LA/NY/NSH (CelebrityAccess) – BMG has announced that it will be splitting its U.S. repertoire teams into three divisions with key U.S. offices in Los Angeles, Nashville, and New York come 2019.
According to BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch, all three offices will maintain the same autonomy and authoritative status as those in Germany and elsewhere in the UK.
The news arrives as BMG’s current president of U.S. repertoire, Zach Katz, announced yesterday (Dec. 5) that he would be leaving the company at the end of the year in order to take up a new role.
“I would like to express my utmost gratitude to Hartwig, for believing in me over the years and believing in the U.S. team,” Katz said in a statement. “Under his management, BMG has grown exponentially and achieved more in the past 10 years than most companies could ever dream possible. I am positive the greatest years of BMG still lie ahead with the company’s new US leadership group at the helm.”
Under BMG’s new structure, Thomas Scherer will run the L.A. office as its new executive vp repertoire & marketing; Jon Loba and Kos Weaver will jointly run the Nashville office in their current respective roles as executive vp BBR Music Group and executive vp BMG Nashville; and John Loeffler will run the New York office as its newly-appointed executive vp repertoire & marketing. All positions take effect on January 1, 2019.
Scherer, who joined BMG in 2008, previously held the title of executive vp frontline publishing, U.S. and global writer services, and has overseen BMG’s offices in New York and L.A. in addition to its international publishing and creative teams. Loeffler, who joined BMG in 2009, has spearheaded the company’s relationships with artists like Roger Waters, John Fogerty and Kenny Loggins. Weaver joined BMG to run its Nashville publishing operation in 2013, while Loba joined BMG in January 2017 following the company’s acquisition of BBR Music Group.
Commenting on the reasoning behind the split, Masuch explained in a statement: “The U.S. represents more than 50 percent of BMG’s business. To give you a sense of scale, if it was a country, our Los Angeles operation would be our biggest territory some way ahead of the U.K.; Nashville would be our third-biggest territory, just ahead of Germany; and New York would be sixth biggest, just behind France. … Putting this new structure in place will empower local management and enable us to better deliver our mission of offering artists and songwriters a genuine alternative to the established companies.
“In a fast-growing company like BMG, one of the great challenges is to ensure you have the optimum structure for each stage of development,” Masuch added. “This structure prepares the ground for BMG’s next phase of growth in the U.S. and I would like to congratulate Thomas, John, Kos and Jon as they take on these exciting new roles.”
