Beth Appleton joins Jaxsta: ‘It really aligns with me’

The secret is out. Beth Appleton is now an executive with Jaxsta.

With effect from next Monday (July 12), Appleton joins the official music credits platform in the role as Chief Marketing Officer.

Appleton arrives at Jaxsta with an envious marketing pedigree and an impressive track record with major music companies here and in the U.K.

Until recently, Appleton served as General Manager and Senior Vice President Marketing Australasia at Warner Music Australia, completing a 10-year stint with the global music giant.

Her CV includes digital and marketing posts with EMI in the U.K. and Australia, Richard Branson’s V2 Music and Universal Music Group, and she’s been recognised in Billboard’s Women In Music profile.

Appleton is enthusiastic about the opportunities that await. “By showcasing all musical creatives and delivering complete and verified data,” she says in a statement, “Jaxsta is creating opportunities for talent in all areas of music. I am so excited and proud to be joining Jaxsta as CMO as we work together to facilitate incredible possibilities for our global music community.”

Based in Sydney, Appleton will be responsible for developing and driving Jaxsta’s ongoing marketing strategy, and she joins ahead of its return to a paid service on July 27.

With the news today of Jaxsta’s latest hire, the shortlist tightens for the top job at Sony Music Australia. Appleton was widely seen as a lead candidate for the vacant leadership position.

For Jaxsta, landing Appleton’s signature is huge result. “I am so pleased to share that Beth Appleton will be joining Jaxsta,” comments Jacqui Louez Schoorl, Jaxsta CEO and Co-Founder, in a statement.

“Her expertise coupled with her understanding of the changing nature of our industry is invaluable,” she continues, “and we’re fortunate to have her joining our team. Beth’s extensive experience and tenure within the industry truly speaks for itself.”

TIO caught up with Appleton for a chat about her new role.

Congrats, Beth. I don’t think many people in the music industry here guessed your next move. You’ve got several executives at Jaxsta from across the music spectrum, including Rod Yates, who comes from media.

Jacqui refers to it as her “Olympic team.” All of us would love to compete in the Olympics, the winning team. A good team is made up of diverse people, with different sets of skills that you can bring together and do amazing things together. I’m super excited. It’s a very solid and open team. There’s a real clear direction in what we’re doing and where we’re going.

It’s very exciting. Jacqui is a wonderful person. And there’s the role that Jaxsta is taking on. I love it, it’s ethical, its delivering value back for everybody making songs. It really aligns with me.

You’ll be putting your international marketing skills to good use.

Absolutely. Marketing is about building bravery and being creative. And look towards the customer first. That’s so important. With record labels, it’s always about the fans. And who are the people who are going to love the music of the artists you’re working for.

It’s the same at Jaxsta. It’s all about the customers. And providing a service and value to those customers by the information, the data and the connection that we can deliver through the Jaxsta platform. And strategy as well. When you’re reaching for the sky and achieving what we want, which is to be the world’s most recognised database of official credits, you have to be strategic along the way and work out what your priorities are and enable the team to know what they’re doing.

Strategy and leadership will be absolutely something I hope to bring into the mix, in the best way. Which is with care, and support and ambition. We’ll go back to that piece about being brave and creative along the way.

Jacqui Louez Schoorl. Credit: Ben Orme

Early on, Jaxsta did a partnership with the Grammys. Are there other international marketing campaigns in the pipeline?

Absolutely. It’s a key component of what we’ll be doing immediately. It’s an international platform. Our job is to ensure that people around the world know about it, rather than it feeling Australian.

I’ll be reaching out to labels, industry bodies, tech partners, to ensure that they have awareness, in the first instance, of Jaxsta. Jacqui has got her own international contacts as well. Then we can pursue how we can work together and add value. Which ultimately will deliver the best platform for the customers.

July 27 is an important date on your calendar.

That’s the launch of Jaxsta Pro. The team over the last year have been developing a lot of different products within the platform that are going to deliver value. There is still going to be a free availability, which still provides value to people, but there will be other elements that people can access for a small subscription fee each month.

Hopefully, it will be able to show people that the subscription fee is absolutely worth it. Ultimately, that’s the business model. From my experience at record labels and the partners I know, there’s a lot of assistance we need in accessing data that enables people in the industry to do their job better and more efficiently. And pulling the data together. July 27 here we come.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.