republic corps
Republic has announced the promotion of Kevin Lipson to the newly created position of chief revenue officer, effective immediately, as touted by president and COO Jim Roppo.
In this role, Lipson will lead revenue strategies for artists across Republic Records, Mercury Records, Def Jam Recordings and Island Records through the Republic Corps. Collective. He’ll oversee teams involved in streaming, e-commerce, data, retail, gaming, sports marketing, media planning and catalog initiatives, while also driving innovation campaigns to boost audience and revenue growth.
The New York-based Lipson is a 28-year veteran of Universal Music Group, having held senior management roles at Republic, Island, Def Jam and Universal Music Group Distribution in both LA and New York. His tenure at Republic — most recently as evp of global commerce and digital strategy — has seen the label earn titles such as Billboard 200 Label of the Year and Billboard Hot 100 Label of the Year, and achieve the industry’s ten biggest streaming weeks of all time.
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His team has delivered successful albums for artists like The Weeknd, Metro Boomin and Morgan Wallen, among others. In mid-2022, Lipson’s marketing rollout strategies for Post Malone’s Twelve Carat Toothache album earned him a hat-tip as Billboard‘s executive of the week.
The expanded role, but not title, for Lipson — encompassing revenue strategy at the label group — was initially announced in March as part of the formation of the East Coast-based Republic Corps, designed to compliment UMG’s Interscope Capitol Labels Group out west.
Roppo praised Lipson as a “tenacious” and innovative, adding, “with a fresh perspective, he’s constantly looking for unconventional ways to break new artists and maximize global repertoire revenue for our roster of superstars.”
Lipson thanked Republic’s leadership for their backing and emphasized the collaborative nature of the team. “They support their people here first—which inspires everybody to compete at the highest level while breaking historic industry records,” he noted. “Our team is involved in many different facets of the label, which is inspiring to all. It’s not exclusive to marketing, sales, and data; it’s all-encompassing. Even with all of the incredible success, we’re constantly trying to evolve and better ourselves while staying humble.”
Mercury Records is expanding its executive team amid the broader restructure of Universal Music Group’s labels, the company announced today (March 13). The news comes as the label, which had been operating as an imprint of Republic Records since its relaunch in April 2022, has a hand in the top two albums on the Billboard 200 this week — Morgan Wallen’s One Thing At a Time (Big Loud/Mercury/Republic) and Noah Kahan’s Stick Season (Mercury/Republic).
Now, with the reorganization of UMG’s East Coast labels under Republic co-founder/CEO Monte Lipman, Mercury joins Def Jam, Island and Republic as part of the larger group, with a central organizational hub called Republic Corps. helping each label with marketing, promotions, publicity and legal support. And Mercury president Tyler Arnold and general manager Ben Adelson have made three appointments to their team in the new operation.
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Alex Coslov, a marketing veteran who had worked across both Mercury and Republic, will now be working full time at Mercury as its new executive vp, while Republic senior vp of media Marisa Bianco slides over to work on Mercury full time, while also reporting in to Republic Corps. head of media Joseph Carozza. Additionally, the label hired Mario Vazquez as vp of audience and streaming, who will work at Mercury while also reporting in to Republic Corps. executive vp of global commerce and digital strategy Kevin Lipson.
“Ben and I are thrilled to welcome Alex, Marisa and Mario to our team at Mercury Records,” Arnold said in a statement. “From day one, our goal has been to foster a creative, supportive and forward-thinking home for our artists to thrive. We are incredibly grateful to expand our team with this talented group of executives who will help further that mission as we usher in our next chapter.”
Arnold and Adelson are themselves Republic veterans, emerging from the A&R department at the label, and when the imprint relaunched in 2022 it came with several artists and partnerships that Arnold and Adelson had signed at Republic, including Post Malone, Kahan, James Bay, Lord Huron, Jeremy Zucker and others, as well as Republic’s relationship with Big Loud for Wallen, which Arnold had originally brokered. The label is also home to Stephen Sanchez, Zayn and AJR, among others.
As the broader restructuring of the Universal Music Group’s label operations continues on the West Coast with the newly-formed Interscope Capitol Labels Group, the East Coast labels have now also begun to unveil their new structure under chairman/CEO Monte Lipman, with a new name of its own: Republic Corps.
The new structure and designation is set to be the umbrella “central operational hub” for each of the labels underneath it, with former Republic Records co-president Jim Roppo serving as president and COO of the new overarching group, reporting to Monte Lipman and Avery Lipman.
Each of the labels have individual leaders, many of whom remain in the same roles they had prior to the reorganization: Republic Records will now be led by president and chief creative officer Wendy Goldstein, formerly co-president of Republic alongside Roppo; Mercury Records will continue to be led by president Tyler Arnold and general manager Ben Adelson; Island Records will remain under the purview of co-CEOs Justin Eshak and Imran Majid; Def Jam Recordings will remain under chairman/CEO Tunji Balogun; and IMPERIAL Music/Casablanca Records will still be run by president Glenn Mendlinger. According to a release, each of the labels will maintain “full independence and autonomy” under the new structure.
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Roppo, leading the Republic Corps. teams, will work across each of the labels, with former Republic head of global commerce Kevin Lipson becoming his “chief lieutenant,” with an expanded role that will encompass revenue strategy at the group. They will lead a series of shared departments, led by executives from several different East Coast label teams.
Former Republic Records head of promotion Gary Spangler will take up the same title in the new Corps., with support from former Republic Records exec Lucas Romeo and former Island promotions head Ayelet Schiffman in support, and format leads that include former Def Jam exec Natina Nimene overseeing urban; and former Republic execs Gary Dumler overseeing pop, Davey Dee Ingenloff overseeing rhythm, Manny Simon overseeing adult and Amanda Dobbins overseeing rock.
Most recently general manager of Island Records, Mike Alexander is moving to a new role overseeing global marketing at Republic Corps, with a team consisting of Myra DeCastro (Def Jam), Steve Rowen (Island) and Zoe Briggs (Republic/Mercury). Additionally, former Republic head of media Joseph Carozza will lead media strategy for the Corps, with a team consisting of Beau Benton (Republic), Marisa Bianco (Mercury), Lauren Ceradini (Def Jam) and Lauren Schneider (Island).
On the legal side, two executives that previously worked for parent group Universal Music on behalf of all of the East Coast labels will retain their titles under the new Republic Corps. designation: Steve Gawley will remain as executive vp of business & legal affairs and business development, while Joe Schmidt retains the title of executive vp/CFO, both of whom will report directly to the Lipmans. Additionally, Republic Corps. will include teams led by Jenny Beal (Production), Brittney Ramsdell (creative synch), Meredith Oliver and Liza Corsey (A&R administration) and a data and analytics team, according to a release.
The new Republic Corps. structure comes amidst the broader reorganization of the Universal Music Group labels announced by UMG chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge on Feb. 1, which divided the labels into an East Coast-West Coast structure, with Republic Corps. comprising the East Coast division. The West Coast labels, under chairman/CEO John Janick, have been reformulated as the Interscope Capitol Labels Group, with that structure coming into focus over the past week. Both companies have been undergoing extensive layoffs as part of the reorganization, which included the combining of many labels’ promotions and publicity staffs into shared services divisions, among other moves.
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