Merlin

We are excited to announce that Kaoruko Hill is returning to Merlin as our new General Manager of Asia-Pacific (APAC)! Kaoruko Hill has a distinguished career in digital music, spanning over a decade. Most recently, she served in the Music Data & Rights Management team at ByteDance, where she played a pivotal role in managing global music rights for the platform. Prior to ByteDance, Kaoruko made significant contributions to Merlin during her tenure from 2016 to 2020 as Head of Member Relations and Operations at Merlin’s Japan office. Her leadership was instrumental in Merlin’s successful entry into the Japanese market, significantly increasing membership and forging strong partnerships. With her extensive experience and deep understanding of the music rights and licensing landscape in the region, Kaoruko is exceptionally well-suited to lead Merlin in its mission to foster innovation and collaboration across the Asia-Pacific music industry!

Merlin COO Charlie Lexton will be speaking speak at All That Matters in Singapore next week. The panel, "Music Licensing Matters," will explore the complexities of securing and managing music rights in today's ever changing landscape. All That Matters celebrates influential players in the Asian entertainment markets and their passions in the industry. The Merlin team will be on the ground to connect with members and partners across the Asian market. We can't wait to see everyone there!

We are #hiring a highly motivated and commercially aware lawyer to join our team in London as Senior Legal Counsel. You'll negotiate high value content agreements with the world’s leading digital platforms on behalf of our membership of independent labels, distributors and rights holders. Apply below!

Congratulations to all of our members and their incredible teams who were featured on this year’s R&B/hip-hop power players by Billboard. We are proud to play a part in the incredible work they do in the independent R&B and Hip-Hop scenes! Included this year: David Melhado (UnitedMasters), Faith N. (Reservoir Media Management, Inc.), Ghazi Shami (EMPIRE), Matthew Maysonet (EMPIRE), Mike Weiss (UnitedMasters), Nima Etminan (EMPIRE), Peter Kadin (EMPIRE), Rell Lafargue (Reservoir Media Management, Inc.), Steve Stoute (UnitedMasters), Tina Davis (EMPIRE)

“Merlin is proud to support this year’s event in Belgrade, a city with a vibrant and dynamic music scene. Our mission is to ensure that independent music continues to thrive and grow around the world—participating in WINCON and Runda Digital Day helps to advance those objectives.” –Jeremy Sirota, Merlin CEO

We are honored to be named as finalists by Digiday for the second consecutive year, recognizing Merlin’s Wizard CRM as one of the premier CRM platforms in the industry. This achievement reflects the dedication to quality and technological innovation that Merlin consistently delivers to our members and partners. Congratulations to Chaida Kapfunde (Senior Director, Technology and Business Solutions), Simon Stride (Development Manager), Simon Turner-Thompson (Product Manager), Nico Loubser (Lead Software Developer), Apostolos Koutronas (Software Developer), and the entire Merlin Technology and Business Solutions team for their exceptional work!

Congratulations to Better Noise Music artist Nothing More on their chart topping single "If It Doesn't Hurt." The song recently claimed the number one spot on Billboard's Mainstream Rock and Mediabase's Active Rock charts 🤘

Today, Twitch has officially launched their new #DJ program, which will allow DJ's who stream on Twitch to utilize popular music without infringement. The program will enable DJ's to easily provide a portion of their revenue to the artists they spin, supplemented by funds from Twitch. In honor of the announcement, Twitch is hosting a 24 hour DJ livestream featuring some Merlin member artists you know and love. We're proud to support this initiative and work with Twitch to create a new monetization opportunity for our members.

MVD Entertainment Group is a distribution and production comapny that delivers great audio and video content to brick and mortar, online retail, and digital/VOD platforms globally. Their mission is to service artists, audiences, and filmmakers by providing greater access to quality audio and video. We're proud to support MVD on this worthwhile mission, moving independents forward in the digital audio/video space. Read more about MVD here: https://lnkd.in/gnH3vhRm

Merlin board member chris maund has been appointed Co-CEO of the newly formed Mushroom Music, leading the company toward a new era as a "global independent powerhouse." Congratulations to Chris and his Co-CEO Linda Bosidis. We're proud to continue to supporting Mushroom Music in achieving their goals.