BERLIN (CelebrityAccess) — BMG announced a major restructuring that will see the music company integrate its frontline recordings and catalog business.
The new structure will see BMG’s recorded catalog report locally as per its country of origin and then globally through EVP Global Repertoire Fred Casimir for all sales outside of the original territory.
According to BMG, the changes are meant to reflect the shifting landscape of the recorded music market in the era of digital on-demand streaming where older catalog recordings account for up to three quarters of revenue.
“BMG was the first music company to recognize that in a streaming environment, older music would be relatively more important than it had ever been in the past. This is borne out by market statistics which show that the new release frontline business is down to 30% or less of streaming consumption,” wrote BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch in an email to employees announcing the restructuring.
The reconfigured catalog division will see Casimir’s team expand to 90 employees marketing BMG’s recordings in territories around the world, BMG said.
Fred Casimir first joined the new BMG in 2009 as Managing Director BMG Germany and was promoted to EVP Continental Europe in 2012, EVP Global Recordings, and President Continental Europe in 2018, before taking up his current role as EVP Global Repertoire in 2019.
During his tenure, BMG saw success with projects from Louis Tomlinson, 5SOS, Lenny Kravitz, Katie Melua, Conkarah, Bryan Adams, Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue, and LP. Casimir also oversaw the expansion of BMG’s films business including the David Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream and the hit Lewis Capaldi documentary How I’m Feeling Now, currently streaming on Netflix.
“This marks a significant expansion of Fred’s responsibilities and is a reflection of the success of the global frontline marketing team he created in 2018. He will now in addition be responsible for the global catalog marketing team and the London-based global licensing hub,” Masuch stated.
“It also means that on a local level, our repertoire leaders – Thomas Scherer in LA, Alistair Norbury in London, etc – will uniquely in the music industry oversee music publishing and frontline and catalog recordings in their local territories,” he continued.
