Direct-to-fan music platform EVEN has appointed Lauren Wirtzer as Chief Operating Officer.<\/p>\n
Wirtzer previously held senior roles at SoundCloud, UnitedMasters and Instagram over a 20-year career in music and technology.<\/p>\n
At EVEN<\/b>, Wirtzer will oversee operations, partnerships and expansion, the company said Thursday (October 9).<\/p>\n
Wirtzer’s experience spans major platforms and artists. She spent two years<\/a> as Chief Content and Marketing Officer at SoundCloud,<\/a> running artist relations and brand partnerships while the company pushed its fan-powered royalty model. Before that, she was President at UnitedMasters<\/a>, where she helped grow the platform to more than 1 million artists and struck a partnership<\/a> with TikTok<\/b>.<\/p>\n “From the surprise launch of Beyonc\u00e9<\/b>\u2019s visual album to building UnitedMasters<\/b>\u2019 independent infrastructure and evolving SoundCloud<\/b>\u2019s artist-first strategy, she\u2019s consistently been ahead of where music is going.”<\/p>\n Mag<\/b> Rodriguez<\/b>, EVEN<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n At Instagram<\/b>, Wirtzer led music partnerships, working with artists including Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Taylor Swift <\/b>and Lady Gaga <\/b>to connect them with the platform’s billion-plus users. She also spent a decade at Def Jam <\/b>and worked as head of digital at Parkwood<\/b> Entertainment<\/b>, Beyonc\u00e9’s company, where she helped facilitate the surprise 2013 release of Beyonc\u00e9’s self-titled visual album. The release became the fastest-selling album in iTunes history at the time.<\/p>\n Wirtzer has been recognized by Fast Company’s <\/i>Most Creative People in Business and appeared on Billboard’s<\/i> Power 100 and Women in Music lists. She previously served as chair of the Music Business Association board.<\/p>\n Mag<\/b> Rodriguez<\/b>, founder and CEO of EVEN, said: \u201cLauren\u2019s career is defined by uncompromising artist advocacy.<\/p>\n “From the surprise launch of Beyonc\u00e9<\/b>\u2019s visual album to building UnitedMasters<\/b>\u2019 independent infrastructure and evolving SoundCloud<\/b>\u2019s artist-first strategy, she\u2019s consistently been ahead of where music is going. Her operational rigor and strategic vision are exactly what EVEN needs as we scale direct-to-fan infrastructure globally.\u201d<\/p>\n Wirtzer added: \u201cThroughout my entire career, I\u2019ve believed that artists deserve ownership, access, and the ability to thrive on their own terms.<\/p>\n “EVEN is creating a parallel economy by giving artists daily payouts, direct fan relationships, and ownership of their data. I\u2019m thrilled to join Mag and the team to scale this vision globally and help artists at every level build sustainable careers.\u201d<\/p>\n “EVEN is creating a parallel economy by giving artists daily payouts, direct fan relationships, and ownership of their data. I\u2019m thrilled to join Mag and the team to scale this vision globally.”<\/p>\n Lauren Wirtzer, EVEN<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The New York-headquartered company, which launched in April last year, says that over 500,000<\/strong>\u00a0artists across\u00a03,000+<\/strong>\u00a0labels and distributors in more than\u00a0110<\/strong>\u00a0countries\u00a0now have access to its platform, supporting over 30 payment methods and 140 currencies.<\/p>\n EVEN also asserts it\u2019s the only \u2018superfan platform\u2019 to\u00a0report sales<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Luminate<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0Billboard<\/a><\/em>\u00a0chart eligibility.<\/p>\n Its user base includes acts like J. Cole, 6LACK, Chance the Rapper, Mt. Joy <\/b>and LaRussell. <\/b>EVEN says some artists generate two to three times their streaming income per release through the platform.<\/p>\n EVEN recently signed distribution deals with Too<\/b> Lost<\/b> <\/a>and Secretly<\/b><\/a>, giving it access to \u201chundreds of thousands\u201d of artists.<\/p>\n EVEN operates on a model that lets fans pay for music before it reaches Spotify<\/b>, Apple<\/b> Music<\/b> and other streaming platforms. Artists can set pay-what-you-want pricing, and the company says fans pay an average of more than $20<\/b> per release. The platform supports over 30<\/b> payment methods across 140 currencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lauren Wirtzer, who also spent time at Instagram, will oversee operations, partnerships and expansion at EVEN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":242003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[131339,1358,134663,132068,457,4038],"class_list":["post-241982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-even","tag-instagram","tag-lauren-wirtzer","tag-mag-rodriguez","tag-soundcloud","tag-unitedmasters"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241982","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\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241982"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242007,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241982\/revisions\/242007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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