BMG appoints Alistair Norbury to global role

PRESS RELEASE:

BMG has appointed former music publisher turned artist manager Alistair Norbury to a global role as Executive Vice President International Artists.

The appointment forms part of BMG’s previously-announced plan to further develop its recordings business alongside its strong presence in music publishing. BMG is already the world’s fourth biggest player in music publishing.

Norbury, most recently manager of Bryan Ferry and co-manager of James and Texas, will report directly to BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch, with a brief to develop BMG’s roster of new releases by successful established artists with international appeal.

Said Masuch, “There is a generation of artists who feel abandoned by the record business, yet they are still producing relevant new music which connects with an audience. It is Alistair’s role to connect with them. I am particularly pleased that he is joining us because he has experienced BMG from the client’s perspective with both Bryan and James.”

Alistair Norbury said, “I have seen at first hand how BMG helped Bryan Ferry achieve what many had thought impossible – selling 100,000 copies of a non-vocal jazz covers album (The Jazz Age). And it was with BMG that James reignited their recording career with La Petite Mort. There are too many cases of successful artists languishing at labels who are no longer really interested in them. I think a lot of them will find the combination of BMG’s commitment to service, its transparency and sense of fair dealing very attractive.”

Norbury’s illustrious career includes 15 years working within Chris Blackwell’s Island Group of Companies, initially as a lawyer at Island Records and then as Managing Director of Blue Mountain Music, the music publisher of U2 and Bob Marley. In 1998 Alistair took on the additional role as a founder Director of Blackwell’s new audio-visual label Palm Pictures.

He has been a successful artist manager, most notably of Bryan Ferry, since 2004.