Believe names Alex Kennedy as Managing Director for the UK, strengthening its position in the world’s 4th music market to best support local artists and labels
Believe names Alex Kennedy as Managing Director for the UK, strengthening its position in the world’s 4th music market to best support local artists and labels
Paris, France – Tuesday, 12 April 2022. Believe, one of the leading digital music companies, announces the appointment of Alex Kennedy as Managing Director for the UK, thus confirming its investment in the world’s 4th music market.
Reporting to Denis Ladegaillerie, Founder and CEO of Believe, Kennedy will lead the three business lines that Believe operates in the UK: Premium Solutions (including Label and Artist Solutions and Artist Services) and Automated Solutions (TuneCore), with a focus on finetuning Believe’s M&A strategy in the region. In this role, Kennedy will be responsible for defining the best strategies to accelerate growth, putting Believe’s unparalleled digital know-how and expertise at the service of UK artists and labels and continue to strengthen our high quality relations with DSPs.
Denis Ladegaillerie, commented, “Believe’s core focus is to support local acts at every stage of their careers in all 50 countries we operate in and the UK is no exception. The UK has become an import-first market, with streaming reshaping music consumption dynamics and international artists gaining further and further market share locally. It is thus key to fight for a more transparent and fairer treatment between international and local content in the UK, and I’m convinced Alex’s appointment will allow Believe UK to play its part in supporting local artists and labels against the domination of US acts in their own market.”
Kennedy’s appointment will further strengthen Believe’s positioning in the UK, where the Group has enjoyed successes in 2021, including DSP frontline new release playlisting averaging 10% market share in Spotify UK ‘New Music Friday’ with a record of 13 tracks in one week and 41 major Tier 1 DSP artist partnerships. February 2022 marked another milestone with Believe-parent leading metal label Nuclear Blast becoming one of the top-10 independent labels in the UK in 2021 (IFPI 2021 Global Music Report) allowing Believe UK to land its first Number 1 UK Album with Don Broco’s ‘Amazing Things’ in February 2022.
Additionally, in 2021, Believe UK landed three Silver UK chart singles (Macky Gee from Shogun Audio, Bru C from Crucast and Afro B Marathon Artists), two Gold EU Impala Singles (with HUGEL and Matt Sassari, both from Cr2 Records) as well as three Top 100 UK Chart Singles (Grace Davies, Bru C and Skepta x Fumez The Engineer) and twelve in the Top 100 UK Chart Albums (including The Hunna, The Reytons (Scruff of the Neck), Courtney Barnett (Marathon Artists) and Vistas).
Alex Kennedy, Managing Director, UK at Believe, said, “I couldn’t be happier to be joining what I consider to be the most exciting and forward-thinking company in the music industry. I have watched Believe’s amazing trajectory with real interest over the years and been lucky enough to work with their UK and International teams in previous roles, so to now be a part of the team is a real honour and a pleasure.”
Kennedy brings two decades of experience across all sectors of the music industry, having worked in music management, distribution, sync, promotions, D2C, ticketing and digital licensing. Past key roles include Chief Commercial Officer at D2C platform Music Glue, Head of Commercial Development at Sky Tickets, Head of Music Licensing at Sky TV, Head of Publishing at Omnifone; as well as Founder and C.O.O of Retail Tech business Givvit and managing the music artist Doc Brown (Ben Bailey Smith).
Denis Ladegaillerie, continued, “Alex has a unique mix of corporate, scale-up and start-up experience and has enjoyed success in the music, entertainment and tech industries as an executive, founder, and artist manager across business and creative endeavors. In the past two and half years, the UK business has continued to grow and develop, which has been down to the fantastic leadership and professionalism provided by Ben Rimmer (Director of Label & Artist Solutions) and Malena Wolfer (Head of Artist Services). I personally thank each of them for the great work and commitment they showed, and I look forward to watching the UK grow even more under the guidance and leadership of Alex.”
Kennedy is a 3 times Music Week Sync Award Winner and the Co-Creator of TV show Sky Arts Sessions, featuring artists such as Little Simz, The 1975 and James Vincent McMorrow. He founded, built, and exited the retail tech “social gifting” business Givvit and was instrumental in Doc Brown’s 2017 album release “Stemma” and top-level TV advertisement work for Sainsburys “Christmas” in 2017, Just Eat (ft. Snoop Dogg) in 2020 and M&S “Can I Scan It” in 2022.
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About Believe
Believe is one of the world’s leading digital music companies. Believe’s mission is to develop independent artists and labels in the digital world by providing them the solutions they need to grow their audience at each stage of their career and development. Believe’s passionate team of digital music experts around the world leverages the Group’s global technology platform to advise artists and labels, distribute and promote their music. Its 1,430 employees in more than 50 countries aim to support independent artists and labels with a unique digital expertise, respect, fairness and transparency. Believe offers its various solutions through a portfolio of brands including TuneCore, Nuclear Blast, Naïve. Groove Attack and AllPoints. Believe is listed on compartment A of the regulated market of Euronext Paris (Ticker: BLV. ISIN: FR0014003FE9).
www.believe.com
Press contacts:
Manon Jessua, manon.jessua@believe.com
Kelly Martin, kelly.martin@agenceproches.com, +33 6 63 52 94 74
Contact Investors Relations:
Emilie Megel, emilie.megel@believe.com, +33 6 07 09 98 60
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