Believe has hired Mel Curley from Amazon Music as Global Head of Editorial & Marketing Partnerships and put the role under its chief marketing officer, while Too Lost has named a former Sony corporate development head as chief financial officer (CFO). Each appointment shows which function a distributor is investing in, and an independent can check its own service against that list.
Editorial relationships now report to marketing
Believe hired Curley from Amazon Music as Global Head of Editorial & Marketing Partnerships, reporting to Chief Marketing Officer Darya Pourshasb. The title joins two jobs that independents usually treat separately: getting a release in front of a digital service provider’s (DSP) editorial team, and running the marketing campaign around it.
The reporting line is the useful detail. Because the role sits under the chief marketing officer, editorial access is planned alongside campaign budgets and release schedules, not handled as a standalone relationship. Someone who has worked inside a streaming platform’s editorial operation also knows what that side needs to see before a release is considered.
For a label on that kind of distributor, the practical step is to send the marketing plan and the editorial pitch as one package. If you pitch with no campaign behind it, you are working against how the distributor has organised the function.
A finance chief with a transaction background
Too Lost appointed James Rosenstock, a former Sony Entertainment corporate development head with more than 25 years of experience, as chief financial officer. Corporate development is the team that evaluates acquisitions, investments and partnerships, so a CFO from that background suggests the company expects to put effort into deal structure and financial planning, not only bookkeeping.
That matters to a client because a distributor’s finances shape its terms. A company that is planning transactions has reasons to care about how predictable its own revenue is. Ask any distributor you are considering how its contract terms would change if the company were acquired or if it acquired a catalogue service. Ask for the answer in writing before you commit a catalogue.
Royalty services and operations carry the volume hiring
The largest block of openings is in the unglamorous functions. Live Nation and BMG are hiring for operations and royalty services positions, with additional openings across touring, direct-to-consumer commerce, digital advertising and artist management. Royalty services is the team that turns usage data into statements and payments, and it is the function an independent can least see from outside.
The same list shows where a large company thinks the work is. Direct-to-consumer commerce and digital advertising are being staffed next to touring and management, which means the revenue sits in several places and someone has to reconcile it. Independents face the same split on a smaller scale: streaming income, merchandise sales and ad-driven revenue each arrive in different reports.
When a company hires into royalty services, it is paying for people who can answer a query about a statement line. Test that capability before signing. Send a support question about one line of a past statement and note how long the reply takes and who answers it.
Creative and sync skills are being localised and taught
Two other moves point at placement and creative work. Position Music appointed Pete Robinson as General Manager, Creative for its Nashville office as it expands its presence in the city. A creative general manager in a specific city means the company wants someone close to the writers and projects in that market, not a remote pitching desk.
On the education side, Berklee Online appointed CrossBorderWorks founder Vickie Nauman to write and teach a 12-week music supervision course covering games, social media and emerging technology. The curriculum treats games and social media as supervision destinations alongside the usual screen work. An independent preparing a catalogue for placement should therefore expect briefs from three kinds of buyer, and should hold clean metadata and clearance information that works for each.
Why coordination is the missing hire
Danny Barros of Hitskope Music Group argues that distribution, promotion and audience data need coordination to produce sustained artist development. The hiring pattern fits his point from the other direction. Believe has merged editorial and marketing, and BMG and Live Nation are staffing operations next to commerce and advertising. Those companies are building the connections between functions that a small label usually leaves to chance.
The leadership churn across the industry reinforces it. Believe, Ticketmaster, UMPG and ONErpm have announced leadership changes, and BMI’s Barbara Cane will retire at the end of 2026. When senior owners of a function change, a contact you relied on may move, so record who handles your account and who sits above them.
A function map to run against your catalogue
Use the moves above to build a one-page map. For each function, name the person responsible, whether they work at your distributor or in your own team, and what you would send them.
- Editorial access: who pitches to DSP editors, and is the pitch tied to a marketing plan?
- Finance and terms: who sets contract terms, and what happens to them if ownership changes?
- Royalty services: who answers a statement query, and how long does it take?
- Creative and placement: who handles sync briefs for games, social media and screen?
- Data coordination: who joins distribution, promotion and audience data into one view?
Any row with no name is a gap. A distributor can fill editorial, finance and royalty rows, but the last row usually falls to you. If you can only afford one in-house hire or contractor, make it the person who owns the data coordination row, because that person’s work makes every other function more effective.
