{"id":250104,"date":"2026-02-02T15:33:51","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T15:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=250104"},"modified":"2026-02-02T15:36:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T15:36:33","slug":"suno-hires-former-spotify-exec-sam-berger-as-senior-director-of-artist-partnerships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/suno-hires-former-spotify-exec-sam-berger-as-senior-director-of-artist-partnerships\/","title":{"rendered":"Suno hires former Spotify exec Sam Berger as Senior Director of Artist Partnerships"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI music generator Suno<\/a> has hired Sam Berger, Senior Director of Artist Partnerships, to support its efforts to build relationships with the music industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

The appointment comes as Suno<\/b> continues to face copyright infringement lawsuits from major record labels. In mid-2024, the\u00a0Recording Industry Association of America<\/b>\u00a0(RIAA), on behalf of all three major record companies, sued<\/a> Suno and rival Udio<\/b>\u00a0for \u201cmass infringement\u201d of copyright.<\/p>\n

Udio already settled with Universal Music Group<\/b> in October<\/a>, followed by Warner Music Group <\/b>in November<\/a>, with both music companies signing licensing deals with Udio for an AI music platform due to launch this year.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in November, Suno\u00a0also struck<\/a>\u00a0a licensing deal with Warner Music, settling litigation between the two companies. However, it continues to face legal action from UMG and\u00a0Sony Music Entertainment<\/b>, as well as European collecting societies, including Denmark\u2019s\u00a0Koda<\/b><\/a> <\/b>and Germany\u2019s\u00a0GEMA<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Berger’s appointment arrives six months after Paul Sinclair<\/strong>, who spent over two decades at\u00a0Warner Music Group<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(WMG)\u00a0in various roles<\/a>, took up the post<\/a> of Chief Music Officer at Suno.<\/p>\n

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Berger joins Suno from Patreon<\/b>, where he led music strategy after founding and leading the music team at Moment<\/b> House<\/b>. He previously spent several years on Spotify<\/b>‘s global artist and label partnerships team and has managed artists including Charlie<\/b> Puth<\/b>, Portugal. The Man <\/b>and Miguel<\/b>.<\/p>\n

At Moment House, Berger worked with artists including Justin Bieber, Tame Impala <\/b>and Anderson .Paak<\/b>, selling more than two million <\/b>tickets across 180<\/b> countries<\/b> before the company was acquired<\/a> by Patreon.<\/p>\n

Berger joins a music team at Suno that includes CJ<\/b> Smith<\/b>, who has worked at Snap<\/b>, Quibi<\/b>, BeReal<\/b> and 88rising<\/b>, and co-founded Encore<\/b>, a live music platform created with Kid Cudi<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Other team members include Athena<\/b> Yasaman<\/b>, formerly of Twitch<\/b> and Spotify<\/b>; Leanna<\/b> Bremond<\/b>, a former music supervisor at Peloton<\/b>; Kenneth<\/b> Herman<\/b>, who worked in marketing and partnerships at Splice<\/b>; Elena<\/b> Louvis<\/b>, who has consulted for Atlantic<\/b> Records<\/b>; and Brianny<\/b> Aybar<\/b>, who held A&R positions at Motown<\/b> Records<\/b>, Capitol<\/b> Records<\/b> and Sony<\/b> Music<\/b>.<\/p>\n

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Berger\u2019s appointment comes weeks after rival Udio<\/strong> began recruiting<\/a> for a Head of Artist Partnerships position based in Los Angeles or New York, according to a job listing.<\/a> That role focuses on expanding participation in Udio’s artist platform and negotiating with artists, managers, labels and publishers.<\/p>\n

Commenting on his appointment, Berger said in a press release on Thursday (January 29): \u201cWe\u2019re at\u00a0<\/span>a critical point in time where the future of music is being actively shaped and establishing trust with our industry partners is more important than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re at a critical point in time where the future of music is being actively shaped and establishing trust with our industry partners is more important than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sam Berger, Suno<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He added: \u201cSuno is a company that is building alongside artists with real intention, and empowering creatives with the best tools and technology available. I\u2019m excited to be joining this team who have inspired me throughout my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul<\/strong> Sinclair<\/strong>, Chief Music Officer at Suno, added: \u201cI\u2019ve known Sam for more than 15 years and he is without a doubt one of the most respected artist and label partners in the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled he is joining our growing team as we continue to invest in deepening our relationships with the music industry. Like most of our music team, Sam has spent his career shepherding artists through new technology and has earned a reputation for putting artists and their creative vision first, with a proven track record of bringing to life and scaling new experiences that deepen the relationship between artist and fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

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“Sam has spent his career shepherding artists through new technology and has earned a reputation for putting artists and their creative vision first, with a proven track record of bringing to life and scaling new experiences that deepen the relationship between artist and fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Sinclair, Suno<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Suno said its partnership with Warner Music \u201cis set to open new frontiers in music creation, interaction, and discovery for its millions of users.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last fall, Suno launched<\/a> Suno<\/b> Studio<\/b>, which combines multi-track editing with AI-generated audio stems. The company also released<\/a> v5<\/strong>, an updated version of its music generation model that offers more control over song elements.<\/p>\n

In November, Suno closed<\/a> a $250 million Series C round at a $2.45 billion post-money valuation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Berger joins a team that includes industry professionals who previously worked at Snap, 88rising, Twitch, Splice, Atlantic Records, Motown Records, Capitol Records and Sony Music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":250127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[135022,108,131536,134614,132081],"class_list":["post-250104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-sam-berger","tag-spotify","tag-suno","tag-suno-studio","tag-udio"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250104","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=250104"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250131,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250104\/revisions\/250131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}