Hartwig Masuch (born

July 20 Events Pre-1600 * 70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, storms the Fortress of Antonia north of the Temple Mount. The Roman army is drawn into street fights with the Zealots. * 792 – Kardam of Bulgaria defea ...

, 1954, in

Hagen Hagen () is the Largest cities in Germany, 41st-largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany. The municipality is located in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the R ...

) is a German

music executive A music executive or record executive is a person within a record label who works in senior management and makes executive decisions over the label's artists. Their role varies greatly but in essence, they can oversee one, or many, aspects of a re ...

. Since 2008, he has been

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

BMG Rights Management BMG Rights Management GmbH (also known simply as BMG) is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a music publisher and a record label. BMG was founded in October 2008 after Bertelsmann sold its ...

, a

Bertelsmann Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA () is a German private multinational conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the world's largest media conglomerates, and is also active in the service sector and ...

group division. Under his leadership, BMG became a leading international music company. According to Billboard, he is among the most influential representatives of the industry in the world. Masuch was himself a musician and producer and is considered a pioneer of the

Neue Deutsche Welle Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW, , "New German Wave") is a genre of West German rock music originally derived from post-punk and new wave music with electronic influences. The term was first coined by Dutch radio DJ Frits Spits on the popular nationwid ...

Early life

After graduating

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, Masuch began studying

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

at the

Ruhr University Bochum The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction began in ...

in 1974. At the same time, he worked for the chair of money theory, and was the frontman of the Ramblers, a

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

and new wave band. To finance his livelihood, he worked as a

taxi driver ''Taxi Driver'' is a 1976 American film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader, and starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris, and Albert Brooks. Set in a decaying and ...

at times. At the age of 20, Masuch signed his first

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...

. In 1980, he finished his studies without graduation to concentrate on his career as a musician. Masuch founded an independent music publishing house, was the first to sign with

Nena Gabriele Susanne Kerner (born 24 March 1960), better known as Nena, is a German singer and songwriter who rose to international fame in 1983 as the lead vocalist of the band Nena with the Neue Deutsche Welle song "99 Luftballons". In the same ye ...

, and produced the debut album of

Extrabreit Extrabreit is a German band established in Hagen, Germany in 1978. The band was one of the most successful exponents of the Neue Deutsche Welle movement of the 1980s. History The band was founded around the end of 1978, when they began their ...

. Since then, he has been regarded as a pioneer of Neue Deutsche Welle. He also established his own music label and was responsible for hits by Ina Deter and others before selling it in 1984.

Career

In 1985 Masuch joined Warner Music Publishing as general manager of repertoire. After two years he was promoted to the position of general manager and vice president of creative affairs. During this time he signed nationally and internationally successful bands. In 1991, Masuch joined

BMG Music Publishing Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) was a division of a German media company Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Sony Corporation of America on 1 October 2008. Although it was established in 1987, the music com ...

, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann, as managing director and senior vice president. There he was mainly responsible for business in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Masuch left the company in 2007 to sell BMG Music Publishing to

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, Dutch law. UMG's cor ...

, where he advised Bertelsmann on the separation from

Sony BMG Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...

and the reorganization of activities in the music industry. Masuch coordinated the administration and marketing of the music rights to works by around 200 European artists, such as the Prinzen, that remained with the group. The catalog formed the cornerstone for the foundation of BMG Rights Management in 2008. Masuch was managing it from the beginning, and positioned the company as a fair and service-oriented partner for artists. He also focused on digital marketing, especially on

streaming services An over-the-top media service is a streaming media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributors of s ...

. With the support of Thomas Rabe, Chief Executive Officer of Bertelsmann, Masuch organized the temporary participation of the financial investor

KKR KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strateg ...

. From 2009 to 2013, KKR supported the international expansion and numerous acquisitions of BMG Rights Management. Since 2013, Masuch has been a member of Bertelsmann's group management committee, the highest management body below the

executive board A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

Criticism

The 2018

Echo Music Prize Echo Music Prize (stylised as ECHO, ) was an accolade by the , an association of recording companies of Germany to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. The first ECHO Awards ceremony was held in 1992, and it was set up to hono ...

was overshadowed by a controversy over texts by

Kollegah Felix Martin Andreas Matthias Blume (born 3 August 1984), known professionally as Kollegah, is a German rapper. He releases his music via his own label, Alpha Music Empire. Born in Friedberg and raised by a single mother in Simmern, he started ...

and

Farid Bang Farid Hamed El Abdellaoui ( ar, link=no, فريد العبدلاوي, born 4 June 1986), known professionally as Farid Bang, is a German rapper of Moroccan-Spanish descent. He is currently the owner of the label Banger Musik. Early life Fari ...

that were perceived as anti-semitic. Masuch also had to explain himself for the release of the album by BMG Rights Management. He emphasized the principle of

artistic freedom Artistic freedom (or freedom of artistic expression) can be defined as "the freedom to imagine, create and distribute diverse cultural expressions free of governmental censorship, political interference or the pressures of non-state actors." Gener ...

, which the company takes very seriously. BMG Rights Management stopped working with both rappers, and initiated a campaign against anti-semitism.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Masuch, Hartwig 1941 births Bertelsmann German chief executives German music managers German record producers Living people People from Hagen Ruhr University Bochum alumni