Merlin, the independent’s digital music licensing partner, has announced the hire of Floris van Dam as VP of Insights. Van Dam, the former International Head of Research & Analysis for Warner Music Group, will interface with Merlin’s digital partners and members to ensure that every member can benefit from marketplace and partner insights and take full advantage of opportunities.
Van Dam comes to Merlin with over 20 years of experience in the music industry, having spent his career working directly with artists and labels across the globe. Prior to his time at Warner Music Group, van Dam headed the Data & Insights team at Sony Music Entertainment. He also has deep roots in finance, having worked in the field at Sony as well as at EMI Music and Roadrunner Records. At Merlin, van Dam will work alongside the Data and Analytics Team, which will continue to be headed by Marta De La Hoz. Both leaders will report to Charlie Lexton, Merlin’s COO.
In his role as VP of Insights, van Dam will oversee building and managing relationships with strategic data partners to accelerate the growth of Merlin’s data capabilities. He will also support members with webinars and bespoke inquiries, offering advice on best practices and helping members extract the most value from their data. By providing more insights into its deals and the digital partnerships, Merlin will increase the value it delivers to its members..
Over the past two years, Merlin’s membership, its digital partnerships, and the team have continued to expand around the world. The addition of van Dam to the team marks the company’s fourth new hire in 2021 as Merlin grows in order to continue to better serve its members.
“We are thrilled to have Floris join the Merlin team. His proven ability to translate data into actionable insights will be a valuable asset both to our members and our digital partners,” said Charlie Lexton, COO of Merlin. “Floris’ experience will enable us to build on our existing data analytics capability to enable our members to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by our digital partners.”
About Merlin
Merlin provides independents the means to own their future. Merlin is a member led, music focused organization providing digital music licensing for the leading independents across the globe. Members benefit from Merlin’s premium deals, but work directly with key digital partners. Our membership consists of independent labels, distributors, and other rights-holders, representing tens of thousands of labels and hundreds of thousands of artists from every country in the world. Merlin works collaboratively with our digital partners, delivers value back to those digital partners, and seeks to drive other incremental benefits to our members.
Merlin’s approach has enabled our membership to grow to represent 15% of the global market share. Merlin’s membership includes independents such as Armada Music, Beggars Group, Better Noise, Cinq Music Group, Dim Mak, Entertainment One, Foundation Media, Kontor, Mad Decent, Mom & Pop, Mushroom Music, Ninja Tune, [PIAS], Republic of Music, Secret City, Secretly, state51, Stone Throw, Sub Pop, Symphonic Distribution, Tommy Boy, Warp, and hundreds more.
Merlin now has deals with over 30 digital services, including Apple, AWA, Boomplay, Deezer, Facebook/Instagram, JioSaavn, JOOX, KKBox, Pandora, Snap, SoundCloud, Spotify, Tencent, TikTok, Triller, and YouTube Music, and is in conversations with dozens more.
Merlin has offices in London, New York, and Tokyo.
Find out more at www.merlinnetwork.org.
For media inquiries:
Dawn Kamerling
The Press House
dawn@thepresshouse.com
Tel: (+1) 646-322-4903
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