Utopia Music

Utopia Music, the Swiss Music fintech company, announced that Christine Pepe will join the company as VP, Business and Legal Affairs, reporting directly to Paul Stuart, Chief Legal Officer. Pepe will be based in the New York Metro area.

Utopia Music, the Swiss Music fintech company, has acquired Absolute Label Services (Absolute) a UK-based distribution and services provider to independent artists and record labels. Included in the acquisition is neighbouring rights company Absolute Rights Management. Absolute’s current offering will be integrated into Utopia’s Distribution Services business unit, which launched in January with the acquisition of Proper Music Group.

Utopia Music, the Swiss Music fintech company, announced that Steve Markland will join the company as Vice President for Nashville, helping the company expand its US presence in one of the world’s most exciting Music Cities.

Zick joins Utopia Music as Chief Marketing Officer, reporting directly to Utopia’s CEO Markku Mäkeläinen, he will be responsible for the overall strategic vision and direction of Utopia’s marketing, positioning, communications, content strategy, and execution of the brand direction. He joins from Universal Music Germany where he was Managing Director, International, responsible for overseeing and leading the strategic development and marketing for the Music company’s diverse international talent roster.

With its vision of “Fair Pay for Every Play”, Utopia Music establishes a Royalty Management Services business unit, which will enable the processing, allocation, distribution, and licence management required by songwriters, publishers, collection societies, performers, and labels. The foundation of this new business unit is Liverpool-based Sentric Music Group, led by CEO, Chris Meehan, who joins Utopia as Vice President of Royalty Management Services.

- Asciolla will join Utopia Music as Vice President, Global Artist and Creator Community and reports directly to the CMO. She will be based out of Los Angeles, California - Asciolla is a Spotify veteran where she most recently held the position of Head of North America, Artist & Label Partnerships. She led the team working directly with global artists, managers, labels, and distributor executives by supporting, empowering, and educating the creative community about maximizing opportunities on Spotify - Prior to that she was part of the Spotify Artist Services and Artist Marketing teams and integral in building and nurturing relationships with artists and their teams by advocating transparency on streaming economics, data and on-platform-tools for artists to express themselves and reaching a global audience to connect them with their fans - Her work resulted in recognition from prominent publications such as Billboard Women in Music Edition, Variety Rising Leaders List, and Billboard's 40 Under 40

With its vision of “Fair Pay for Every Play”, Utopia Music bought Proper Music Group to supercharge their song economics, accelerate Royalty payouts for Creators as well as bring their massive data repository and opportunities to digitise operations and processes to Proper Music Group’s services. The acquisition will launch a new Distribution Services business unit that will service the entire industry including major and independent labels by facilitating both physical and digital b2b and d2c distribution as well as dropship fulfilment services. It will provide labels access to new and exciting technology and provide managed services such as administration, sales, and distribution, both physical and digital with digital retail marketing, reporting and additional services. Distribution Services will equally include digital distribution services.

- Martinez will join Utopia Music as Director, Spain and reports directly to COO Roberto Neri. She will be based out of Barcelona, Spain - She brings more than 20 years of Music Industry experience in the areas of licensing, publishing, brand partnerships and digital marketing. - Her ticketing experience stands out having left her imprint at the big three: Ticketmaster, CTS Eventim and AXS - For the past 10 years, Martinez has been an active advocate of using technology to enhance Music fan experiences through personalised data-enabled entertainment services

With its vision of “Fair Pay for Every Play”, Utopia Music is now launching a new Financial Services business unit, which will focus on accelerated Royalty Payments based on consumption analytics. Utopia Music’s technology will be able to help record labels and distributors support their Creator communities by providing them with the intel necessary to accelerate royalty payments and strengthen the Music Industry’s value chain. The Financial Services Business Unit will be led by Jörg Auf der Maur, as Vice President, a seasoned Swiss banker with an extensive career in roles as CRO, CFO, and CEO in various European banks. Utopia Music also secured a partnership with Liechtenstein-based, VP Bank, one of the top innovators in banking services in Europe and with TuneCore, which provides overarching data insights from DSPs.

Latham will join as Vice President of the Investor Services business unit and will report directly to COO Roberto Neri. Latham officially started his tenure at Utopia Music on 25 November, 2021 following a considerable career in the Music Industry and brings significant experience across the commercial, financial, and operational fields of music publishing and licensing. The Investor Services business unit will support catalogue acquisition and maximise fund lifecycle monetisation opportunities for existing and future Utopia clients

With its vision of “Fair Pay for Every Play”, Utopia Music is now readying its Creator Services business unit via two key acquisitions to provide creators with an analytics portfolio, an industry directory, and other marketing tools that will help them find their perfect audience and boost their growth.

Steinbrueck will join Utopia Music as Chief of Brand and Design Officer and report directly to CEO Markku Mäkeläinen Steinbrueck will officially start his tenure at Utopia Music on January 1st, 2022, after more than two years as Head of Creative and Brand Director at Joyn, a German a cross channel entertainment streaming platform His experience includes Reeboks’s rebranding efforts, Porsche Design”s foray into a luxury brand, serving as Vice President at Elie Saab, among others

The report titled ‘Growth from Transparency: Reframing the Value of Music through Creator Rights’ identifies non-music activity in the digital world including social posts, live Q&As, and virtual meet and greets, as part of an ecosystem that could lead to a $61.7 billion Music Industry by 2028. Current music royalty structures struggle to keep pace with opportunities in the digital landscape, which is often because licensing frameworks are not structured to maximise the return for music rights.

Rachel Kelly joins Music fintech, Utopia Music, to lead the firm’s efforts in Australasia. Kelly has more than 20 years’ worth of experience in music publishing having held executive roles at both independent and major publishers including Downtown, BMG Rights Management, J Albert & Son among others. Kelly was named as a Billboard International Power Player alongside Roberto Neri and Michael Gudinski

In its latest acquisition this year, Swiss Music fintech company Utopia Music, acquired Lyric Financial today, the industry-leading music financial services company, paving the way to becoming the de-facto global music industry growth partner.

 Yvan Boudillet, who has over 15 years’ experience in digital entertainment, has joined fast-growing music tech company Utopia Music as Head of Policy.

The inaugural edition of IPx will go live on August 11th and 12th 2022 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Utopia Music has acquired industry-leading emotional data enrichment company, Musimap. The acquisition, which brings Utopia's workforce to nearly 150 employees, will strengthen Utopia in building the next-generation infrastructure that will advance creator rights and enable new opportunities for the recordings business. 

Utopia Music has announced the appointment of Paul Stuart as Chief Legal Officer. Located in Stockholm, he reports to Utopia Chief Executive Officer Markku Mäkeläinen.

Utopia Music has announced the appointment of Åsa Carild as Head of Platform. Located in Stockholm, she reports to Utopia Chief Data Officer Paul Gathercole.

Gathercole is a proven data leader with a strong background at the intersection of technology, media and analytics. He has vast experience building multi-functional teams in both blue-chip companies and start-ups.