Musical Chairs: April 28

VivFantinlaunches new company Next Act Coaching

Viv Fantin (pictured), founder of national publicity and media relations company Fantin Comes Alive has launched a new business to coach people in the creative industries. Next Act Coachingfocuses on goal setting, stress management and work-life balance.

“In the first instance, my plan is to work with individuals or small groups,” said Fantin. “[I’ll then move] to conducting workshops and move into organisational group coaching.”

Fantin Comes Alive will remain active albeit in a reduced capacity.

BIGSOUND’s 2016 team announced

After the departures last year of QMusic’s Event Manager Jolanda Horsburgh and BIGSOUND Producer Denise Foley, this year’s team has been announced.

New Event Manager is Georgia Beehag, whose background includes Big Day Out Gold Coast, Soundwave Brisbane, Vans Warped and Harvest Brisbane.

Experienced event producer and event manager Jonny Ruddy fills the newly created role of Partnerships Manager. Ruddy delivered large-scale technical and logistical events in London, China and Australia. It is expected his track record in sponsorship and community festivals will create new revenue avenues for the event.

QMusic Executive Officer Joel Edmondson will step into the BIGSOUND Producer role in 2016, overseeing the production of the event, supporting Beehag and Ruddy in their new roles while continuing to develop relationships with new and existing stakeholders.

The rest of the 2016 team are Nick O’Byrne (Executive Programmer), Maggie Collins (Executive Programmer), Roxy Noori (Administration, Logistics & Registrations), Michelle Padovan (Marketing & Communications), Sue McComber (Finance), Sonal Patel (Speaker Liaison & Registration Desk Manager) and Heather Bertoli (Volunteer Coordinator).

UMG promotes Barak Moffitt

Universal Music Group promoted Barak Moffitt to the newly-created post of EVP, Content Strategy & Operations. He will be based at the company’s headquarters in Santa Monica, California. His brief is to work closely with UMG’s label groups and commercial services division to maximise revenue and create new commercial opportunities for audio-visual content across brands, direct-to-consumer experiences, live events, merchandise and licensing. He will help create short and long-form videos, documentaries, behind-the-scenes features and film/TV series.

Rhapsody names its first CEO

Seattle-based streaming service Rhapsody (which is known as Napster outside America) has hired its first ever CEO. Mike Davis was most recently Senior Operating Consultant for The Gores Group. He has also held CEO roles at Alliance Entertainment and Gavin De Becker & Associates, and was Executive VP of Universal Music Enterprises (Ume), heading the content and distribution divisions.

Rove & Sam go national in evenings

2DAY FM Sydney’s breakfast duo Rove & Sam, who got just 3% share in last week’s ratings to jeering FM rivals Kyle & Jackie O’s 11.3%, have from yesterday (Tuesday) got a national presence. It will be with an hour-long mash-up of the day’s breakfast show. Hit Network Head of Content, Gemma Fordham said, “Rove & Sam is one of our top podcasts weekly, giving us strong evidence that markets outside of Sydney are keen to be part of this show. We are delighted to now deliver this great audio content nation-wide, weeknights from 7-8pm on 54 stations in the Hit Network.”

Rob McCasker joins ARN Adelaide

Long time SCA executive Rob McCasker is switching over to ARN from May 9. He is Breakfast Executive Producer/ Anchor for MIX102.3 Adelaide’s Jodie & Soda team. McCasker was 14 years with SCA in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth in Programing and On-Air. He was also the first PD of Hot Tomato Gold Coast for five years. More recently, he has been a casual at Grant Broadcasters’ Ballarat stations 3BA and Power FM while working in disability services.

New tech chief for SBS

SBS appointed Sean Yuen to the role of Head of Broadcast Technology and Systems. He has been a mainstay in telecommunications and media across Australia’s commercial and pay-TV networks including Telstra, Seven West Media and Foxtel. He says innovative new ways are needed as audience expectations have leaped with major changes in speed and technology.

SBS Chief Technology Officer Noel Leslie said: “Sean brings extensive knowledge in both local and global trends in media and technology. With a strong focus on driving optimisation and performance change through technology, Sean will help set the technological direction for broadcast systems as SBS continues to transform into a cutting edge digital media organisation, leading the way in the delivery of world class content across multiple media platforms.”

Nova appoints digital commercial director

Nova Entertainment appointed Nicole Bence as Digital Commercial Director, effective early May. Bence will help devise the strategic plan to continue to commercialise Nova’s digital audience and environments, working with their commercial sales team to create solutions for agencies, clients and partners.

Peter Charlton, Group Sales Director said, “Nicole has the perfect experience to lead us in our ambition to deliver market leading digital advertising and content solutions for our clients and help them engage with our rapidly growing digital audience. Her obvious thought leadership and passion for commercialising cross platform campaigns makes her an ideal addition to our sales leadership team as we continue to create digitally led branded content.”

New COO for Atlas Music

US-based Atlas Music Publishing appointed Phil Cialdella as COO. He was previously SVP of Administration and Licensing at indie Cherry Lane Music Publishing where over eleven years he attracted Black Eyed Peas, will.i.am, John Legend, the catalogues of Elvis Presley, Quincy Jones, Ashford & Simpson, and film and TV studios as DreamWorks SKG, Lionsgate, Weinstein Co., Marvel, World Wrestling Entertainment, NFL Films and 4Kids/Pokémon.

AXS taps ticketing veteran

AEG-owned ticketing company AXS appointed Giles Bayliss to Business Development Director. He’s been in the sector for 27 years, beginning with Ticketmaster Systems, going on to work on projects as the Olympics, FIFA World Cup, European Championships, Rugby World Cup and the Cricket World Cup.

Kathy Cramp leaving SCA board

Kathy Gramp will be stepping down as Non-Executive Director of the Southern Cross Austereo board in June after 18 months to widen her experience and be available for more board roles. SCA Chairman Peter Bush commented,

“During a time of change across the business, Kathy’s extensive executive role with the former Austereo meant she was able to be a voice of experience as a member of the Audit & Risk and People & Culture Committees of the Board.”

Smith lands SubPop A&R role

Gareth Smith landed the Director of A&R position at Sub Pop Publishing. He previously worked at Big Deal Music in Los Angeles as Worldwide VP, Film and TV, and at Chrysalis/ BMG Chrysalis in London as VP, Synch and Marketing where he was credited with helping to sign The Rolling Stones to their first publishing deal since the ’70s.

Promotions at MCN

A number of promotions were made to support the continued unification of the television and digital media business Multi Channel Network (MCN). Nick Young is now National Sales Manager; Ben Sumpter is National Sales Operations Director and GM of Melbourne; Melina Augoustakis is Melbourne Sales Director; Paul MacGregor is upped to National Director – Client Solutions, Marketing and Production; while David Cook joins in the newly created role of Head of Client Solutions.