Anthem Entertainment CEO Helen Murphy Exits
Written by djfrosty on February 6, 2023
Helen Murphy is no longer CEO of Anthem Entertainment, according to a rep for the company. Jason Klein, who previously served as senior vp of business affairs and Canadian general manager, is taking over as interim CEO.
Anthem Entertainment was formerly known as ole Media Management. The rebrand, which took place in 2019, reflected the organization’s widening purview as it expanded from a music publishing company into something more multi-faceted. Over the course of several years, it acquired recordings (including the Rush catalog), music production companies and an audiovisual secondary-rights business, which Murphy described as “the second-largest collector of audiovisual secondary rights in the world, after the Motion Picture Association of America, which collects for the major studios.”
Murphy was named CEO in November 2018, a little more than six months before ole became Anthem. She had previously worked as CFO at PolyGram Records, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Warner Music Group. Anthem “is a joyous name,” she told Billboard in 2019. “Everybody knows what an anthem is.” Murphy was named to Billboard‘s Power List in 2019 and 2022 and to Billboard‘s Women in Music list the same years.
In 2019, Anthem looked after publishing rights for 50,000 songs by over 400 songwriters. During Murphy’s tenure, the company expanded its publishing business by purchasing 50% of Wrensongs, acquiring a song catalog from Boardwalk Music Group and picking up the Kelly Archer song catalog. Archer helped pen country hits like Travis Denning’s “After A Few” and Justin Moore’s “Somebody Else Will,” both of which hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, and Brett Young’s “Sleep Without You,” which reached No. 2.
Last March, sources told Billboard that Anthem was up for sale. “This is a very exciting time for Anthem, as we look to strategically broaden our opportunities globally,” Murphy said in a statement at the time. “Anthem has hired an investment bank to help it evaluate all of its strategic growth options. The company has strongly emerged from the worst phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, having grown across all segments of its business, and we want to continue to capitalize on our growth momentum.”