Steve Cooper, Warner Music Group’s CEO for 11 years, will step down next year, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal confirmed to Variety by a company representative.
The delegate emphasized that the transition will be gradual, as the company seeks a suitable successor.
Warner is the third largest major music group, after Universal and Sony, and was managed by Cooper with a firm, quiet, and unflattering hand during the first decade of the broadcast era, as well as being released to the public for a second time in the early months of the pandemic in 2020. The company’s profits were falling by the time Its arrival, and not only reversed this trend, but doubled its revenue and embraced new technologies and business opportunities. However, his successor will face headwinds as the company’s stock has fallen since its IPO, and the industry faces stabilizing growth spurting amid a larger, uncertain economic climate.
Cooper, 75, said he has instructed the board of directors to begin the search for his successor, and that he and the board expect the transition to take place by the end of 2023, according to an email seen by the magazine.
The new CEO must get the approval of billionaire Len Blavatnik, whose Access Industries controls Warner Music. While Cooper said in his letter that the company will be looking internally and externally for his successor, sources point to Max Losada, Warner Music’s record music chief executive, as the most likely internal candidate.
In a business known for ostentation and ostentation, Cooper is anything but. He took over Warner in 2011, without any experience in the music industry, when the company was at its lowest point, with revenue halving due to illegal downloading and declining CD sales. However, he has channeled his decades of business experience towards the industry and has shown an open approach towards the rapidly changing business. When the fortunes of the industry began to change with the launch of Spotify in the United States that same year and the embrace of fast streaming by fans, the company’s revenue soared with business returns. In 2016, Warner Music became the first major company to announce streaming as the largest source of recorded music revenue.
Warner Music owned brands include Atlantic – by far the most successful of brands – Elektra and Warner Records, along with the third largest music publisher, Warner Chappell Music. Her current major works include Ed Sheeran, Lizzo, Dua Lipa, and others.
During Cooper’s tenure, the company also acquired long-running British label Parlophone, which was abandoned by Universal as part of its acquisition of the EMI-recorded music suite. That deal brought Coldplay, Gorillaz, and all or part of the catalogs of David Bowie, Kate Bush, and others. Earlier this year, the company completed a series of deals that brought them the Bowie’s recorded music catalog for a number of years, and acquired a large percentage of the late singer’s valuable music catalog for $200 million.
Warner Music’s global recorded music market share increased nearly 11% during Cooper’s tenure, reaching 16.7% in 2021, according to industry tracker Music & Copyright. The company’s revenue rose nearly 19% in its most recent fiscal year, its best showing this century, to $5.3 billion, according to the magazine.
“I’ve had six decades now in my career, and of all that I’ve done, this has been the job I’ve enjoyed the most,” Cooper wrote in the email. “We are at the beginning of a new golden age for music,” he wrote.
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