Steve Nightingale, New BMG Canada Boss

By David Farrell

Onetime Cadence Music VP Steve Nightingale has been named as Vice President of Recorded Music for BMG Canada.

Based in Toronto, Nightingale will lead the marketing strategy and promotion of BMG’s Global Recordings roster in Canada and report to BMG’s Executive Vice President of Music and International Market, Jason Hradil.

“We are excited to welcome Steve to BMG. His knowledge and experience in the Canadian music market are unparalleled, and he is an energetic new leader for the team there as we continue to scale up our ambitions in recorded music,” said Hradil in a company announcement.

Nightingale started his career at Sony BMG as a marketing intern before he landed a role in Marketing and Business Development at Universal Music between 2006 and 2015.

While at UMG, he was responsible for signing new deals with artists including Nine Inch Nails, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Pretty Reckless, Five Finger Death Punch, Felix Cartel and The Prodigy, according to his BMG announcement.

He then switched to Cadence Music where he was VP, Business Development between 2016 and 2017. In 2018, he established marketing services ArtistHQ.

He later moved to Cadence Music Group to accept a role as Vice President of Business Development and oversaw the launch of the company’s management division.

The current roster, noticeably light on Canadian acts other than a recently announced album deal through the US with Bryan Adams, includes a rich trove of affiliated imprints that include Modern Recordings, Mute, Transatlantic, Sanctuary, and Trojan Records.

Separately, Matt Smallwood has announced on Facebook that after 18 months as Sr. Director for BMG’s stand-alone operation in Canada he is returning to his indie roots with the reopening of his artist & label services company, Flying Colours which the company website promotes handling various services for a number of acts, as well as providing services for Cordova Bay Records and Big Story Entertainment.