Merlin, the global rights agency for the independent label sector, today an-nounced that Jim Mahoney is promoted with immediate effect to the newly created role of VP, Global Operations.

Joining the Merlin team in October 2014 as General Manager US, Jim has overseen the establishment and growth of the organisation’s North Ameri-can operation - providing a primary contact for Merlin’s expanding US mem-bership of independent record labels, distributors and artist service compa-nies, and ensuring they derive full benefits from the agency’s global licens-ing partnerships.

Jim was recently named among Billboard’s 2019 Indie Power Players, and the promotion to this new global role will see him step up alongside Charlie Lexton (CCO & General Counsel) and Helen Alexander (CFO) as part of Merlin’s senior management team, reporting directly to CEO Charles Cal-das.

Jim will continue to work in Merlin’s New York office, alongside Bela Zecker, Merlin’s Member Services & Operations Manager, Americas.

Charles Caldas, CEO, Merlin, said:

“Jim has earned the respect of the entire independent music community. Since joining Merlin in 2014, his hands-on approach has played a key part in our successes and expansion - providing a trusted point of contact in the world’s largest music market, and ensuring our members are benefitting from the full scale of Merlin’s global licensing deals. His promotion to VP Global Operations is recognition of this important work, and ensures our worldwide network will grow even stronger in the months and years ahead.”

Jim Mahoney, Merlin VP, Global Operations, added:

“I’m grateful for the support of Charles, the Merlin Board of Directors, my colleagues and, really, the entire Merlin membership who challenge us, edu-cate us, support us and rely upon us. It’s been my life’s work supporting in-dependent distributors, labels and artists and the music partners who value this community’s work. As such, Merlin’s mission is quite personal to me and it’s with that great respect that I enthusiastically approach this new role.”

Merlin operates globally with offices in London, New York and Tokyo, with a head office in Amsterdam.

Supporting the senior management team are Tom Deakin, Merlin’s longstanding Director, Global Member Services as well as Akira Nomoto (General Manager, Japan), Chaida Kapfunde (Head of Technology & De-velopment), Christopher Tarbet (Head of Global Member Operations) and Marta de la Hoz (Head of Reporting & Analysis).

In June 2019, Merlin revealed record revenue distributions, with $845m paid to independent label and distributor members between April 2018 and March 2019 - including more than $130m in revenues from settlements and other non-royalty income such as proceeds from the sale of Spotify shares.

As previously announced, Merlin CEO, Charles Caldas, is due to step down at the end of 2019.

About Merlin

Merlin is the digital rights agency for the world’s independent label sector.

The organisation’s members command in excess of 12% of the digital recorded music market and embody more than 20,000 independent record labels and distributors from 63 countries.

These include Altafonte Distribution, Armada Music, Beggars Group, Curb Records, Dim Mak, Dom-ino, Eleven Seven Music Group, Entertainment One, Epitaph Records, !K7, Kobalt Label Ser-vices/AWAL, Mad Decent, Merge Records, mtheory, Mom + Pop, Ninja Tune, PIAS, Redeye Distri-bution, Secretly Group, Symphonic Distribution, Sub Pop, The state51 Conspiracy and Warp Rec-ords, representing some of the world’s most important and successful artists.

Merlin acts to ensure these companies have effective access to new and emerging revenue streams and that their rights are appropriately valued and protected.

Since commencing operations in May 2008, Merlin has licensed over 25 key digital services includ-ing Facebook, YouTube Music, Spotify, Deezer, Pandora, Alibaba, NetEase and Tencent, and has reached a number of high value copyright infringement settlements on behalf of its members.

Merlin has won ‘Independent Champion’ at the A2IM Libera Awards three times - in ‘15, ‘16 and ‘18. The company’s CEO, Charles Caldas, has been recognised by Billboard in its 2019 list of the 100 most influential people in the music business, for the second year running, while Merlin has been named as an advocate for the publication’s 2018 ‘Indie Power Players’.

Merlin has offices in London, New York and Tokyo, with a head office in Amsterdam.
http://www.merlinnetwork.org