GEFFEN'S NEW TOPPER: FORWARD, MARCH

Tom March has been tapped as the new President of Geffen Records. The British exec, hitherto Co-President of Polydor in the U.K., will relocate to L.A. and assume the new post in July. Geffen was relaunched by IGA boss John Janick two years ago and began 2021 with the meteoric success of Olivia Rodrigo. The label most recently saw big streaming action with rapper Yeat.

Geffen has also announced a global partnership with HYBE, home of K-pop titans BTS, which, as we previously reported, will be issuing upcoming releases through Geffen.

In addition to co-helming Polydor (Music Week's Label of the Year for three years running) with Ben Mortimer, March served as chair of the 2022 Brit Awards. Polydor, of course, oversaw the U.K. release and success of Interscope acts like Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Juice WRLD, Eminem, Lana Del Rey and Selena Gomez, not to mention Glass Animals, The Rolling Stones, The Who, ABBA and Florence + the Machine. Mortimer will continue to lead the London-based label as sole President.

"In 2020 we re-launched Geffen Records, entering a period of great success by breaking a new global superstar and forming important strategic partnerships along the way," declared Janick, "all while reimagining how a modern label should be—nimble, with the perfect match of major-label resources and entrepreneurial spirit. Tom has a proven track record of breaking new artists and shares our commitment to artist development. For the last six years he has looked after Interscope’s expansive roster while leading Polydor to become the premier label in the U.K. He is the perfect executive to lead a Geffen team that has already done such an amazing job these last two years."

“It’s been an incredible honor and privilege to have had the opportunity to run Polydor with Ben Mortimer and our team and build it into the best record label in the U.K.,” reads a quote attributed to March. "Over these past six years, I've had the great fortune to work closely with John, Steve Berman and the IGA team on some incredible artists, so when the opportunity came to join them and continue to propel Geffen into the most exciting modern record label in the world, I couldn’t have been more excited. I would like to thank David Joseph and Sir Lucian Grainge for their help and support in making this happen.”

photo credit: Leo Cackett