30-year Sony veteran John Parker exits

After over 31 years at Sony Music Entertainment Australia and New Zealand, John Parker has departed the company.

He was most recently General Manager of Marketing & Promotions and Artists Touring Division.

“It was the right time to look at the next chapter,” he tells TMN. “I absolutely respected and loved my time at Sony, with the people and the artists.

“I’ve seen all the changes in the music industry, to CD, then digital and now streaming. There’s so much positivity in the artistic community and I’ll still be part of the music and entertainment industry.”

Sydney-born Parker (or JP, as he was better known in the industry) had his start in the finance market. That, along with a passion for surfing and music, saw him live in most of the Australian capital cities as well as in New Zealand and the United States.

He began at CBS Records (as Sony was known then) in telephone sales in October 1985. He moved quickly up the ranks, joining the promotions team in Melbourne in 1989, specifically working with Australian artists

This was the time of the chart breakthroughs of Midnight Oil, Silverchair, Black Sorrows, Daryl Braithwaite and Margaret Urlich.

He took out the company’s Promotions Manager of the Year in 1990, 1991 and 1992.

Sony chief Denis Handlin AM (at the time its MD and CEO, now Chairman and CEO) moved him to Sydney in 1993 as National Promotions Manager. Two years later he was promoted to Director, National Promotions & Publicity.

In 1998, Parker received the company’s highest accolade, the Special Recognition Award, for a particularly fruitful period of radio and chart dominance.

In 2009, he took on the additional role of advising the NZ operations on integrating marketing and A&R.

Parker was also Chairman of the ARIA chart and marketing committee. During this time the association expanded the charts from singles and albums only to a multitude of genres, digital and streaming, as well as heightening the marketing of the charts and the introduction of the ARIA #1 Chart Awards.

Parker became General Manager of Marketing & Promotions and Artists Touring Division in 2014.

He can be contacted at johnparke03@gmail.com