BMG Restructuring U.S. Operations
• BMG announced it is restructuring its U.S. repertoire organization into three sections in Los Angeles, Nashville and New York “in order to accommodate surging growth, which has seen revenues double in just three years.” At the same time it was announced that Zach Katz, BMG U.S. President, Repertoire and Marketing is leaving the company at the end of the year to take up a new role in early 2019.
Under its new structure, effective Jan. 1, 2019, Thomas Scherer is promoted to EVP, Repertoire & Marketing, Los Angeles; in Nashville, Jon Loba, EVP of BBR Music Group and Kos Weaver, EVP of BMG Nashville will formally take joint control of BMG’s Music City repertoire operation, and John Loeffler has been appointed EVP, Repertoire & Marketing, New York.
Scherer (left) joined BMG in 2008 as one of the original employees at the company headquarters in Berlin. Weaver (second from left) joined BMG in 2013 to run its Nashville publishing operation. Loba (second from right) joined BMG in January 2017 following the company’s acquisition of BBR Music Group. The new joint management structure comes ahead of BMG moving its publishing and recorded music teams together into a new Nashville location in 2019. In New York, Loeffler (right) will be responsible for BMG’s music publishing and recorded music operations in the Big Apple, including S-Curve Records.
All three units report directly to BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch (left), who said, “The U.S. represents more than 50% of BMG’s business. To give you a sense of scale, if it was a country, our Los Angeles operation would be our biggest territory some way ahead of the UK, Nashville would be our third biggest territory just ahead of Germany and New York would be sixth biggest, just behind France. Putting this new structure in place will empower local management and enable us to better deliver our mission of offering artists and songwriters a genuine alternative to the established companies.” Masuch added, “This structure prepares the ground for BMG’s next phase of the growth in the U.S. and I would like to congratulate Thomas, John, Kos and Jon as they take on these exciting new roles.”
Commenting on Katz’s impending departure, Masuch said, “Zach has made a substantial contribution to BMG over the past six years, most notably in helping our U.S. operation make the transition from an acquisition-driven start-up to an organically-driven music publishing and recordings company which genuinely delivers on its core values to its clients. I have immense respect for the commitment he has given BMG and salute his multitude of achievements. Zach is, above all, a close friend, and I am convinced we’ll work again together in the future.”
Katz (left) said, “I would like to express my utmost gratitude to Hartwig, for believing in me over the years and believing in the U.S. team. Under his management, BMG has grown exponentially and achieved more in the past 10 years than most companies could ever dream possible. I am positive the greatest years of BMG still lie ahead with the company’s new US leadership group at the helm.”
