PLATT TO HEAD WCM, AS STRANG TURNS HIS FULL ATTENTION TO WBR

At a town hall meeting this morning, Cameron Strang informed staff that Big Jon Platt will become CEO of Warner/Chappell Music, while Strang will be charged solely with overseeing the continued expansion of Warner Bros. Records.

The succession plan is said to have been in place for some time now, in a shrewd instance of advance planning; it was simply a matter of deciding on the right time to activate it. And with WCM at an all-time high of 19% in marketshare, the timing obviously couldn’t be more ideal.

When then-WMG chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. brought in Strang and bought his Southside Independent Music Publishing Company (whose writers included Bruno Mars, Kings of Leon and top country songsmith Ashley Gorley) in 2010, Strang was given the responsibility of breathing new life into the moribund pubco. He proceeded to do just that, bringing elements of the vital culture he’d created at Southside to the passive WCM environment in order to begin the reinvigoration process. Strang then led WCM from dormancy to #1 in marketshare in just 20 months, and the company has maintained its momentum through the succeeding three years.

Strang brought the highly respected and experienced Platt to WCM in 2012 as President of Creative. Platt will take the reins of what is now a global frontline publishing powerhouse, enabling Strang to focus exclusively on the task he began in January 2012 of reawakening the Warner Bros. label, which had been a shadow of its former self since the 1990s.