resolve legal issues with the estate of

Prince paid off on Grammy night,

Feb. 12, as the artist’s Warner Bros.

catalog, including most of his hits,

returned to all major streaming services.

Anticipation for widespread digital release of the

recordings — previously available only on TIDAL —

was so keen that Prince’s music drew 17 million

streams in its first five days, according to Nielsen

Music. Mattera, who arrived at Warner Bros. from

WEA Distribution in late 2015, takes satisfaction in

the streaming milestone. “I’m super proud that his

music is up for fans to enjoy.”

CHRIS MORTIMER, 36

Head of digital, Interscope Geffen A&M

Interscope released Rae Sremmurd’s

sophomore album, SremmLife 2, to

modest sales last summer, but by

November, the label helped the

Atlanta hip-hop duo reach No. 1 on the

Billboard Hot 100 with the single “Black Beatles” —

after the song became the unofficial soundtrack to

the mannequin challenge, a viral video meme in

which people pose like statues to create a human

tableau. “Black Beatles” has since accumulated 722

million on-demand streams, according to Nielsen

Music, and has been certified four-times platinum.

“You can’t manufacture moments like that,” admits

Mortimer, a Los Angeles native and father of one.

“But when the opportunity arises, the collective

effort of Interscope to move mountains in

transforming a song into a cultural moment is a

remarkable thing.”

OLE OBERMANN, 46

Chief digital officer/executive vp business

development, Warner Music Group

Obermann joined WMG in November

2016, following a decade in digital

roles at Sony Music, and has spent the

past year building his team, including

an analytics department. He also

immediately jumped into dealmaking. In December,

he oversaw WMG’s agreement with MelodyVR to

create a worldwide partnership for virtual-reality

content creation. “One of the things I quickly figured

out about Warner is there’s a fast-moving

entrepreneurial culture here,” says the Brooklyn

native. “I’m focused on keeping Warner aggressive

and moving quickly.”

PAUL SINCLAIR, 42

Executive vp digital strategy and innovation,

Atlantic Records

With his expanded digital marketing

and innovation team now numbering

close to 40, Sinclair built long-term

digital campaigns this year for

Atlantic’s developing acts, including

NO.

1

STREAMING SONG OF THE YEAR

“Despacito”

Luis Fonsi &

Daddy Yankee featuring

Justin Bieber

903.1 million

streams in 2017

Source: Nielsen Music

Fonsi performed at

KIIS FM Los Angeles’

Wango Tango event

at StubHub Center in

Carson, Calif., in May.

BMG’s Hauprich cut a deal to

administer music publishing outside

the United States for Netflix’s original

programming, which features series

like House of Cards (pictured).

Mattera at Warner Bros. helped bring hits from

P r i n c e ( l e f t ) b a c k t o s t r e a m i n g s e r v i c e s.

56 BILLBOARD | SEPTEMBER 2, 2017

BACKSTAGE PASS / Digital Power Players 2017