Spotify is merging its artist marketing and artist & label services departments into a single artist & label marketing department led by Dave Rocco, formerly the company’s global head of artist marketing, a company source confirms to Variety. He will continue to report to Troy Carter, global head of creator services. (Pictured above, from left to right, are Carter, Spotify head of songwriter relations Tiffany Kumar, and Rocco.)
Rob Harvey, previously global head of artist & label services, will leave the company along with two other staffers. Harvey joined in September 2016 after many years in radio promotion at Republic, Island and Interscope Records, just three months after Carter started, filling the role formerly held by Steve Savoca, one of the company’s first U.S. hires.
The objective in merging the teams, according to a company source, is to streamline their functions and establish a “single point of contact for its artist and label partners.” The new department will act as a representative of creators’ and the music industry’s interests within Spotify and oversee artist marketing and promotional initiatives on and off the platform.
Carter talked about his team and its goals during a conversation with Variety back in June. “The things I’ve worked on have many fingerprints on them,” he said. “It’s everything from being able to bring in marketing initiatives, both inside and outside the company; being able to create audience-development programs with our shows and editorial team for developing artists like a Julia Michaels or even Harry Styles, who was entering the platform for the very first time as a solo artist. The idea is finding how we can help them discover an audience, and for artists like Drake or Ed Sheeran or The Weeknd, it’s how we can help them expand their audiences.
“Dave Rocco was my first hire,” he continued, “Rob Harvey [formerly of Universal] was my second hire as global head of artist and label services, and Tiffany [Kumar, head of songwriter relations] was my third hire. Mark Williamson was one of the first guys I ever met at Spotify, about six years ago, he had run artist services and he came back on board to work alongside me on artist and industry partnerships.”