LONDON (CelebrityAccess) – Amy Thomson is exiting her role as Chief Catalog Officer (CCO) at Hipgnosis Song Management at the end of September, MBW has confirmed. She will remain a consultant with the company.
Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis has paid tribute to Thomson and her contribution to the firm, noting that “the amount of hours and careful consideration she put into every detail was enormous.”
Thomson joined Hipgnosis two years ago following a successful stint in artist management, working with clients including Swedish House Mafia and DJ Snake. Thomson also worked as a marketing advisor to Kanye West during the Yeezus period.
At Hipgnosis Song Management, UK-based Thomson led the development of an in-house data platform for Hipgnosis’ acquired catalogs and worked closely with the firm’s sync and marketing functions.
Following the departure of Thomson from her full-time role, her previous management duties will be split between Ben Katovsky (Chief Operations Officer (COO) and President, Hipgnosis Song Management) and Ted Cockle (Chief Music Officer (CMO), Hipgnosis Song Management).
Mercuriadis said: “I’m pretty sure Amy and I have lived more than a few lifetimes together. Regardless of how our careers have developed, we are first and foremost managers that share the same songwriter/artist-first principles.
“We’ve both chosen to evolve our careers beyond artist management because of our passion to bring change to this industry in order to take the Songwriters and artists from the bottom of the economic equation to the top. We advocate and fight on behalf of the songwriter and artist with simple logic at the core and with no regard for the politics of this industry. We know the difference between right and wrong, and we are decisive.”
He added: “To say she is fearless would be a massive understatement, so when I asked her to throw all of the rules out the window and redesign everything as she saw fit, it came very naturally. Even though she made it seem easy to make us the future, I know the amount of hours and careful consideration she put into every detail was enormous.
“I’m very grateful to her for believing in me and Hipgnosis and being such an important contributor to our success. No other company has invested the better part of $3 billion in amongst the most successful and culturally important songs of all time in 4 years. That wasn’t easy to do, but it would have been impossible if Amy wasn’t holding the fort down.
“As a result of our partnership with Blackstone, we now have all the capital we need, and again I’ve been able to make that a reality as I knew I could rely on Amy to manage the catalog. She equally well has helped to super-serve our public fund and make it a huge success for both our shareholders and the incredible songwriters who have entrusted us with their iconic songs.
“I’m delighted she will continue to be part of the Hipgnosis family through the new consulting arrangement we’ve put in place. Over the last years, no matter where I am in the world, I know I’m either going to wake up or go to bed with a flurry of emails from Amy, and long may that continue.”
Hipgnosis Song Management is the investment manager and ‘song management’ partner of Hipgnosis Songs Fund and Hipgnosis Songs Capital.
The private fund is backed by Blackstone and has acquired catalogs from Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado.
