ADA President Cat Kreidich Leaving Warner Music
Cat Kreidich, president of Warner Music Group’s music distribution arm ADA, is leaving the corporate, she confirmed in an inside memo to workers on Tuesday.
Kreidich leaves after 4 years on the helm at ADA. WMG hasn’t offered any particulars on Kreidich’s successor. In a notice to workers, WMG CEO Robert Kyncl mentioned the corporate would have an replace on ADA’s management this week. In Kreidich’s memo, reviewed by The Hollywood Reporter, she mentioned that “whereas I’m not able to announce my subsequent chapter, I sit up for sharing these plans when applicable.”
“Whereas organizational change is a continuing in our trade, I imagine the inspiration we’ve established will proceed to serve impartial artists successfully,” Kreidich wrote in her memo. “We constructed an distinctive international workforce and expanded our international launch quantity, revitalized our model identification, and developed a digital platform particularly designed for impartial artists and labels inside the Warner provide chain. We made strategic acquisitions like RSDL, which Warner will go on to make use of to assist gas their complete recorded music enterprise.”
Previous to ADA, Kreidich was an government at The Orchard, Sony Music Group’s distribution arm. Throughout her tenure as ADA president, she’d closed distribution offers with Three Six Zero Recordings and Rostrum Data, in addition to Kesha’s famed distribution deal because the pop star determined to go impartial.
“Once I returned 4 years in the past as an government from The Orchard and Sony, I introduced a imaginative and prescient to recapture that pioneering spirit and remodel ADA to raised compete in an more and more crowded panorama of progressive music know-how firms,” Kreidich wrote Tuesday. “We didn’t aspire to be the most important distribution firm, however slightly essentially the most priceless — priceless to our artist and label companions by providing professional steering and measurable outcomes, and priceless to Warner Music Group by serving to construct its ecosystem and popularity for supporting impartial artists.”
Kreidich’s departure comes as distribution firms have turn into an space of elevated consideration throughout the trade. Again in December, Common Music Group’s Virgin Music Group introduced a deal to amass Downtown Music Group Holdings, the guardian firm to music distributors FUGA and CD Child. (That deal is at present going through regulatory scrutiny from EU authorities, Reuters reported.) Harmony, in the meantime, closed on a deal for indie distributor Stem again in March.
Kreidich’s departure is simply the newest notable shift at WMG; earlier this month, Kyncl had introduced a $300 million cost-saving initiative which included a $170 million lower by way of headcount discount.
“Cat is a category act,” Kyncl wrote in his notice Tuesday. “A daring thinker and decisive chief, she’s all the time centered on what’s finest for the indie neighborhood – its artists, its labels, and its spirit. Underneath her management, ADA has grown its relationships throughout the artistic ecosystem, expanded its international attain, and strengthened its workforce and tech. She’s helped information us by way of some main shifts, staying agile, and delivering outcomes.”
Learn Kreidich’s memo under:
To the ADA Crew,
I wished you to listen to this information instantly from me: After 4 transformative years proving that Warner Music Group and ADA can actually be one of the best residence for impartial artists and labels, I’ve made the choice to depart the corporate. Whereas organizational change is a continuing in our trade, I imagine the inspiration we’ve established will proceed to serve impartial artists successfully.
We constructed an distinctive international workforce and expanded our international launch quantity, revitalized our model identification, and developed a digital platform particularly designed for impartial artists and labels inside the Warner provide chain. We made strategic acquisitions like RSDL, which Warner will go on to make use of to assist gas their complete recorded music enterprise.
This journey represents my second chapter with ADA. My first started through the early years of digital transformation, once I transitioned from a music tech startup. Having accomplished one of many first of its sort “New Media” levels at Emerson Faculty, I used to be drawn to the probabilities of digital disruption and the impartial music scene. Once I got here throughout ADA within the ’00s, it was supporting breaking impartial acts at an unprecedented scale, pioneering new approaches whereas music was being democratized globally by way of rising digital platforms like iTunes, eMusic, and cell leisure.
Once I returned 4 years in the past as an government from The Orchard and Sony, I introduced a imaginative and prescient to recapture that pioneering spirit and remodel ADA to raised compete in an more and more crowded panorama of progressive music know-how firms. We didn’t aspire to be the most important distribution firm, however slightly essentially the most priceless—priceless to our artist and label companions by providing professional steering and measurable outcomes, and priceless to Warner Music Group by serving to construct its ecosystem and popularity for supporting impartial artists. We believed that Warner Music Group and ADA have been higher collectively, every strengthening the opposite’s capabilities and attain, and I believe we’ve confirmed that out. As the corporate begins its subsequent chapter, WMG is dedicated to persevering with to develop the depth and vary of ADA’s companies.
To the ADA labels and artists who preserve the center of this trade beating: thanks in your dedication, creativity, and keenness. I’ve been impressed by your relentless drive and your imaginative and prescient. You champion creativity, and show that independence doesn’t imply going it alone—it means doing it your means. You might be shaping the way forward for music, and I stay passionate in regards to the impartial music neighborhood and can proceed to champion its rising significance.
Whereas I’m not able to announce my subsequent chapter, I sit up for sharing these plans when applicable — it is going to be according to the work I’ve been grateful to do for the final 20 years as an indie advocate.
With gratitude and appreciation,
CAT