Los Angeles (April 11, 2023) — Music industry veteran Jonathan McHugh has joined global independent music publishing, rights management, and catalog marketing company AMR Songs (AMR) as Senior Advisor Creative and Sync. He will also serve on the company’s board.
A well-known and respected independent filmmaker and TV/film music supervisor, McHugh has also held high ranking creative positions in major music, film, and TV companies. He began his career working in record promotion at A&M and Elektra Records, and then segued to producing soundtracks and music supervision. As VP of Soundtrack Music at New Line Cinema from 1996-1999, McHugh co-produced many platinum and gold soundtracks including “The Wedding Singer,” “Rush Hour,” “Austin Powers,” “Blade,” “Mortal Combat 2,” “Love Jones,” and “Lost In Space” among others.
He then spent eight years as VP of Visual Media at Jive/BMG where he launched Zomba Films, co-produced the Britney Spears film “Crossroads,” and produced soundtracks for films such as Nickelodeon’s “Wild Thornberry’s” and “Jimmy Neutron.” From 2009 – 2011, he was SVP Soundtracks and Supervision for Island Def Jam and Def Jam Films, where he notably co-produced Justin Bieber‘s “Never Say Never,” the third highest grossing theatrical documentary film of all time (Box Office Mojo).
McHugh has produced 40 films and TV series featuring some of pop culture’s biggest stars, including the critically acclaimed Janis Joplin documentary, “Janis: Little Girl Blue,” Lionsgate’s “Snoop Dogg’s Hood Of Horror,” the Muhammad Ali documentary “City of Ali”, “Repo The Genetic Opera” starring Sarah Brightman, Lifetime TV’s “Flying By” starring Billy Ray Cyrus, and Discovery’s “Battle Ground Earth” starring Ludacris and Motley Crue‘s Tommy Lee, to name a few.
He has music supervised 85 feature films and TV shows including most recently the “Freak Brothers” TV show and the films “Blindspotting,” “Butter,” “Dotty & Soul,” “Dweller.”
Other music supervision highlights include the “Saw” film franchise, “Son of Morning,” “Hot Bot,” “Sundown,” and “West of Memphis.” His interest in popular culture has also led him to recently direct the fan culture documentaries “Long Live Rock: Celebrate the Chaos” and “Cosplay Universe.”
McHugh is a former Grammy Trustee and former President of the LA Chapter. He co-founded the Guild of Music Supervisors and has served as a Producers Guild Documentary Jury Member and Secretary.
In addition to his new role with AMR Songs, McHugh will continue his work as an independent producer/director and music supervisor and teaching Music Industry Studies at Loyola University/New Orleans.
“I’m thrilled that Jonathan is joining us at AMR. We have a strong history of working together, as well as a friendship. His creative/A&R guidance is a key part of AMR’s mission and ethos,” said Tamara Conniff, CEO of AMR Songs.
“I’ve been so fortunate to have a long career spanning music, film, and TV in a variety of capacities, including A&R, marketing, music supervision, and producing/directing. I’m thrilled to have this new opportunity to work with Tamara and build AMR Songs into one of the most important entertainment companies in the business,” said McHugh. “I’m also enthusiastic about bringing to the company legacy artists and amazing new talents including E.J. Worland, We the Commas, and The Brink Of, in addition to strong songwriters and performers like Erik Jansen. And, we’re just getting started!”
About AMR Songs
Founded by music industry veteran Tamara Conniff, AMR CEO, and private equity professional Steve Reinstadlter, AMR CFO, AMR Songs has centered its business on building a creative home for artists and writers — not just acquiring rights, but proactively nurturing and marketing catalogs, signing and developing artists with frontline operations. The company has established an experienced team of top film and TV sync licensing, label distribution and digital marketing executives to uniquely foster new opportunities and revenue growth for its roster and catalogs.
In the past year, AMR Songs has been strategically building its diversified portfolio, acquiring rights in a vast array of music catalogs across multiple genres. It recently acquired the catalogs of John Sebastian and the Lovin’ Spoonful, Grammy-winning international reggae band SOJA, as well as select interests in music publishing, producer and artist royalties from hundreds of celebrated songs across multiple genres, including works recorded by Brantley Gilbert, Boston, Carly Simon, Celine Dion, Charlie Daniels, Eminem, Enrique Iglesias, James Arthur, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Juanes, Kane Brown, Leona Lewis, Lil Wayne, Linda Ronstadt, Little River Band, Luke Combs, Pitbull, Pure Prairie League, Samantha Mumba, Westlife, and Yandel, and more. As a frontline company, AMR has signed global music publishing deals with award-winning producer, writer and multi-instrumentalist Erik Janson and Australian artist and soul man EJ Worland, who will also be releasing new music under AMR’s label.
For more information, visit amrsongs.com.
