City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the U.S., will honor Republic Records founders Monte and Avery Lipman (pictured above, R-L) at its 2022 Spirit of Life Gala in the fall. The prestigious award will be presented to them at a gala dinner — the first Spirit of Life Gala since 2019.
According to the announcement, the Spirit of Life Award is City of Hope’s most prestigious honor and is presented to an esteemed community of industry leaders around the world who have made a significant commitment to improving the lives of others through the advancement of research and clinical innovation and the delivery of personalized, compassionate care. Past Music, Film and Entertainment Industry Group recipients include Sylvia Rhone, Jon Platt, Mo Ostin, Clive Davis, Quincy Jones, Frances W. Preston, Shelli and Irving Azoff, Edgar Bronfman Jr., Doug Morris and Lucian Grainge. The Lipman brothers are continuing a 49-year tradition of support from the industry, which collectively has raised nearly $125 million for research.
“City of Hope remains one of the most important organizations in terms of diagnosis, treatment and providing care for those in need,” commented Monte Lipman. “Their groundbreaking research for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases continues to save many lives. To be recognized by City of Hope is an exceptional honor, and we are fully committed to raising even more awareness for this incredibly worthy cause.”
“We’ve marveled at City of Hope’s tireless work for many years,” adds Avery Lipman. “Evan and the board have furthered a very important mission that has made the world a better place in the process. As far as we’re concerned, this is one of the most important honors we could ever receive.”
This announcement kicks off a year-long fundraising initiative for City of Hope that includes marquee events, such as the Taste of Hope Wine Dinner and Auction and Songs of Hope event.
+ Atlantic Records has named Brian Dackowski to the newly created position of executive VP of viral marketing & analytics, GM Paul Sinclair and West Coast president Kevin Weaver announced on Tuesday. Dackowski, who joined the label in 2004, will be overseeing a marketing analytics team as well as the video content team, and will join the marketing senior leadership team alongside our other department heads.
“Over the years, Brian has been incredibly thoughtful in how we try new strategies, first in digital marketing, then in launching and building The Shop our artist development incubator to launch many of our promising new artists, and most recently in partnering with A&R and digital marketing to significantly amplify opportunities on our viral records across the various platforms,” Sinclair and Weaver said.
+ U.K.-based marketing agency Deviate Digital has promoted Stef Pascual to general manager. Before joining Deviate in 2020, Pascual held roles at Crown Talent, the Orchard, Sony Red and Essential, and also lectured at Berklee School of Music and owns the label Silent Cult. Deviate also promoted Alex Rusted to digital marketing director, and hired digital marketing managers Meg Parker, Manny O’Donnell and Tommy Parker.
Along with new hires and promotions, Deviate, which was founded in 2017 by British digital exec Sammy Andrews, also announced that its premium advertising services are now available to artists and managers directly. Andrews said, “The music business has fundamentally changed and it’s vital that artists and managers have direct access to the best in class ad products globally with an expert team to advise them. We’ve served global advertising for so many top 10 records this last year and after each success, we had interesting approaches from managers. Whilst everyone has access to basic services most have no access to premium ad products or relationships directly outside of label and promoter media buys. Today we are opening this service to the wider music business community.”
+ 10K Projects has promoted Molly McLachlan, one of the company’s first employees, to executive VP of global marketing.
“From the day Molly took on oversight of international at 10K, we saw an immediate positive effect on the success of our artists outside the United States,” said Zach Friedman, co-president of 10K Projects. “She continues to evangelize for our artists overseas in powerful ways and we are pleased to be able to offer her this expanded role at the label.”
+ Primary Wave Music has acquired all rights of Regent Music Corporation and Jewel Music Publishing, which includes such songs as the surf classic “Pipeline,” works by jazz giants Lionel Hampton, Thelonious Monk, and Django Reinhardt (including “Minor Swing”), and “Apache,” one of the most sampled songs in hip-hop. The companies were founded in the famed Brill Building by music publishing luminaries Gene Goodman and his late brother, Harry. Other Regent and Jewel hits include “More Today Than Yesterday” (written by Pat Upton and made famous by Spiral Starecase), songs by soul and R&B legend, Jackie Wilson (including his first hit, “Lonely Teardrops”), folk anthem “Abraham, Martin and John”, the pop hit “Silhouettes”, and “Do You Hear What I Hear” and “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.”
+ Wasserman Music has hired agents Matt Elam and Sahil Mehta, and promoted Stephanie Aristakesian, Zach Berkowitz, Alex Guaraldi, Daniel Lee, Leigh Millhauser and Jeff Molek to agent. The agency has also promoted Antonio Dell’Aglio to director of touring and Mohammad Shah to manager of touring.
Elam, who will be on Brent Smith’s team at Wasserman Music, joins following a decade at WME, where he represented D Smoke, Allen Stone and Hobo Johnson, among others, and signed Best New Artist Grammy nominee Baby Keem with Smith. Mehta joins from Madison House, where he has developed a roster of primarily electronic music artists over the last three years.
“We’re excited to have Matt Elam and Sahil Mehta join our team, and we expect they’ll do great things here,” said Wasserman Music EVP & managing executive Brent Smith. “They’re both agents we’ve known and respected, and they’re the right fit for our culture and ethos as an agency focused on artist discovery and long-term development.”
+ South Carolina-based TrueScale Records has enlisted ADA Worldwide for global distribution. According to the announcement, the company, which was founded by Phillip Michael Gilchrist, is “looking to focus on the Black creative experience and offer full artist development services as the centerpiece to young artists,” he says.
“As we celebrate Black History Month in February and the significant contributions of entertainment and music legends in the Civil Rights movement, we are thrilled to have Phil and our catalog of artists join the amazing teams at ADA and their vast footprint in the music market space” says Steve G, ADA’s VP of business development.