Mumbai: Warner Bros. Records (WBR) has announced that former Ticketmaster executive David Marcus has been named the senior vice president strategic initiatives for WBR. Reporting to WBR chairman and CEO Tom Whalley, Marcus will be based in the company’s Burbank, CA, headquarters.
In his new role, Marcus will oversee the growth and development of merchandising, touring, e-commerce, fan clubs, and new media marketing and technology, further establishing these departments as integral parts of WBR’s business, alongside its traditional recorded music marketing and sales functions. Marcus will work closely with the company’s head of global marketing Piero Giramonti, to strategize and execute all of WBR’s new business initiatives in an effort to provide an array of first-in-class services to its renowned artist roster.
In making the announcement, Whalley said, "Marcus’s wide range of experience and success in growing and building non-traditional marketing platforms make him a terrific addition to our team. I look forward to collaborating with him as he helps us achieve our goal of creating the most broad-based creative home for artists."
"I am thrilled to take the next step in my career with Whalley and Warner Bros. Records," Marcus said. "Whalley is a visionary and aggressive leader who has put together a great team of executives that anyone would want to be a part of. Building on one of the greatest rosters in the music industry, Warner Bros. Records, under Whalley’s leadership, has already demonstrated the value of transforming the way record companies think about the services they provide. I look forward to contributing to its continued success."
Prior to joining WBR, over the past three years, Marcus served as senior vice president of Music for Ticketmaster, where he helped to build and lead a global team responsible for helping artists use the Ticketmaster platform more effectively. Under his leadership, Marcus’s team created marketing and promotional programs intended to help artists maximize ticket sales, developed marketing pricing and sales tools to generate strong touring revenues, and designed sales programs that helped sell recorded music, VIP packages, fan club memberships, and merchandise. His team supported these programs through innovative partnerships with companies such as Apple iTunes, American Express, Target, iLike, and Facebook. During Marcus’ tenure, Ticketmaster’s business grew from providing services to a handful of tours in 2005 to servicing more than 150 tours in 2008.
Marcus’ career has encompassed many areas of the music industry. He has also served as managing director for Treble Music Marketing, where he provided business, strategic, and marketing development services to companies seeking opportunities in the live, recorded, and digital music industries, including AOL MusicNow, Yahoo Music!, MusicMatch, and Jeff McCluskey and Associates among others. He has also served as a VP of business development and legal affairs for Radiowave.com, Inc. A graduate of Boalt Hall School of Law, Marcus was a senior associate for the Entertainment & Intellectual Property Group and an associate for O’Melveny & Meyers.
