Neighbouring Rights Operations Manager
Music is Universal
It’s the passionate and dedicated team at Universal Music who help make us the world’s leading music company. From A&R to finance, legal to digital, sales to marketing, Universal Music is the place to grow and develop your career within a truly commercial and innovative business that leads in everything it does.
Everyone is welcome to apply for our roles, and we are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment because of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion, belief, age, marital status, background, pregnancy, or caring responsibilities. We also recognise the importance of diversity of thought within our teams and are fully committed to embracing the talents of people with autism, dyslexia, ADHD, and other forms of neurocognitive variation.
We will always seek to make appropriate adjustments to recruitment, workplaces, and work processes to be fully inclusive to people with different needs and working styles. If you need us to make any reasonable adjustments for you from application onwards, including alternatives to the online form or to disclose a neurocognitive condition, please email UniversalMusicCareers@umusic.com.
The A Side: A Day in The Life
Universal Music Group is looking for a motivated, organized and diligent person to take on the role of Operations Manager within the Global Rights & Society Relations (GRSR) team.
GRSR are responsible for maximizing Neighbouring Rights (NR) revenue for Universal’s labels and artists. This is an operational level role for someone looking to make a difference to how our labels and artists get paid. By taking care to deliver complex and varied requirements today, you will ensure that our artists and labels get accurately paid for their NR usage for years to come.
This is a global business and the requirements for each country are different and change over time. Attention to detail, flexibility, resilience and the ability to handle high volumes are key.
In this role you will be expected to work from our Kings Cross office 3 days a week, with 2 days available to work remotely.
The B Side: Skills & Experience
- Understand and help develop the processes that drive incremental growth in
- Neighbouring Rights income – including but not limited to rights registrations, revenue assurance, conflict/double claim resolution, suspense handling, catalogue onboarding, catalogue clean-up, claim confirmation, sales data/private copy exercises, distribution statement quality and distribution timeliness.
- Develop working relationships with colleagues who have revenue and operational responsibilities in UMG’s global network of operating companies (opcos). The Operations Manager is responsible for ensuring the objectives of GRSR are clear and will provide support to our colleagues so they understand the actions they can take to deliver incremental revenue. In some cases, this will be in conjunction with the GRSR Client Manager.
- On occasion, the Operations Manager may need to engage directly with the local Music Licensing Company (MLC), such as PPL and Sound Exchange.
- Support MLCs and opcos during technology and process changes such as RDx, the industry standard for NR claims handling.
- Remain aligned with UMG policies and practices by developing an understanding of UMG’s neighbouring rights technology strategy, market performance benchmarking, data improvement strategy, Business
- Development strategy and the territory specific issues that shape the neighbouring rights landscape and underpin the success of our revenue generating exercises.
Be responsible for minute taking, creating action plans & delivering those plans across all the territories in UMG’s global reach. - Engage the local artist Collective Management Organisations (CMOs) directly on behalf of Universal Music Neighbouring Rights (UMNR) clients. Ensure we understand and have documented the key practices, deadlines, and policies of each CMO so we can continue to develop our position in the artist NR market.
- Continue to monitor the network of MLCs and CMOs to ensure global coverage for UMNR wherever possible.
- Attend internal and external meetings, both in person and online.
- Manage queries from UMG teams, MLCs and CMOs globally.
- Use Monday.com to continue developing ways of tracking the status and results of revenue maximization exercises in each country for both label and artist NR.
- Communicate the results and challenges of the work through biweekly team meetings and periodic Executive level reporting.
- Continuously review GRSR, opco, MLC and CMO action plans and escalate matters that are at risk to senior colleagues.
- Maintain information about MLCs and CMOs in the NR knowledge base.
- Other ad-hoc duties as and when required
Person Specification
Role specific skills:
- Proven track record of experience in Neighbouring Rights, or other copyright sectors
- Advanced skills in Microsoft Office Excel and Word
- Process driven approach to getting results and fixing problems at source
- Experience in managing and effecting change both internally and externally
Time & work management:
- Works towards team/department/company objectives and takes pride in meeting targets and satisfying internal and external customers
- Manage self and follows through on tasks and to do lists so that deadlines are consistently met in the most efficient and effective way
- Prides oneself on organisation skills, diligence, persistence, effective problem-solving and steady, focused effort
- Sets priorities and plans workload efficiently. Consults manager and colleagues where appropriate to solve problems and complete tasks and projects to deadlines
Teamwork & collaboration:
- Supports, co-operates and collaborates with others across the Organisation
- Open-minded, flexible and cooperative with the needs and priorities of the team so that customer needs are met consistently
- Responds appropriately to direction regarding key performance indicators and service level agreements
Communication:
- Ability to communicate clearly in a courteous and professional manner
- Ability to escalate issues appropriately in a timely manner
Initiative & motivation:
- Flexible, enthusiastic and effective approach to implementing tasks, taking on new work and assignments, developing new skills and servicing customers
- Prepared and motivated to be part of an evolving business environment with an interest in improving customer service and developing the role, processes and procedures
Benefits
- Group Personal Pension Scheme (between 3% and 9%)
- Private Medical Insurance
- 25 paid days of annual leave
- Interest Free Season Ticket Loan
- Holiday Purchase scheme
- Dental and Travel Insurance options
- Cycle to Work Scheme
- Salary Sacrifice Cars
- Subsidised Gym Membership
- Employee Discounts (Reward Gateway)
Just So You Know…
The company presents this job description as a guide to the major areas and duties for which the jobholder is accountable. However, the business operates in an environment that demands change and the jobholder’s specific responsibilities and activities will vary and develop. Therefore, the job description should be seen as indicative and not as a permanent, definitive, and exhaustive statement.
