The vacancy at the top of Sony/ATV Music Publishing in Nashville has been filled as Rusty Gaston has been appointed to take over the division,Variety has learned.
Gaston has been a rising star in the business as the general manager and partner of THIS Music, a publishing company he owns with songwriters Connie Harrington and Tim Nichols. Before that he spent five years as the general manager of Song Garden Music, producer Byron Gallimore’s publishing company.
Among the writers he worked with at THIS, besides his two partners, were Jessi Alexander, Ben Hayslip, JT Harding, Jimmy Yeary, Drew Baldridge, Marv Green and many others. The company’s songs won best Christian song Grammys as well as ASCAP and BMI songs of the year in the country field.
The vacancy was created in June when Troy Tomlinson left Sony/ATV to lead UMPG Nashville.
Jon Platt assumed the top job at Sony/ATV earlier this year, succeeding Martin Bandier — Platt’s former boss at EMI Music Publishing — who had run the the publishing business since 2007.