Alex Kennedy has been named Managing Director for the UK at France-born music company Believe.
Reporting to Denis Ladegaillerie, Founder and CEO of Believe, Kennedy will lead the three business lines that Believe operates in the UK, including Premium Solutions (including Label and Artist Solutions and Artist Services) and Automated Solutions (TuneCore).
Believe says Kennedy will have a focus on “finetuning” Believe’s M&A strategy in the region.
Believe also says that Kennedy will be responsible for defining the best strategies to accelerate growth, and will aim to put Believe’s “digital know-how and expertise at the service of UK artists and labels and continue to strengthen our high quality relations with DSPs”.
The company claims that its DSP frontline new release playlisting has averaged 10% market share in Spotify UK’s ‘New Music Friday’, with 13 tracks in one week and 41 major Tier 1 DSP artist partnerships.
Kennedy brings two decades of experience, having worked as Chief Commercial Officer at D2C platform Music Glue, Head of Commercial Development at Sky Tickets, Head of Music Licensing at Sky TV, and Head of Publishing at Omnifone.
He is Founder and C.O.O of Retail Tech business Givvit, and manages the artist Doc Brown.
In 2021, Believe UK has landed three Silver UK Official Chart Singles from Macky Gee, Bru C and Afro B, two Gold EU Impala Singles (with HUGEL and Matt Sassari, both from Cr2 Records) as well as three Top 100 UK Official Chart Singles (Grace Davies, Bru C and Skepta x Fumez The Engineer), as well as twelve albums in the Top 100 of the Official UK Chart Albums Chart, from the likes of The Hunna, The Reytons and Courtney Barnett.
Believe notes that February 2022 marked another milestone with Believe-owned metal label Nuclear Blast becoming one of the Top-10 independent labels in the UK in 2021 ( as per IFPI 2021 Global Music Report) allowing Believe UK to land its first No.1 UK Album with Don Broco’s Amazing Things in February 2022.
“Believe’s core focus is to support local acts at every stage of their careers in all 50 countries we operate in.”
Denis Ladegaillerie
Denis Ladegaillerie, said: “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.
“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.”
“I couldn’t be happier to be joining what I consider to be the most exciting and forward-thinking company in the music industry.”
Alex Kennedy
Alex Kennedy, added: “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.”Music Business Worldwide
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