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Ted Cockle and Amy Thomson join Hipgnosis
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 8 September 2020
Despite being rather busy signing deals with every single veteran songwriter and artist who ever wrote a song or recorded a track or just accidentally hummed something that sounded nice, Hipgnosis Song Funds founder Merck Mercuriadis has found a little time in his hectic schedule to hire some people to help manage the rapidly expanding catalogue of music rights he’s acquired.
First up is Ted Cockle, who until recently headed up Universal Music’s Virgin EMI division, departing as the mega-major relaunched that label as just EMI. He becomes President of the Hipgnosis company. Meanwhile, artist manager and music marketeer Amy Thomson, perhaps best known for managing Swedish House Mafia, becomes the firm’s Chief Catalogue Officer.
Announcing the appointments, Mercuriadis says: “It’s a testament to the iconic song catalogue that we have assembled over the last two-plus years, and our songwriters, that we have been able to attract executives with the extraordinary talent, pedigree and success of Ted and Amy”.
“I’ve been very vocal about disrupting the world of traditional publishing with ‘song management'”, he goes on. “In song management, we actively manage our songs with great responsibility to higher levels of success. I don’t believe there’s a traditional publisher that has brought together this level of expertise to manage its songs. Our results have been strong and with Ted and Amy now on board I look forward to everything their passion and know-how will help us to achieve”.
Cockle adds: “Each year of my career, I’ve witnessed how the excellence and magic of individual songs proves to be the catalyst for streaming success, album sales, artist careers, filled venues and growing market shares. Alongside Merck, Amy and the Hipgnosis team I’m very much looking forward to help re-establish and to help grow the value of these classic songs”.
And Thomson chips in: “I genuinely love managing songs. They’re like stories to me, chapters in the life of the songwriter and the impact they have in creating new stories for the listener. Over the last three years I became obsessed with diving into the care of catalogue as we see songs become pensions. The care and attention of nurturing it for its entire life. Songs are legacies and managing them as if each one was its own artist has become a passion and now I have a chance to work on some of the greatest catalogues on earth with Merck and Ted and I cannot wait to start”.
