The FYI News Bulletin: May 26, 2022

By David Farrell

Madelaine Napoleone is set to join Warner Music Canada as its new VP of Marketing.  She will be based in the company’s Toronto headquarters and report to EVP and GM Andy West.

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Napoleone was previously with Universal Music Canada, where she worked for nearly 18 years, most recently serving as Senior Director of Marketing, where she has overseen Canadian marketing campaigns for high profile acts including Justin Bieber, Machine Gun Kelly, Shawn Mendes and Taylor Swift.  She has also been instrumental in building promotions for a number of UMC’s domestic artists, including Bülow, Reve and Valley.

She first joined UMC in 2004, starting off as an Electronic Media intern and worked her way up through the ranks to Sr. Director of Marketing in 2021. 

Other WMC news is the appointment of Julia Hummel to VP, Digital Strategy & Business Development. She will be based in Toronto and report to EVP & GM Andy West.

Hummel began her music industry career at Warner Music Canada in 2014 as a marketing coordinator. In 2018, she moved to Warner Music UK as a digital marketing manager before returning to WMC to become director of a marketing strategy.

– Neither CARAS nor the CBC has yet to release metrics on the recent televised and streamed Juno Awards on May 15, but TV commentator Bill Brioux’s website brioux.tv reports that the show failed to crack the national Top 30; however, in Toronto-Hamilton, it ranked 16^th with 216,000 regional viewers.

–Sheltered Music has signed Grammy-winning Big Pond, NS singer-songwriter and producer Gordie Sampson to an exclusive worldwide publishing deal, manager Sheri Jones reports. Sampson’s catalogue includes cuts with artists like Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, and Florida Georgia Line. Sheltered Music is the Nashville branch of Lance Freed’s All Clear Music — a company that has, in its first year, completed deals with Burt Bacharach, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, and producer Dann Huff. Pictured above: L-R Shelter Music Sr. VP Darrell Franklin, Sr. VP, Gordie Sampson, Sheltered Creative Director Jenny Hall, and Sheltered President Lance Freed.

– Novelty hit The Bird Song (also known as the Chicken Dance), included on a 1982 K-Tel double-platinum best-selling album by Edmonton polka band The Emeralds, has found new life. Royalty Records, which owns the copyright, has licensed the track to Epic Games for use in its popular video game Fortnite.