Former Deezer head Thomas Heymann joins Pandora

Australian music streaming pioneer Thomas Heymann begins this week as Head of Artist and Industry Relations for internet radio station Pandora Australia and New Zealand. He replaces Hazel Savage who left earlier this year.

The one time major label executive was previously Country Manager of Australia and New Zealand for music streaming company Deezer.

“The continued aim is to make Pandora an integral part of the music industry,” Heymann told TMN. Pandora claims 3 million users in ANZ

Based in Sydney, Heymann reports to Jane Huxley, Managing Director of the company’s ANZ operations. Huxley said, “Pandora ANZ has so much potential to support local artists and provide them with a global audience of over 300 million listeners. Thomas’ experience will be key to us opening up further opportunities to connect local artists with potential fans.

“Thomas’ commercial acumen and strategic understanding of the music ecosystem will further enable Pandora to create profitable synergies between Bands, Brands and Fans.”

Aside from his digital initiatives, Heymann has close ties with artists and the music industry through his lecturing at the masters course in arts management at the Australian Institute of Music (a joint venture with Sydney Opera House), his marketing of major label artists and his one time management of independent and grassroots acts.

Born in Germany, Heymann started his career at Sony Music Germany. He moved to Australia as Product Manager at Sony Music Australia working on campaigns for Michael Jackson, Jamiroquai, The Fugees, Aerosmith, Midnight Oil and Tina Arena.

Switching to Warner Music Australia, he was its Vice President of Strategic Marketing for almost 10 years. Aside from working with Cold Chisel, Icehouse, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Madonna and Fleetwood Mac, Heymann also drove the Australian company’s digital, licensing and business development opportunities. By this time, he’d fallen under the power of the David Kusek & Gerd Leonhard game changing 2005 book The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution.

“There’s a huge crossover potential for digital growth in Australia,” Heymann points out to TMN. “It’s still at the stage of early adopters and opinion leaders but it has yet to hit the mainstream. Digital has completely changed consumer behaviour. They want their music 24/7 and on mobile. Digital also has allowed artists and fans to connect again, whereas piracy is about being anonymous.”