Hartwig Masuch is the former Chief Executive Officer at BMG.<\/p>\n
Based in Berlin, Masuch has worked in the music industry for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n
He exited his role<\/a> as CEO of BMG in July 2023, having spent 32 years at BMG parent Bertelsmann, and more than 14 years at BMG itself.<\/p>\n Masuch started out as a musician, freelance manager and producer.<\/p>\n He joined Warner Music Publishing (Germany) in 1985 as General Manager, Repertoire and was later promoted to General Manager & Vice President of Creative Affairs.<\/p>\n In 1991 Masuch was appointed Managing Director and Senior Vice President GSA at BMG Music Publishing.<\/p>\n When the publishing company was acquired<\/a> by Universal Music Group in 2007, Masuch first worked as a consultant on the restructuring of Bertelsmann\u2019s music business.<\/p>\n In October 2008 he was appointed CEO of BMG Rights Management,\u00a0following Bertelsmann\u2019s decision to\u00a0sell off its 50% stake in Sony-BMG to Sony Corp for $1.2 billion in August 2008.<\/a><\/p>\n That saw BMG let go of a hugely influential (and valuable catalog), and start again from scratch across both recorded music and music publishing.<\/p>\n After re-emerging as a Bertelsmann-owned independent in October 2008, under Masuch’s leadership, BMG developed from a start-up into the world’s fourth largest music rights company within four years. The company now bills itself as \u201cthe fourth major music company\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n In October 2016, Hartwig Masuch signed a new five-year deal with BMG<\/a>\u00a0parent\u00a0Bertelsmann<\/a> to stay on as CEO of the global music company.<\/p>\n The news of his new deal came less than two months after Masuch guided BMG to generate more than $200m in revenues in the first six months of 2016.<\/a><\/p>\n Under Masuch’s leadership,\u00a0BMG has swooped for publishing companies including Bug, Cherry Lane, Stage Three, Chrysalis<\/a>,\u00a0Primary Wave<\/a>, Virgin Music and Talpa.<\/p>\n BMG became a serious global player in the recorded music space when it snapped up Sanctuary and Mute in 2013 for a reported combined price of \u00a347m ($70m).<\/p>\n Other acquisitions since them have included Infectious, Vagrant, Union Square Music, Skint\/Loaded, Rise Records, S-Curve and Atmospheriques.<\/p>\n In June 2016, Masuch told MBW of BMG\u2019s recorded music ambitions: \u201cIt\u2019s early days, but it is all going in the right direction. BMG is very serious about building a strong recordings business.<\/span><\/p>\n In October 2020, BMG announced that it is eliminating the Controlled Composition clause – a standard US record label\u202fdeduction\u202fwhich serves to\u202freduce the income of songwriters, composers and lyricists – from its US contracts.<\/p>\n Masuch commented at the time that “the Controlled Composition\u202fdeduction\u202fis just one of a whole series of ways in which record labels have historically maximized their own profits at the expense of musicians”.<\/p>\n He added: “Eliminating this unfair practice is just the latest in a series of measures BMG\u202fis\u202ftaking\u202fto make\u202fthe music industry fairer to artists and songwriters.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHartwig Masuch: career before joining BMG<\/h6>\n
\nHartwig Masuch: career at Bertelsmann and BMG<\/h6>\n
\nHartwig Masuch:\u00a0 acquisition strategy at BMG<\/h6>\n
\nHartwig Masuch on BMG’s ‘Fairness Agenda”<\/h6>\n