The boss of Warner Music’s UK division, Tony Harlow, has announced he will leave the business at the end of October after six years in his role.
Harlow’s departure comes as the smallest of the major record companies continues its massive restructuring and downsizing exercise. Earlier this year Warner announced it needed to save another $300 million a year in overall costs, with $170 million of those savings coming from job cuts.
This is part of a wider refocus at the major, which saw Elliot Grainge take the top job at Atlantic Records in the US – with a swathe of executives leaving the label – as well as longtime exec Max Lousada stepping down and netting a multi-million dollar exit package.
In a memo to staff, Harlow says he’s “had a lot of luck in my career so far”, with that luck “culminating in the opportunity to lead a company I love, full of artists that I care about”. He continues, “I’m sad therefore to announce my decision to step down from my role as CEO of Warner Music UK at the end of October”.
Harlow’s swan song memo mainly bigs up the major’s UK artists and teams – and UK music in general – without saying much about the timing of his departure and what it might mean for the overall structure of Warner Music UK in the future.
Harlow does hint at more news to come though, saying “I’m only making this announcement now after thinking long and hard about our team and what needs done for the UK to lead the world again”.
He then adds, “I’ve realised that my departure would create new long-term opportunities and space for our amazing senior management team to continue to grow as individuals and as leaders”.
Globally speaking, Warner Music has been through significant change since overall CEO Robert Kyncl joined the company in 2023 pledging to “future proof” the business.
That future proofing has involved quite a bit of downsizing. The major offloaded its media and content units, including Uproxx and HipHopDX, and then, last year, instigated a big revamp of its global and US recordings business, which saw industry veterans like Kevin Liles and Julie Greenwald leave the company – though possibly not planned that way – as well as Lousada announcing his departure.
The big winner in the US revamp was papa Lucian Grainge’s progeny Elliot Grainge, who – after selling his 10K label to Warner – was given the top job at Atlantic Music Group, Warner’s ‘super division’ that encompasses Atlantic Records US and 300 Elektra Entertainment, as well as labels like Roadrunner Records, and is home to a significant amount of the major’s buzzier US talent.
When Warner announced its plan to shave another $300 million of its running costs in July it said this was the “final phase” of Kyncl’s mission to “future-proof the company and unlock the next era of growth”.
Later the same month it was announced that the boss of Warner’s artist and labels services division ADA, Cat Kreidich, was departing, with that job being added to the remit of Alejandro Duque, also President of Warner Music Latin America.
Kyncl has already paid tribute to Harlow in his own memo to staff, thanking him for his time running Warner Music UK, and his previous stints leading Warner’s Australian business and its WEA division. Like Harlow himself, Kyncl is also a little vague about what this means for Warner in the UK.
“Tony is announcing his decision now when it helps provide new possibilities for the talented leadership team he’s mentored”, Kyncl writes. “He’s successfully positioned the company for long-term success and I deeply appreciate his commitment to seeing through the transition as we navigate ongoing change”.
That’s not the whole story though, says Kyncl, revealing that he and EMEA boss Simon Robson will “have more to share on our plans for the UK this week”. Who knows, maybe Lucian Grainge himself could be tempted to hop on a plane to London to head up operations back on his home turf for the one major he’s never worked for, without all the stress of instigating never ending controversial mergers?
