MTV TAPS FORMER LABEL EXEC DUNCAN

After a few years of dealing with dreadnought guitars and distinguishing between a 00042 and a D-200, Amani Duncan is heading to a place where six-strings are a rare sighting, MTV. She’s the new SVP of Music for the cable network.

Duncan, whose career includes executive posts at Virgin Records, Capitol Music Group and Bad Boy Entertainment, will be working on artist-driven initiatives and campaigns, working closely with MTV’s development teams to create music content. The goal is for her to also strengthen MTV’s music industry relationships.

She will report dually to Chris McCarthy, President of MTV, VH1 and Logo, and Bruce Gillmer, Head of Music and Music Talent for Viacom's Global Entertainment Group.

Duncan has a lengthy relationship with MTV, most notably for pairing Jay Z and The Roots in 2001 for MTV Unplugged. She has secured artists for shows such as MTV Video Music Awards, TRL and MTV Cribs.

Most recently, she built a new artists’ relations program as VP of Brand Marketing for C.F. Martin & Co. (Martin Guitar) and executive produced the documentary Ballad of the Dreadnought.

“Amani has an incredible track record in creating partnerships between artists and brands that allow both to shine and deliver something new for audiences,” McCarthy said. “As long as she shows up with D-28s for the whole staff, things will work out fine.”