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Guy Moot to replace Jon Platt at Warner/Chappell

By | Published on Thursday 10 January 2019

Warner/Chappell

One in, one out, and around we go. Warner Music has confirmed that it is recruiting Sony/ATV’s Guy Moot to take over as boss of its publishing business Warner/Chappell, filling the role left vacant by Jon Platt after he was recruited to take over running Sony/ATV, which is a job some had thought Moot might get. Keep up everybody!

Platt announced he was departing Warner/Chappell, where he’d been CEO since 2015, back in September. Given that meant Platt wasn’t seeing through his current contract with Warner to completion, it was immediately speculated that he was leaving early to take over running the biggest music publisher of them all, that being Sony/ATV. Within days incumbent Sony/ATV chief Marty Bandier diligently announced his planned retirement, and then a week later overall Sony Corp boss Kenichiro Yoshida confirmed Platt had been hired.

While all that was happening, there were rumours that Bandier wasn’t especially pleased that Platt was his replacement, even though Bandier had previously mentored Platt back in the day when they both worked at EMI Music Publishing. Gossipers gossiped that Bandier would have preferred an internal promotion to fill the role he was departing, with the company’s UK chief and Worldwide President Of Creative Moot having long been seen as the most likely internal candidate.

So anyway, Moot will now get Platt’s old job at Warner/Chappell. There he will work very much in partnership with Carianne Marshall, who joined the Warner publisher as COO last year, having previously been at indie music firm Songs before its sale to Kobalt. She was actually also seen as a contender to take over from Platt. However, the plan is that both Moot and Marshall will have the job title Co-Chair of Warner/Chappell, while the former will also be CEO and the latter will keep COO as a second designation on her business card.

We know all this for certain because Warner Music CEO Stephen Cooper has confirmed it in a memo to staff. And, in case you wondered, Coop would like you to know that “this leadership duo will be unlike any other in music publishing”, which will “give us real creative and commercial advantages” and “help us emphasise our unique approach”. Which is good news. I’m always saying unique approaches should be more heavily emphasised.

“I want to thank the entire team at Warner/Chappell for doing an outstanding job during this transition”, Coop’s memo meanders on, “continuing to work tirelessly to provide unparalleled service to songwriters across the globe. I know that Guy and Carianne will be fantastic partners in continuing to transform the company and pioneer the future of music”.



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