A decade ago, major labels forgoing middlemen to sell direct to fans would have led to a revolt from retailers. Now, with the ranks of retailers diminished and streaming the new normal, ringing every dollar out of fans is so essential that Warner Music has created a division to focus its D2F efforts.
______________________________________
WEA Corp, the sales, marketing and distribution arm of Warner Music Group, is combining its direct-to-fan and merchandise efforts into a single new division called Warner Music Artist Services. The current D2F team, Artist Arena which WMG acquired in 2010, will move to the new group.
Warner Music Artist Services will be led by Matt Young, who has been promoted to the new position of EVP. He WMG in 2008. “We’re evolving what it means to run an integrated artist branding campaign. We’re a one stop solution made up of the best Tour & VIP experts, branding specialists, web designers, CRM marketers, analytics teams and merchandise staff in the business,” said Young.
Serving Both WMG and Indie Artists
The combined D2F group will work with WMG artists and indie partners including Shawn Mendes, Logic, and Coheed and Cambria. They will be offered a suite of ancillary rights services including direct-to-fan e-commerce, fan-clubs, website design, ticketing, merchandising, marketing, account management, and data research & analysis.