{"id":211427,"date":"2024-09-17T15:16:46","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T14:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=211427"},"modified":"2024-09-17T15:16:46","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T14:16:46","slug":"kevin-liles-to-exit-warner-music-group-as-big-changes-at-major-continue-under-robert-kyncl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/kevin-liles-to-exit-warner-music-group-as-big-changes-at-major-continue-under-robert-kyncl\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Liles to exit Warner Music Group as big changes at major continue under Robert Kyncl"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Liles, the CEO of 300 Elektra Entertainment, will leave the label and its parent company, Warner Music Group, at the end of this month.<\/p>\n

An internal memo from Liles and a separate internal memo from WMG CEO Robert Kyncl, both sent today (September 17) and obtained by MBW, confirmed the news.<\/p>\n

Liles will continue to assist 300\/WMG as a consultant to the end of the calendar year.<\/p>\n

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Liles isn’t the first senior WMG exec to announce his departure this summer: Both Max Lousada<\/a> (WMG’s CEO, Recorded Music) and Julie Greenwald<\/a> (Chairman, Atlantic Music Group) confirmed last month they would be leaving WMG.<\/p>\n

Lousada, Greenwald and Liles are all understood to be leaving their current full-time roles at the end of September, which is the close of WMG’s financial year.<\/p>\n

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Warner Music Group acquired the Liles-led 300 Entertainment in a $400 million cash deal<\/a> in calendar Q4 2021.<\/p>\n

Writing in his memo to staff today, Robert Kyncl said of Liles: “Kevin is one of those charismatic leaders who\u2019s been successful in many different roles\u2026artist manager, label founder, entrepreneur, senior executive\u2026he even started out as a DJ and songwriter. That\u2019s given him a 360 vision that makes him an extraordinary brand-builder, artist advocate, and champion of creative expression.”<\/p>\n

Kyncl added: “I\u2019ve decided not to replace [Liles’] role, as we are working thoughtfully on the future for the entire Atlantic Music Group. I know you\u2019re all eager to hear more, and we will update you as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n

You can read Kevin Liles’ full memo to WMG staff below.<\/p>\n

<\/div> <\/div> \n

A Celebration of Who We Are<\/em><\/p>\n

Team,<\/em><\/p>\n

From the start, 300 was centered around the idea that when you intensely focus on servicing artists and the culture, good things happen. When we combined that intention with our fearlessness, creativity, and passion, it unlocked greatness and delivered impact. Next month, 300 will be celebrating its tenth anniversary of greatness and impact. I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude to our team and share some news.<\/em><\/p>\n

A Decade of Influence<\/em>
\nThroughout the past decade, we stayed true to our original vision and values. As we created the first ever label ecosystem in the industry, we celebrated Trap Queens, we Dripped Too Hard as a Lifestyle, and it was always a Hot Girl Summer, even on our Skis. We have leaders like the Bad and Boujee Rayna Bass who can switch between Pushin P and being Savage with No Promises other than excellence. Then there\u2019s the Awwsome Selim Bouab who is Hot regardless of whether in Japan, The London, or From The D To The A. Our whole team is One of Wun. Our Bread & Butter was saying less and doing more \u2013 when others talked, we didn\u2019t stop to ask Fukumean, we just said Good Morning Gorgeous and proved Boy’s A Liar. Whether Lydia, Kehlani, or 679 of Your Friends, we made fans evangelists. We Mixed Personalities, put in work like it\u2019s First Day Out, and ran up Digits that made everyone Pick Up The Phone.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then when we became part of the WMG family and joined forces with Gregg Nadel and other brilliant minds and artists across Elektra Music Group, we continued to deliver Religiously and Right On Time. As 3EE, we had The Craving to always make it Bigger Than The Song, whether it felt like we were on Holiday or between a Rock And A Hard Place.<\/em><\/p>\n

The cultural impact we created in 10 years when starting from scratch is simply unmatched in the modern era. We transformed our value proposition \u2013 \u201cmindset of independent, muscle of a major\u201d \u2013 into a model for the rest of the industry to chase in this new era of music. But if there\u2019s one consistent in music and culture, it\u2019s that change is inevitable.<\/em><\/p>\n

As committed servants of the culture, we know growing and empowering the next generation of leaders is a responsibility, and when the time is right, we pass the torch. As I mentioned above, at 300 we have two of the most talented, home-grown young leaders in the entire music industry, Rayna Bass and Selim Bouab. On this tenth anniversary of 300, it\u2019s their turn to lead our 300 team into the next decade of excellence. At the end of this month, I\u2019ll be stepping aside and departing WMG, although to ensure a successful transition, I\u2019ll continue to consult with the team through the end of the year.<\/em><\/p>\n

300 has never been about one person or one artist. It\u2019s a movement united in belief in our culture and community. Personally, I’m looking forward to my next chapter where I will continue to Listen, Learn, Lead, and Love. Specifically, I will be continuing the fight to end the criminalization of hip-hop lyrics exemplified by the unjust prosecution of Jeffery Williams. And in the short-term, I’ll be dedicating all my other time to making history by electing Kamala Harris as the first African-American female President, as well as holding the Senate and winning back the House to make Hakeem Jeffries the first African-American Speaker. This chapter may be closing, but always remember: #jobnotdone.<\/em><\/p>\n

I have full faith in the leadership of Rayna, Selim, and Gregg, and I want to extend a sincere thank you to Len and the senior leaders at WMG who have empowered our success, particularly Robert, Max, and Julie.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thank You and God Bless,<\/em>
\nKevin<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Liles will leave his full-time WMG role at the same time as Max Lousada and Julie Greenwald<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":123404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}