Rob Stringer announced as new CEO of Sony Music

Sony Music Entertainment has named Rob Stringer its new Chief Executive Officer. Current CEO Doug Morris, 77, who’s had that role since 2011, moves to take on the role of Chairman in April 2017.

The 54-year-old British-born Stringer, a well-liked long-time executive at the company is currently Chairman and CEO of Sony flagship imprint Columbia Records. He is the younger brother of Howard Stringer, the former Chairman of the Sony Corporation.

Columbia has had a good run of late, with Adele’s 25 selling 10 million copies, and hitting its strides with releases by Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Barbara Streisand, Bob Dylan, Calvin Harris, Daft Punk, John Legend, One Direction and Tony Bennett.

Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton, to whom Stringer will report to, says, “Rob Stringer is one of the most skilled and successful executives in the music industry.

“His efforts and achievements at Columbia have contributed immeasurably to the overall strength of Sony Music worldwide.

“Not only is he a tremendous developer of talent and nurturer of stars who has overseen numerous massive hits, but also he is an innovator who understands how to grow revenue and market share in the rapidly changing music business.

“His ability to adapt to meet the needs of artists and fans in a dynamic marketplace that mixes digital audio, visual media and physical goods makes him the perfect fit to head the company moving forward. I am thrilled to have him leading Sony Music’s next chapter.”

In his teens growing up in the Buckinghamshire market town of Aylesbury, Rob Stringer was as much a massive punk music fan as he was in soccer.

At 14, he saw The Clash play one of their first shows. “(Being in the music industry) was all I’ve ever wanted to do since I was seven,” he once said. “I can look bands in the eye, still to this day, and not have my purity questioned on that level.”

He attended art school and, as secretary of his South London college student union, began booking bands as Lloyd Cole & The Commotions and Simply Red.

A generation later he had become the head of Sony BMG UK. He restructured the company to be a multimedia digital-savvy company long before others caught on, and using music reality TV shows to trigger record sales and interest in new acts.

Sony is the world’s second-largest record company, after the Universal Music Group, with an estimated 23% of global market share. For the year that ended in March, Sony’s recorded music division had US$5.5 billion in sales, and $773 million in operating income.