Following a lengthy tenure at VH1 and a marketing post at Republic, Rick Krim is returning to the publishing world, and his pubco mentor, Marty Bandier, as Sony/ATV’s West Coast Co-President. In his new post, he’ll have to travel a lot farther to Pinehurst for his next tournament. The well-liked executive, a lifelong East Coaster and veteran of the links, is enthused about the possibilities of his new post and making the transition to sunny California—despite the fact that it will put him that much closer to the sand trap known as HITS. If you’d like to send him a gift to welcome him to L.A., Titleist PRO-V1s are always in good taste.

By joining Sony/ATV you’re coming full circle, having worked under Marty at EMI Publishing before you went to VH1.
This is definitely coming somewhat full circle. I’ve had a bit of a career ping-pong in my life, going from MTV to EMI Music Publishing to VH1, with a little detour to Republic and then Sony/ATV. It’s been incredibly natural coming back—an incredibly easy transition. I see a lot of familiar faces from my old days and a lot of great new people here.

Decent weather too.
I’ll be in L.A. pretty much fulltime probably starting around April 1. Mother Nature made the decision much easier for me—it was time to try a different coast. I’ve lived on the East Coast my whole life and never really considered a move to L.A., but this opportunity was just too good to turn down. And the opportunity to play golf with Lenny Beer—that alone is worth the move.

At left: Rick with Mat Kearney

When I first had the pleasure of working for Marty, I thought publishing was sheet music! Marty really took me under his wing. Being a numbers guy I took to it right away. He’s the king of publishing—always has been, always will be. Nobody’s leading the charge like he is for the good of songwriters everywhere. He’s as driven now as he was back then. It’s very inspiring. I’ve stayed close to him over the years and the fact that he came back to me is very flattering. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather work for in this world, and I continue to learn from him.

You’ll be sharing Co-President duties with Danny Strick.
Danny and I have known each other for a long time, and that was also very appealing to me. We’ve worked on projects together over the years, and been neighbors; we’d sit around and talk about music at shows. He’s got a great team on the East Coast and I’ve got a great team in L.A. We like to call the company “coast agnostic.” He and I have gotten off to a great start and I think it’s going to work really harmoniously—and make the company even stronger.

Have you missed doing A&R in the years since you last worked in publishing?
I left EMI in 2001, so it’s been 14 years. But there was certainly an aspect of that on the VH1 side, even though we were technically programmers. We could find things early on and step out on them—which to me was always the most exciting part of the job. The consequences are lower when you’re just playing a video, of course. You can always just play another video.

Krim at Pinehurst with 2012 champ Kevin Welk and tourney co-host Gus Gusler. Lenny Beer was spotted nearby, hurling his clubs at a tree.

But now you have the opportunity to immerse yourself in the songwriting side again.
I missed that part. Working hands-on with artists and writers is ultimately what I love to do. Thankfully, with the blessing of VH1, I had the opportunity to work closely with artists, though in a different way.

The beautiful thing there was to be able to develop so many relationships. Everyone came through the door—artists, managers, agents, label people. I’m excited to be able to reconnect with those folks in a different way. A couple of artists I signed back in the day are still here, not to mention a lot of artists I’ve gotten to know through VH1 and Republic. Obviously I’m excited about finding new talent as well.

What’s your sense of how the publishing landscape has changed since you were last in it?
There are more players in the space now. I had the luxury of being at the best and biggest publisher when I was in the business before, and I am once again over here. I certainly kept up with it. My understanding of publishing went a long way at VH1, because nobody had a clue what it was.

I’m excited about what’s going on in the sync world, the association with brands, which I worked on a bit at VH1 and continued at Republic; the opportunities there are limitless. I’m amazed by the film-and-TV and sync team here. It’s an office full of music geeks, and it’s a blessing to be able to come to work and talk about music all day. It’s really creative, and the sky’s the limit now. As much as people may get freaked out by changes in the business, I think the opportunities are exciting.

In just the few days I’ve been here, it’s lived up to the hype. I’m hitting the ground running; people are calling to do business and there’s even more to do already than I imagined.