A management change is imminent at the fourth largest music company in the world.

On January 1, 2024, the previous CFO of the Bertelsmann music division (BMG), Thomas Coesfeld, will take over the top position from long-time chairman Hartwig Masuch.

As the Bertelsmann Group announced on Monday, the change was taking place "as part of long-term succession planning".

BMG was re-established in 2008 under the direction of Masuch after Bertelsmann had previously withdrawn from the music business and today, in terms of sales, ranks some distance behind the market leaders Warner, Sony and Universal Music, known as the majors.

Benjamin Fisher

Editor in Business.

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"Hartwig Masuch shaped the music business at Bertelsmann and beyond for more than three decades," Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Rabe is quoted as saying in the statement.

With the promotion of Coesfeld, "the next phase of BMG is now being initiated." In his previous role as CFO, he had consistently advanced the company's digital orientation and implemented Bertelsmann's "Boost" investment strategy together with Masuch.

As part of "Boost", BMG has "high investment funds available".

Bertelsmann had recently used this for various catalog purchases and the takeover of the hit label Telamo.

BMG took over more than 30 rights packages in 2022, including shares in the work of Simple Minds or Peter Frampton and Jean-Michel Jarre.

In 2021, BMG caused a stir in the competitive catalog market with deals worth millions with Tina Turner or Mötley-Crüe.

Since March 2021 there has also been a loose partnership for joint catalog acquisition with financial investor KKR.

Close partnership with financial investor

Both parties know each other well.

By March 2013, the investment company helped rebuild the music arm and held 51 percent of the shares.

So far, two rights packages – from John Legend and ZZ Top – have been acquired as part of the new collaboration, although by no means every catalog deal is made public.

In any case, the line is close, every other day he talks to people from the financial investor, Masuch told the FAZ in February 2022

In contrast to some other buyers, BMG is still very busy despite the recent rise in interest rates.

"We have also been active on the acquisition side up to the last week, while some competitors are understandably having a hard time," the 68-year-old Masuch told the FAZ in December last year - and referred to the group's support for the strategy: "Of course it makes a difference whether I can fall back on group capital or whether I have to finance myself in some other way."

As CFO, Coesfeld should not only be well informed in the field of catalog deals, but also with regard to the complicated and diverse contract structures in the music industry.

The 32-year-old manager has held this post since April 2021.

Previously, Coesfeld was a member of the management of the Bertelsmann Printing Group and Chief Strategy Officer of Mohn Media in Gütersloh.

Before joining Bertelsmann, he worked for the management consultancy McKinsey.

“Advances worth millions are primarily an ego game”

“14 years ago, Bertelsmann took the opportunity to appoint a music publisher in his mid-50s – that is, me – to head the new BMG.

Not everyone thought that was the obvious decision," writes Masuch in an email to the more than 1,000 BMG employees that the FAZ has seen.

"I'm confident that with the decision for Thomas as my successor, Bertelsmann's intuition will again prove to be right." It had always been his plan to give up the position before his 70th birthday.