Exceleration Music has appointed David Ecker, a former Spotify government; and Rachel Cunningham, beforehand of Gimme Radio, to senior roles.
Ecker will function Exceleration’s Label Improvement Supervisor, managing day-to-day relationships with the corporate’s label and artist companions.
Ecker beforehand labored on streaming large Spotify’s Artist and Label Partnerships staff, most just lately as Artist & Label Partnerships Supervisor, US Independents.
At Spotify, Ecker led inventive campaigns for the likes of Phoebe Bridgers, Bon Iver, Mitski, Flying Lotus and Porter Robinson. He additionally developed partnerships with main unbiased labels and distributors, and created and co-ran the ‘Digs Jazz’ collection, demonstrating his specialism in jazz.
“From the get-go it was clear to me how a lot the corporate cares about each music and the musicians who deliver it to life. They really perceive what it means to be an unbiased label and artist.”
David Ecker
“I’m extremely excited to be becoming a member of Exceleration’s passionate, proficient, and values-led staff. From the get-go it was clear to me how a lot the corporate cares about each music and the musicians who deliver it to life. They really perceive what it means to be an unbiased label and artist. I look ahead to persevering with to serve the indie neighborhood on this new position as I work intently with Exceleration’s wonderful roster of labels and artists,” Ecker stated.
Rachel Cunningham, in the meantime, has been appointed to guide Fan Engagement and Commerce at Exceleration, spearheading the event of viewers development and e-commerce technique to drive Exceleration’s direct-to-fan enterprise.
She beforehand held the position of Head of Fan Engagement & E-commerce Advertising and marketing with San Francisco-based Gimme Radio. Her expertise consists of launching nation and hip-hop on-line shops at Gimme Radio and overseeing advertising for Gimme Steel.
Cunningham additionally held digital advertising and specialist e-commerce roles with Harmony and Hastings Leisure.
“Exceleration caught my eye due to the unimaginable staff of skilled music executives who’re shaking up the business and rising the worth of labels and artists. I couldn’t be happier so as to add to that mission by specializing in fan engagement, as a result of, in my expertise, music followers are the spine and the way forward for the business. I can’t wait to develop my profession with Exceleration whereas serving to develop the careers of a number of the most good indie artists on the planet,” stated Cunningham.
“Exceleration caught my eye due to the unimaginable staff of skilled music executives who’re shaking up the business and rising the worth of labels and artists.”
Rachel Cunningham
The appointments arrive after the corporate named Cassie Michel as Digital Operations Affiliate and Adam Ferrari as Accounting Supervisor, in January.
Different latest hires embrace Inventive Director David Gorman in October, and former Common Music Group exec Mike Gillespie and ex-SoundCloud government Bela Zecker in January 2022.
Darin Soler, Head of World Advertising and marketing and Business Partnerships, stated: “One of many issues that excites me at Exceleration is bringing one of the best in tech to labels within the unbiased neighborhood. There’s no cause that smaller labels shouldn’t have the identical alternatives and experience that exist at majors throughout all platforms, and hiring specialists like David and Rachel is what makes that occur.
Exceleration was launched in January 2021 with an goal to reinforce “the way forward for unbiased labels and artists.”
On the time of launch, Exceleration stated it’s “backed by substantial funding capital” and that it “plans to leverage its companions’ intensive experience and deep understanding of the unbiased music tradition to make tailor-made investments in unbiased music rights and the people that create them.”
Its companions embrace world music business leaders resembling Dave Hansen (former GM of Epitaph Data and Govt Chairman of Merlin), Charles Caldas (the primary CEO of Merlin), Amy Dietz (earlier GM of Ingrooves) and John Burk (Grammy-winning producer and former President of Harmony Data).
Exceleration’s latest offers embrace Mother+Pop, +1 Data, Bloodshot Data, rights to Justin Townes Earle recordings, and Heroic Music Group. It additionally just lately acquired US indie label Kill Rock Stars and made a strategic partnership with indie label, Sideonedummy Data.
Earlier this yr, the corporate struck a strategic partnership and invested within the catalog of New York-based +1 Data, an indie label that helped launch the careers of The Kooks, Anna of the North and The Heavy, amongst many others.
