• Press Releases
    SARAH JONES PROMOTED TO GENERAL MANAGER OF SONGKICK
    Mar 11th 2022

    Jones succeeds Bill Ashton who is leaving Warner Music Group after 10 years

    Simon McCabe Promoted to VP, Technology, WMX Media

    Mar 11th 2022

    LONDON — March 11, 2022:  Sarah Jones has been promoted to General Manager of concert discovery service Songkick with immediate effect. Based out of Songkick’s headquarters in London, Sarah will report to Benjamin Blank, President of WMG’s Media Business. Sarah will be stepping in for Songkick’s current Managing Director, Bill Ashton, who will be leaving the business at the end of March. Bill has been with WMG for over 10 years, working in senior positions across WMX before joining Songkick.

    Sarah joined Songkick in 2018 as Commercial Director, before being promoted to VP, Commercial in 2021. Prior to joining Songkick, she worked at the BBC for 14 years, where she headed up its global partnership strategy across its video and podcast portfolio.
     
    At Songkick Sarah’s focus on cultural transformation, and her passion for mentoring, coaching and empowering teams, are reflected in both her hires and her team’s accolades. The company stands out by having women make up half its workforce, in a sector where they account for just 19% of employees on average in UK-based tech companies*. And just this February, Osaseri Guobadia, Head of Product, was nominated for the ‘2022 Rising Star’ award by the Black Tech Achievements Awards**. This award recognises young professionals under the age of 30 who demonstrate passion, innovation and commitment to energising and driving progress in the technology sector.

    Sarah Jones, General Manager of Songkick says: “I’m elated to have the opportunity to take up this role at Songkick. After a long hiatus, live music is finally back in a big way and we’re already seeing a 50% increase in fans indicating their intent to attend concerts, in comparison to pre-covid times. Our teams are more ready than ever before to support fans and artists, wherever they are in the world, as they venture back to the live music experience once again.”
     
    Benjamin Blank, President of WMG’s Media Business adds: “Sarah’s track record is incredible and I can’t think of a better person to take the reins of Songkick. I’m sad to see Bill leave, and I want to thank him for all he’s done and for leaving the business on such a high. When live music grinded to a halt, Sarah and Bill were central to the business pivoting and finding new ways to engage our audiences and artists. I’m excited to see Sarah and the team accelerate the Songkick mission of enabling artists to strengthen and deepen their relationship with a growing global audience of passionate engaged fans”

    Simon McCabe, who joined Songkick in 2021, has been promoted to VP, Technology, WMX Media, WMG’s next generation services division that connects artists with fans and amplifies brands. While his role has expanded to cover all of WMX’s media businesses, such as HipHopDX and Uproxx, his key focus will be to continue to innovate and build on Songkick’s core business and suite of artist marketing tools. Simon has 20 years’ experience in start-ups and has worked in multiple CTO roles.

    Sarah will oversee the launch of Songkick Campaigns. The marketing service is a first of its kind and allows for direct and bespoke fan messaging. It also enables tour marketers to have exclusive control of how to activate marketing campaigns and promote tours directly to fans. Songkick Campaigns is built on top of proprietary Songkick technology, so it targets the most engaged audiences on the platform.

    Songkick makes it as simple as possible for fans to never miss another show. More than 19 million music fans across the globe use it to track their favourite artists, discover concerts and buy tickets with confidence. Through Songkick Tourbox, it also provides tools for artist teams to manage and promote tour dates globally. Launched in 2007, Songkick has been part of the Warner Music Group (WMG) family since 2017.