The A Side: A Day In The Life
Virgin Music is the leading independent artist & label services company in the UK with a huge
global reach. Our mission is to build and reach the largest possible audience for our developing
and established artists and label partners, respectively. We are independent to the core and
deeply understand the nuances of the independent artist community. You would be joining a part
of the music industry that is seeing very exciting growth.
In this role you will be Virgin Music UK’s lead conduit between Label Relations, Editorial &
Marketing Teams at the leading UK streaming platforms, the Virgin Music UK marketing &
audience teams and our extensive artist roster.
Day-to-day, you will be responsible for steering our streaming marketing strategy as well as the
prioritisation and pitching of our key releases (UK and International) to all UK DSP’s.
Working under the direction of the Director of Streaming & Commerce and directly with our
Streaming Assistant, the successful candidate will have exceptional relationship management
skills, be proactive, results orientated, a strategic thinker with an analytical mind, be able to
handle a high volume of work in a fast-paced, quickly changing environment and serve as an
advocate for Virgin’s artists and label partners.
You will utilise your extensive network of contacts to build closer relationships between our
independent artists & labels and our streaming partners, working to deliver the best possible
editorial placements, long-tail streaming growth & DSP-related content plans. You will engineer
unique, innovative marketing and promotional opportunities with the platforms.
The B Side: Skills & Experience
Be Organised
- Ensure our key releases are pitched within the optimal timeframe – advising & guiding our artist and label teams on the ideal streaming release strategy to achieve the campaign goals
- In conjunction with Virgin Marketing & Audience teams and our artist management teams independent labels:
o Devise and plan DSP-focused campaign assets
o Content and marketing strategies
o Identify relevant, innovative, and unique promotional or brand partnerships opportunities with DSP’s.
- Engage DSP teams to ensure our artists & independent labels are always a priority focus for them and we are leading the field with: unique events, collaborations, on-platform ‘firsts’.
- Be the key point of liaison in the UK Team for coordinating & developing UK artist type DSP campaign program pitches, e.g. Spotify Radar, Apple Up Next, YouTube Ones To Watch, Artist On the Rise etc
- Identify & pitch for any on-platform profile / booster / editorial support programs relevant to the key releases on our roster
- Closely monitor all our key titles post-release and liaise with the UK Marketing team on re-pitching releases showing positive signs of growth, working to devise strategies for growth through specialist editorial support through to the relevant Hits playlisting opportunities on all DSP platforms.
Be Analytical
- Working closely with our in-house Data Analyst, you will identify streaming spikes & data points for our key releases, translating these into robust support pitches.
- Monitor all DSP charts & chart performance daily.
- Monitor & communicate audience growth, follower growth and playlist performance to demonstrate our artists success and contextualize their streaming stories.
- You will have excellent working knowledge of out-of-house third party data platforms such as Chartmetric, Spotify For Artists, Apple Music For Artists etc and use these platforms, alongside UMG’s best-in-class in-house data platforms, to pull together pitches and re-pitches
Be Collaborative
- You will be an integral part of the wider Virgin Music UK Label Team – working from the inception of a campaign to shape the positioning and release strategies.
- You will collaborate closely with our artist management teams and independent labels to build strong relationships, to be their authentic voice & representation at DSP’s, able to share our artists’ stories with credibility and integrity.
- You will continue to foster your already-strong network of relevant contacts at UK (and international) DSP’s.
- You will build & maintain collaborative relationships with:
o The wider UK Virgin Music team
o The International Virgin Music team
o The central UMG UK digital commercial partnership teams.
Be Creative
- Working with the UK Label team, you will work to devise creative release strategies for tracks, mixtapes & albums with a view to maximizing both consumption and cultural impact.
- You will brief and deliver stylish, credible, culturally-appropriate and engaging assets for all aspects of your work within this role, from ones-to-watch pitches or bespoke event creative to DSP-targeted marketing assets, liaising with the UK Marketing & Audience teams.
- You will be an important voice within Virgin Music UK, communicating and connecting the team with key cultural moments in UK music.
Personal Specification
- Strong, proven, current and well-established network of UK DSP contacts
- People management experience
- Wide ranging taste & knowledge of contemporary, independent UK music, particularly within the fields of UK Rap, Afrobeats, R&B, Alternative, Electronic, Dance & Pop.
- Several years’ experience working within a record label, artist & label services, digital streaming platform, marketing or artist management environment.
- Fluent in your use of relevant data platforms such as Spotify For Artists, Apple Music For Artists etc
- Strong communication & interpersonal skills are critical.
- Well organised with the ability to plan & deliver to tight, quickly changing deadlines.
- Excellent attention to detail.
- Ability to
o take large amounts of information & extract the key parts to build concise, impactful pitches.
o interpret analytical data & use to build strong editorial support cases.
o develop strong relationships, communicate and influence others in a positive way.
o adapt to change in a positive manner.
o remain calm under pressure, handling large amounts of communication at different levels in a positive manner.
- Proactive, results driven approach to work, constantly seeking improvement in all areas.
- Able to work well on own as well as part of a team, and with colleagues at all levels.
- Excellent IT skills; must be proficient in Google Docs, Google Slides, PowerPoint or
- Keynote, Word & Excel.
NB This role will involve attending shows and events in the evenings and on weekends and may
involve international travel
