Internal memo reveals Sony Music's plans to double down on podcast ad sales strategy with four new executive hires
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- Sony Music just announced the hire of four new executives to lead its podcast ad sales team.
- The news comes after the world's largest music company signed several podcast production deals with companies including The Onion and filmmaker Adam McKay.
- The new hires are Emily Rasekh, SVP of business development and operations; Brittany Hall, VP of podcasting sales; Ryan Zack, VP of podcasting revenue operations; and Christy Mirabal, VP of podcasting marketing.
- Sony wants to capitalize on an industry that analysts expect to reach $1.6 billion in global revenue by 2022.
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Sony Music has placed a big bet on podcasts as a key source of ad revenue, according to an internal memo obtained by Business Insider announcing four new executive-level hires to lead sales and marketing for that part of the business.
The news follows a series of announcements expanding Sony's podcast business around the world.
Sony's strategy "includes [the] creation of high quality shows across all key podcasting genres and a global vision to develop our podcasting expertise in key markets around the world," wrote Dennis Kooker, president of US sales and global digital business, and Tom Mackay, president of Sony Music Film and TV A&R, in the memo that went out to staff this afternoon.
Sony is staffing up to sell ads for a number of high-profile podcasts on topics like Jeffrey Epstein
This shift began in May, when Sony Music formed Three Uncanny Four, a new partnership with Adam Davidson, co-founder of NPR's "Planet Money," and Laura Mayer, former producer at WNYC and Megaphone (formerly Panoply Media), among others.
Since then, the company has signed production deals with The Onion; UK-based, minority-owned Broccoli Content; and director Adam McKay of "The Big Short," who will create several podcast series including one based on the life of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Sony's podcast team will be led by SVP of Business Development and Operations Emily Rasekh; VP of podcasting sales Brittany Hall, VP of Revenue Operations, Podcasting Ryan Zack; and VP of Marketing, Podcasting Christy Mirabal.
Rasekh was with Entercom Communications, the country's second-largest radio broadcaster, which merged with CBS Radio in 2017. Hall joins Sony from streaming giant Pandora. Zack managed operations at podcast tech company Megaphone, and Mirabal oversaw partnerships, sponsorships, and editorial content at internet radio brand Stitcher.
Analysts see the podcast space as a rapidly growing source of revenue for media companies
"Together this leadership team strongly positions us to super-serve the podcast community, help them reach larger audiences on more platforms and further grow our podcasting business opportunities around the world," wrote Kooker and Mackay.
Sony, the world's largest music company by revenue, brought in $7.2 billion last year, with more than $2 billion of that total coming from streaming.
Last month the company stated that global streaming revenues had risen 21.4% year-over-year, most of it from music, as Sony is still new to podcasting. Overall, podcasts are estimated to produce $1.6 billion in global revenue by 2022, according to PwC.
Here's the full memo below.
Dear Colleagues,
As we continue to grow our podcasting business, we want to acknowledge the team that has been leading our expansion in this key area of creative and business development. The following executives, based in New York, are spearheading our strategy that includes creation of high quality shows across all key podcasting genres and a global vision to develop our podcasting expertise in key markets around the world.
Emily Rasekh is Senior Vice President of Business Development and Operations, Podcasting. In this role, Emily is focused on driving strategic expansion of Sony Music's partnership, distribution and monetization opportunities in the podcast space. She is also responsible for managing our day-to-day relationships with various podcasting partners and overseeing our podcast sales and marketing teams. She reports to us.
Prior to Sony Music, Emily was Vice President of Digital Partnerships at Entercom overseeing digital content distribution strategy, including financial targets across digital, mobile and emerging platforms. Before that, she helped launch CBS Radio's audio-on-demand business, growing total podcast listenership from 4 million monthly listens to over 25 million monthly listens within two years. She previously held business development roles for CBS from 2011-2016 and MTV Networks from 2009-2011.
Brittany Hall is Vice President of Sales, Podcasting. She is responsible for overseeing the commercial strategy and monetization of podcasts from Sony Music and its partners. She reports to Emily.
Previously Brittany was at Pandora where she was tasked with driving revenue from clients across all verticals and showcasing robust product offerings, including podcasts, for clients in the audio advertising community. Prior to Pandora, she worked at Megaphone (formerly Panoply), where she was responsible for driving audio revenue for brands and performance-based advertisers.
Ryan Zack is Vice President of Revenue Operations, Podcasting. In this position, Ryan oversees Sony Music's ad operations strategy, pricing and inventory management, and serves as a key communication link between the Finance and Sales teams to establish best practices for billing, reporting, forecasting and pipeline reporting. He reports to Emily.
Prior to this role, Ryan was at Megaphone, where he led the day-to-day efforts for the Sales Planning, Advertising Operations and Advertising Solutions teams. He also held leading advertising operation roles at Acast AB, GoPro, and Spotify to maximize monetization.
Christy Mirabal is Vice President of Marketing, Podcasting. In this role, she oversees all strategic marketing, including planning, development and execution of initiatives to drive branding and awareness of our podcast projects. She reports to Emily.
Before Sony Music, Christy led the brand team at Stitcher, overseeing partnerships, sponsorships, and editorial for the podcast app. Prior to that, she oversaw podcast audience development for Panoply Media. She got her start in spoken word content at HarperCollins, where she led production, editorial, and marketing for their audiobook department.Together this leadership team strongly positions us to super-serve the podcast community, help them reach larger audiences on more platforms and further grow our podcasting business opportunities around the world. With a rapidly expanding number of creative partnerships and with the strength of our best-in-class capabilities, we are confident they will keep enhancing Sony Music's compelling value proposition in the podcasting industry.
Dennis and Tom
