Spotify‘s former Head of Music Business Development Karibi Dagogo-Jack has been named Head of Music Partnerships at gaming platform Roblox.
The exec’s appointment forms part of a wider expansion of Roblox’s global partnerships team with key hires and appointments.
Dagogo-Jack’s appointment comes several months after Jonathan Vlassopulos, Roblox’s former Global Head of Music, left his role at the end of April.
As part of what Roblox calls an “expansion” of its global partnerships team, Dagogo-Jack joins new hires and appointments Todd Lichten as Head of Entertainment Partnerships, Winnie Burke, Head of Fashion & Beauty Partnerships, Hayden Walling, Head of Sports Partnerships, and Arvind Jayaram, Head of Account Management, Partnerships.
Dagogo-Jack will oversee and build relationships between Roblox and artists, labels, managers, publishers, and producers.
At Spotify, he was responsible for pursuing strategic opportunities for the company’s playlists and artist programs.
As Head of Entertainment Partnerships at Roblox, Lichten will be responsible for creating strategic relationships with film and TV studios, talent, and digital media brands.
He was previously Head of Emerging Content at Meta (Facebook), where he led programming for events such as Graduation 2020 with Oprah Winfrey, Facebook’s debut joint production with Instagram.
Todd also developed original series for the social platform, including the Emmy Award-winning talk show Red Table Talk.
Winnie Burke has been with Roblox for over seven years, helping to make virtual characters couture through brand partnerships with the likes of Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Nike, VANS, Alo, Tommy Hilfiger and Givenchy Beauty.
While the likes of Spotify have already used the Roblox platform to enter the metaverse sector, Roblox says that Burke is tasked with “helping brands understand what it means to enter the metaverse and how to build experiences on Roblox which will resonate with [Roblox’s] growing and engaged community.”
Heading up Roblox’s sports sector is Hayden Walling, who will work to bring leagues, athletes, and sports teams to the platform.
Walling joined Roblox in 2021, and has launched metaverse experiences with the NFL, McLaren Racing, NASCAR and Wimbledon.
Before joining Roblox, Walling spent a decade at Nike helping to gamify its products through integrating DSP platforms on to Nike Activity apps, and partnering the Nike/Jordan brands with gaming partners such as 2k, EA, Epic, Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox.
As Head of Account Management, Partnerships at Roblox, Arvind Jayaram will oversees a team that “provides partners with best practices and tools to bring their IP to the [Roblox] platform”, says the company.
Previously, his team has helped partners launch Roblox experiences, such as Gucci Garden, In the Heights, Vans World, Nikeland and NFL Tycoon.
“I am excited to expand our global partnerships team and ensure a deeper focus on core verticals.”
Christina Wootton, Roblox
Christina Wootton, VP of Global Partnerships, said: “We’ve seen a lot of success with top brands coming onto the Roblox platform, and our partnership work continues to accelerate as they experiment with new formats, launch persistent social spaces, discover new revenue streams, and push the boundaries of creativity.
“The growth in the number of persistent experiences especially signifies long-term commitment and showcases that brands view our platform as the next-generation immersive social place for ongoing community engagement vs. a place for one-time activations.
“I am excited to expand our global partnerships team and ensure a deeper focus on core verticals including entertainment, music, fashion, beauty, talent and sports where we can continue to grow our platform and engage our audience on an ongoing basis.”
The new hires and appointments at Roblox follow a significant recent boost to the gaming platform’s music presence.
The company kicked off 2022 with what it described at the time as a ‘First of its Kind DJ Party’, featuring a virtual performance by an avatar of producer David Guetta.
In March, the hugely popular gaming platform also hosted a virtual performance from 24kGoldn, as part of a strategic partnership between Roblox and Sony Music that began on July 6 2020.
That partnership built upon an existing relationship between the two companies, a relationship that has brought performances from the likes of Lil Nas X and Zara Larsson to Roblox players.Music Business Worldwide
