Crowdmix, the soon-to-be-launched ‘social music’ app, has hired industry veteran Dick Wingate as President, Artist & Entertainment Services for North America.
Wingate was appointed by Rob Wells, Crowdmix’s recently-announced Global Commercial Officer and CEO the Americas.
Wingate’s role, based in New York, will see him focus on Crowdmix’s relationship with a broad coalition of music industry stakeholders, including artists, record labels and marketers.
With a music industry career spanning decades, Wingate spent his early career working for record labels such as Columbia, Epic, PolyGram and Arista, primarily in senior A&R and marketing roles, and was involved with the career development of a wide range of artists including Bruce Springsteen, Aimee Mann, Elvis Costello and Eddy Grant.
Starting in the mid 90’s, he later played a key role in the birth of digital music services such as Liquid Audio (a pioneer in digital music distribution), and Nellymoser (an early leader in downloadable streaming music apps).
Most recently, he ran DEV Advisors, a music and technology industry consultancy, and has been an adviser to Crowdmix since 2014.
“Dick brings a huge amount of experience and expertise with him to this new role.”
Rob Wells, Crowdmix
As part of his new position, Wingate will attempt to bring US-based artists onto the Crowdmix platform and will oversee artist promotions via Crowdmix’s ‘Mixerati influencer’ network.
Dick Wingate said, “I’m thrilled to be joining the hugely impressive Crowdmix team. We are developing a highly innovative way of engaging with artists and music fans that will enhance the entire music ecosystem.
“By putting artists’ best interests at the center of our business model, while also adding real value for fans, brands and streaming services, we are creating a new model for building relationships with fans while driving digital revenues.”
Rob Wells said, “Dick brings a huge amount of experience and expertise with him to this new role. Building strong relationships with North American talent is core to the success of our US business. I’m delighted to have Dick on my team.”
Crowdmix has raised over USD $20 million of pre-launch funding from a number of private and institutional investors, and is currently in the process of raising an additional USD $20 million by the end of 2015.
The Crowdmix app is due to launch in Q1 2016.Music Business Worldwide
