Musical Chairs: June 1

LARRY HEATH FIRST A&R FOR MUSIC SALES CREATIVE

Music Sales Creative, the A&R and licensing division of Music Sales, appointed Larry Heath(above) as its first dedicated A&R Manager in Australia & New Zealand.

Sydney-based Heath, founder of The AU Review, also curates live music events, most recently, a showcase at the annual Canadian Music Week in Toronto.

Domestically, his company Heath Media programmes and promotes the National Live Music Awardsand the Courtyard Sessions at the Seymour Centre in Sydney.

Heath joins Creative Director Denise Sharp (ex-UMPA), Classical Music Consultant Lyle Chan (ex-ABC Classics), Licensing Manager, Lucy Song (ex-Sony Music), Marketing Executive Joel English (ex-Chinese Laundry/Good Vibrations Festival), musicologist Tony Phan, and Creative Administrator, Nicole Roberts (ex-PPCA).

“Larry’s job is that of an old and new school music publisher: Discover, Nurture, Plug: discover new songwriters, nurture their careers (including writer collaborations) and plug their songs,” Managing Director Jane English says. “All-in-all, to facilitate a successful, fruitful career for our songwriters.”

CHANGES AT HIT NETWORK

Abi Benaud is new Executive Producer at Hit105 Brisbane’s Stav, Abby And Matty With Osher breakfast show. She was Senior Producer and Guest / Talent Producer at KIIS 106.5’s Kyle and Jackie O Show for three years before a stint at the PR team at Australia Zoo.

Nicole Mitchell joins Hit 100.9 Hobart as Music Director and presenter of the 12pm—3pm weekday shift in mid-June. A former host at Adelaide’s dance music Fresh 92.7, she replaces Rosie Panetta who returned to her hometown Adelaide to join 919 Nova.

SOUNDCLOUD ANNOUNCES EXIT OF CCO

SoundCloud announced that Content Chief Stephen Bryan is departing on June 30, with no plans to fill the role.

In his three-year tenure, Bryan was instrumental in the German company shifting from user-generated platform to streaming service, using his negotiating skills with labels and publishers to set up SoundCloud Goand SoundCloud Go+.

ASCAP NAMES NEW HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

ASCAP, the American Society of Composer, Authors and Publishers, overnight announced the appointment of its digital business strategist Tony Dunaif as Executive Vice President and Head of International Affairs.

Dunaif will oversee ASCAP’s international business and society relations outside of the United States, “bringing his expertise in global business development, licensing and strategy to develop international opportunities and partnerships”, the public performing rights and advocacy for music creators said.

NEW COUNSEL FOR BMG

Ama Walton is General Counsel Europe for BMG, based at its Berlin headquarters, She has been a legal consultant for the company since 2008, most significantly securing some essential tracks for BMG when the Sony-BMG venture came to an end.

EDWINA THROSBY JOINS OPERA HOUSE

Producer, director and curator Edwina Throsby joins the Sydney Opera House as Head of Talks & Ideas. In her previous role as Curation of TEDxSydney for three years, she grew the ideas festival to130,000 attendees, millions of online views and more than 150 satellite events.

Prior to that, she founded and produced the ABC’s Big Ideas, hosted by Tony Jones.

SJOGREN HEADING BACK TO MELBOURNE

Leon Sjogren, producer of Triple M Sydney’s drive program Merrickville, is heading back to his hometown ofMelbourne to join the FOX FM breakfast program Fifi, Dave, Fev & Byron.

SOHAN JUDGE LEAVES 2DAY FM

Sohan Judge, who was promoted by 2DAY FM 12 months ago to Digital Content Lead has left to become Social Media Editor at BuzzFeedOz. She previously served as editorial producer at celebrity news platform Scoopla.

DEEZER LOSES JULIEN SIMON

Deezer has lost Julien Simon, its Vice President of Music Rights and Label Relations of nine years. In that time, he oversaw Deezer’s launch into 182 countries and partnered with mobile carriers in over 40 countries. He moved to New York two years ago to help launch the service in the U.S.

EON SPORTS GOES MORE DIGITAL

In what seems to be a cost-cutting exercise, EON Sports Radio, Australia’s first national 24/7 sports radio station, has dispensed with its Australian presenters and will use content from the UK’s TalkSport on all its digital platforms.

The news was announced last Friday, with breakfast hosts Cameron Luke and Richie Callander given the news only ten minutes before.

“(It) has nothing to do with what happened on air, nothing at all, so it was behind the scenes structure and how management couldn’t get together and make things work,”Callander said.

FORMER TWITTER AUSSIE HEAD IN US

Former Twitter Australia MD Karen Stocks, who left the position last spring after three years, has resurfaced at Google in the United States where she will lead the measurement solutions team from this month.

PITCHFORK PRESIDENT STEPS DOWN

Chris Kaskie, President of Pitchfork Media, is leaving the Chicago-headquartered company after 14 years on July 21, saying in a handwritten note to staff that his decision was “bittersweet”.

His move comes 18 months after the music media company, which was founded in 1996, was bought by Conde Nast.

AWESOME OPENS IN ANZ

UK kid-safe digital media technology company TotallyAwesome is entering the Australian and New Zealand markets, and has hired Melissa Robertsas Country Director For Australia and NZ.

The company started in the UK as SuperAwesome focussing on kid-safe and brand-safe digital advertising and content. It expanded to the Asia-Pacific under the TotallyAwesome and claims a monthly global reach of 300 million kids and teenagers.

SAMSUNG AUSTRALIA CMO DEPARTING

Samsung Electronics Australia announced that its Corporate Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Philip Newton will exit on August 9. He was with the company for eight years during which he headed various divisions including IT, TV and audio-visual, and consumer electronics.

Newton launched many of its products in Australia before the rest of the world, and drove its corporate marketing team “to achieve significant improvements in key marketing metrics, which have contributed to the growth of the brand over the last 18 months,” Samsung said.

VALLENTINE RETIRES FROM AYO BOARD

Highly respected arts administratorMary Vallentine AO has retired after ten years as Chair of the Board of the Australian Youth Orchestra, and will be replaced by Deputy Chair Ben Rimmer who is also CEO of the City of Melbourne.

INTEL CEO DEPARTING

After 20 years with technology company Intel Australia, serving as Managing Director since 2012, Kate Burleigh is stepping down on June 30.

“Under her leadership, Intel’s impact extended well beyond our traditional customer base and channels,” said Jerry Tsao, VP Sales & Marketing Group and GM Regional Sales Group for the Asia Pacific and Japan region.

MMF PRESIDENT JON WEBSTER STEPS DOWN

The Music Managers Forum’s President Jon Webster – who was also instrumental in setting up the Mercury Prize – is stepping down to work on a number of personal projects.

These include a book on his time at Virgin Records where he worked his way up the ranks to MD in 1988 and was instrumental in devising the Now! That’s What I Call Music brand.

From 1992, he worked with Genesis, Peter Gabriel, UB40, Mike & The Mechanics, Baby Bird, Die Toten Hosen and Erasure.