Director, Catalogue, Warner Chappell Music

At Warner Music Group, we’re a global collective of music makers and music lovers, tech innovators and inspired entrepreneurs, game-changing creatives and passionate team members. Here, we turn dreams into stardom and audiences into fans. We are guided by three core values that underpin everything we do across all our diverse businesses: 

• Curiosity: We do our best work when we’re immersing ourselves in culture and breaking through barriers. Curiosity is the driving force behind creativity and ingenuity. It fuels innovation, and innovation is the key to our future.
• Collaboration: Making music and bringing it to the world is all about the power of originality amplified by teamwork. A great idea, like a great song, travels globally. We ignite passions and build connections across our diverse community of artists, songwriters, partners, and fans.
• Commitment: We pursue excellence for our team and our talent. Everything in music starts with a leap into the unknown, and we’re committed to keeping the faith, acting with integrity, and delivering on our promises.

WMG is home to a wide range of artists, musicians, and songwriters that fuel our success. That is why we are committed to creating a work environment that actively values, appreciates, and respects everyone.  We encourage applications from people with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences.

Consider a career at WMG and get the best of both worlds – an innovative global music company that retains the creative spirit of a nimble independent.
 

A little bit about our team:

The Catalogue team acts as the dedicated engine for maximizing the cultural and commercial value of Warner Chappell Music’s legendary assets. We serve as a strategic bridge between our iconic legacy compositions and the modern entertainment landscape, ensuring our catalogues remain vibrant, relevant, and profitable.

Your role:

You will be at the forefront of curating, nurturing, and expanding our existing music catalogue. Your primary focus will be identifying and acquiring high-quality music assets from various sources that align with our company's vision and goals. Your in-depth knowledge of music history, genres, and industry trends will enable you to evaluate potential catalogue acquisitions and administration deals, ensuring that we expand our portfolio with valuable and culturally significant content. 

While we cherish and champion our legendary legacy acts, "Catalogue" at Warner Chappell means so much more to us. We are focused on capturing the soundtrack of a generation - the definitive anthems, cultural touchstones, and music that sound-tracked our most formative years. You will look at the music landscape through a living, breathing cultural lens, knowing exactly what audiences are connecting with right now. You’ll be skilled at identifying these goldmine assets and transforming timeless nostalgia into modern cultural currency. You will shape the future of how these iconic eras are celebrated and redefine what catalogue music means to the next generation of music lovers. 

Here you’ll get to:

Lead Catalogue Strategy & Business Development

• Develop and deliver the UK catalogue acquisition and administration strategy in partnership with the Managing Director and Global Head of Catalogue.
• Build and maintain a robust pipeline of acquisition and administration opportunities across the UK and international markets.
• Identify new catalogue opportunities through proactive market engagement, market intelligence and strategic relationship management.
• Contribute commercial insight and market expertise to support Warner Chappell’s wider global catalogue strategy and investment priorities.

Lead Commercial Evaluation & Deal Execution

• Lead the commercial evaluation of catalogue opportunities, assessing financial performance, copyright position, historical significance, market trends and long-term strategic value.
• Develop commercial business cases and investment recommendations for senior leadership.
• Lead complex negotiations with songwriters, estates, publishers, lawyers, managers, investors and other rights holders.
• Partner with Finance, Legal & Business Affairs, Copyright, Creative and Sync teams to structure, negotiate and execute catalogue acquisition and administration agreements.

Drive Market Intelligence & Strategic Insight

• Maintain expert knowledge of the global music industry landscape, licensing developments, copyright legislation and catalogue investment trends.
• Identify emerging commercial opportunities, evolving market dynamics and new revenue streams that support catalogue growth.
• Provide strategic market insight and recommendations to senior leadership, helping inform acquisition priorities and long-term planning.

Portfolio Leadership & Value Optimisation

• Oversee the successful onboarding and integration of newly acquired and administered catalogues.
• Work closely with global catalogue, Creative, Sync, Copyright and Commercial teams to maximise the long-term value and performance of Warner Chappell’s catalogue portfolio.
• Monitor portfolio performance, identifying opportunities to increase commercial returns, creative engagement and catalogue exploitation.
• Champion initiatives that unlock new revenue opportunities across existing and emerging platforms.

Industry Leadership & Relationship Management

• Build and maintain trusted relationships with leading songwriters, artists, estates, publishers, lawyers, managers, investors and other key rights holders.
• Represent Warner Chappell at industry events, conferences and commercial negotiations.
• Act as a senior ambassador for Warner Chappell, strengthening the company’s reputation within the global music industry community.
• Develop long-term strategic relationships that generate future catalogue acquisition and administration opportunities.

About you:

• You’ve got proven experience in catalogue acquisitions, business development or commercial strategy within the music industry.
• You are a high-energy go-getter with a relentless drive and unmatched initiative. You don't wait for deals to land on your desk; you chase them down.
• We aren't locked into one specific career path. Whether your background is in A&R, artist marketing, or artist management - and whether you cut your teeth on the recorded music side or the publishing side - we value your hustle and perspective above all else.
• You have deep and authentic relationships across the entire music ecosystem. Managers, lawyers, songwriters, and artists aren't just contacts in your phone; they are people who trust your taste and your word.
• You live and breathe music culture. You possess an innate understanding of how music trends move, how demographics consume art, and what makes a song timeless.
• Demonstrable success sourcing, evaluating and negotiating complex catalogue acquisition or administration opportunities.
• Extensive knowledge of music copyright, licensing, royalty structures and rights administration.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen, with experience evaluating catalogue performance and preparing commercial recommendations for senior stakeholders.
• A deep understanding of the global music industry landscape, catalogue investment trends and commercial opportunities.
• Outstanding negotiation, communication and influencing skills, with the ability to build credibility at senior levels across the music industry.
• Excellent analytical, strategic thinking and decision-making skills, with the ability to balance creative and commercial priorities.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and operate effectively within a global, matrix organisation.
• Experience mentoring or developing others and contributing to a collaborative, high-performing team culture.

We’d love it if you also had:

• Ability to design high-quality decks and visual materials using presentation platforms, such as Canva or Google Slides.
• A proactive approach to integrating Generative AI (e.g., Gemini) into everyday work to support and streamline daily tasks and overall productivity.

#WCM

As the home to 10K Projects, Asylum, Atlantic Music Group, East West, FFRR, Fueled by Ramen, Nonesuch, Parlophone, Rhino, Roadrunner, Sire, Warner Records, Warner Classics, and several other of the world’s premier recording labels, Warner Music Group champions emerging artists and global superstars alike. And our renowned publishing company, Warner Chappell Music, represents genre-spanning songwriters and producers through a catalog of more than one million copyrights worldwide. Warner Music Group is also home to ADA, which supports the independent community, as well as artist services division WMX. In addition, WMG counts film and television storytelling powerhouse Warner Music Entertainment among its many brands.

Together, we are Warner Music Group: Independent Minds. Major Sound.

Love this job and want to apply?

Click the “Apply” link at the top of the page, or apply directly with your LinkedIn. Applying with LinkedIn will import all of the information you put in your profile, but will still allow you to upload a resume and cover letter.

Don’t be discouraged if you don’t hear from us right away. We’re taking our time to review all resumes, and to find the best people for WMG.

Thanks for your interest in working for WMG. We love it here, and think you will, too.
 

This position requires a minimum of 4 days per week in the office. We value in-office collaboration, which is essential for talent development and strong working relationships. #LI-Onsite

WMG is committed to inclusion and diversity in all aspects of our business. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and will evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, religion or belief, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, disability, pregnancy, childbirth or any other characteristic protected by law.