Atlantic Records announced Tuesday (Jan. 16) A&R veteran Pete Ganbarg has been promoted to the newly created position of president of A&R. Ganbarg will continue to oversee A&R for Atlantic as well as its subsidiary labels, including Fueled By Ramen and Roadrunner.
As a music industry veteran who began his career nearly 30 years ago, Ganbarg started at SBK Records in 1989 and later on joined Arista Records as senior director of A&R. Ganbarg moved to Atlantic in 2008 as evp of A&R where he has led the A&R team through many accomplishments. He has personally signed or shepherded recordings by Billboard chart-topping artists such as Skrillex, Christina Perry, Jason Mraz and Theory of a Deadman.
In the company’s first announcement since Russell Simmons’ departure, All Def Media named Brooke Goldstein as COO and co-president, serving alongside Chris Blackwell, who was promoted to co-president in conjunction with being named chief digital officer. Scott Weintraub was also promoted to executive creative director of All Def.
Of the moves, ADM CEO Osman Erlap said: “We could not be more blessed than to have recruited and promoted executives who exemplify both functional excellence and a deep knowledge of hip hop power and evolution today in 2018.”
Beatport announced two executive promotions on Jan. 16: Jonathan Steffan moved from svp technology to chief information officer, and Terry Weerasinghe was promoted from svp music, marketing & analytics to chief product officer.
Steffan, who joined Beatport in 2008, will now oversee infrastructure engineering, data services, content operations and IT from Beatport’s Denver office. Weerasinghe has been with Beatport since 2013 and will now oversee all product development, marketing and artist and label relations from Beatport’s Berlin office.
Publishing company Prescription Songs announced the promotion of Rhea Pasricha to head of A&R, West Coast, and Katie Fagan to head of A&R, Nashville.
Pasricha has been with Prescription for five years, and over that time has worked on signing or promoting major talent. Recent career notes include involvement in "Don't Let Me Down” by The Chainsmokers and “New Rules” (Dua Lipa) by Nick Jonas.
Fagan began her career as an assistant -- and the third employee -- at Prescription. Working her way up, she has worked to sign many of the songwriters on Prescription’s roster. Fagan handles Sarah Hudson, who co-wrote “Swish Swish” among nine other cuts on Katy Perry’s album Witness.
Prescription Songs has a team of 17 employees and represents nearly 90 songwriters worldwide. The company was founded by Dr. Luke.
Following Peter York's recent promotion to CEO, the Capitol Christian Music Group has elevated Brad O'Donnell to Chief Creative Officer and Hudson Plachy to Chief Marketing Officer of the label group. In his new position, O'Donnell will oversee all things A&R as well as the creative staff for both the recorded music and publishing sides of the business. Plachy's duties include overseeing all marketing and promotion campaigns, as well as video content and commercial partnerships.
