Warner Music Group has found a successor to Steve Cooper.

At the head of the third largest music company in the world, the previous Chief Business Officer of Youtube, Robert Kyncl, will succeed the 75-year-old manager at the beginning of next year.

As Warner announced on Wednesday, Cooper and Kyncl will form a dual leadership for January next year to ensure the transition.

From February, Kyncl will then take over alone and also take over Cooper's seat on the company's board.

Benjamin Fisher

Editor in Business.

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Steve Cooper has led Warner since August 2011. His impending departure was announced in June of this year.

Kyncl, in turn, announced his departure on YouTube at the end of August, where he has been working since 2010.

In the announcement, Warner credits him with a “central role” with regard to YouTube’s strategy and the influence of the service, as well as the introduction of subscription services such as YouTube Music.

At least a certain connection to the music industry should be present through license negotiations.

Kyncl, now 52, ​​had previously worked for Netflix for seven years.

Kyncl's understanding of technology will open up a multitude of new possibilities for performers, songwriters and their teams, Len Blavatnik is quoted as saying in the statement.

Access Industries, the billionaire's venture capital firm, controls the music company, which went public in June 2020.

Cooper joined Warner shortly after Access acquired it.

The emphasis on Kyncl's tech background shouldn't be a coincidence: Like others in the industry - in addition to Warner, above all the other two so-called majors, Sony and market leader Universal Music - the company expects a lot from new digital marketing opportunities far away from music streaming services.

In addition to Tiktok or Peloton, the Metaverse is often mentioned here.

Warner is one of the pioneers here and also holds a minority stake in the Roblox gaming platform, for example.

Kyncl spoke of a "unique opportunity" in the course of the announcement.

Warner is well positioned for the future.

and he looks forward to working with the leadership team.

He specifically mentioned Max Lousada, who was responsible for the label division, as well as the head of the music publisher Warner Chappel, Guy Moot, and Carianne Marshall, who was responsible for the publisher's operative business.

Lousada in particular had been named in industry media as an internal candidate to succeed Cooper.

While Sony and Universal have been managed by industry veterans with Rob Stringer and Lucian Grainge for years, Warner has a certain amount of experience with external managers: Before moving to Warner, Steve Cooper worked for the film producer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the telecommunications company Hawaiian Telcom, among others.