Charlie Walk is the CEO & Founder of Music Mastery.
Walk launched the company in 2019, after mutually agreeing to part ways with The Republic Group, where he was President, in 2018.
Charlie Walk: Career beginnings and Columbia
Charlie Walk’s first brush with the music industry came while he was attending Boston University’s School of Management, when he worked as a college marketing representative for Sony Music Distributions’ New England branch in 1987. After graduating, he worked at Columbia Records as Marketing and Promotion Manager, covering the Northeast Region, working to break New Kids on the Block.
Promoted through the ranks in the ’90s, in 2000 Walk was named Executive Vice President, Promotion, and then Executive Vice President of Creative Marketing and Promotion in 2004, where he was in charge of developing strategies in non-traditional marketing areas, along with licensing. During his time at Columbia, Walk worked with Destiny’s Child and Beyoncé Knowles, Will Smith, Maxwell, John Legend, Mariah Carey, The Fugees, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, John Mayer, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith and more.
In December 2005, Walk became president of Epic Records. After leaving the label in December 2008, he started his own companies in 2009: first entertainment company CWE Media, and then JWALK, a full-service creative agency whose clients included Lacoste, MTV, Microsoft, television broadcaster ABC and more. In 2017, Shiseido acquired JWALK.
Charlie Walk: The Republic era onwards
Charlie Walk joined Republic Records in 2013 as Executive Vice President, overseeing the company’s marketing, media, and promotion departments and playing a key role in developing artists including Ariana Grande, Lorde and The Weeknd.
In 2016, Walk was promoted to President of The Republic Group. At the newly formed Republic Group, his remit included creating business opportunities, as well as providing marketing and promotional services to partner labels, including American, Brushfire, Casablanca, Cash Money, John Varvatos, Lava, Monkeywrench and XO Records. His duties also encompassed spearheading promotion services for Island Records and pop initiatives for Big Machine Label Group.
In 2018, Walk and Republic mutually agreed to part ways following an internal investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct. Walk also stepped down from his role as a judge on reality TV show The Four at the same time.
After departing Republic, Walk provided consultancy work for Steve Stoute’s UnitedMasters before going on to found another company, Music Mastery.Music Business Worldwide