Warner Music Hires Alex Young as Head of Domestic Artist Marketing

Alex Young has joined Warner Music Australia as head of domestic artist marketing.

She is replacing Cathy Oates who is departing to focus on her management business, Original Matters, in Brisbane.

Young joins after six years at Dew Process, where she was most recently general manager. Throughout her time at Dew Process, she helped develop the careers of Tkay Maidza, Mallrat and Eves Karydas, and worked on the local campaigns of international acts including London Grammar, Mumford and Sons, and Sam Fender.

In addition to recruiting Young, WMA has added Charlotte Kindred as senior marketing and artist development for domestic artists, Josie-Anne Trudel Archambault as the new creative projects producer, and Thomas Bleach as a publicist.

All the new recruits feed into the team of Chris Erskine, who is senior VP of marketing and promotions.

The significant appointments continue president Dan Rosen’s mission to shake up the company, which in July last year saw the departure of long-serving SVP of promotions and publicity, Billy MacLeod, the merging of the marketing and publicity departments, and the coming together of commercial with brand and sync.

A few weeks later, Rosen announced Erskine’s new role.

On further bolstering the marketing and publicity teams in 2022, Rosen said: “I’m really excited to welcome Alex to Warner Music Australia. Our WMA team is focused on our mission to take our Australian artists’ music to the global stage. We are fortunate to have a passionate music person in Alex join our incredible team who are all fiercely dedicated, creative people to continue to champion each one of our domestic artists.”

Young said she can’t wait to be part of the team.

“I am thrilled to be joining the team at Warner Music Australia, I’m a huge fan of the local roster,” she said. “I’m so excited by the new energy within the organisation and its strong commitment to developing talent globally.”

Kindred, meanwhile, joins as senior marketing and artist development strategist after having worked for Universal Music and Columbia Records in London where she spearheaded the global campaigns for Aurora, The Lumineers and Jacob Collier. She said she’s excited to be moving home to Australia and applying her years of expertise to growing the careers of local WMA artists.

Fellow new starter Trudel Archambault, the new creative projects director, commenced her career in artist management and has subsequently trained in graphic design.

And Bleach joins the publicity and communications team on a paternity leave contract as a publicist. He has written for numerous music industry publications – including TMN – as well as working for independent PR company Positive Feedback in Brisbane.

WMA also announced that Mohamed Komba has expanded his relationship with the major as an A&R consultant.

He first joined WMA in 2021 and has worked as an artist, label owner, producer, writer, engineer and mentor. In his expanded role, he will work with Paul Harris, senior VP of A&R Australasia.

WMA’s roster includes Ben Lee, Jessica Mauboy, Electric Fields, Alex the Astronaut, Budjerah and Boy Soda.