The President of YouTube monetisation service and multi-channel network AdRev has parted ways with the Vevo rival after just eight months in the role.
Brian Felsen (pictured), a former boss of digital distribution firm CD Baby, confirmed that he will be announcing his own new venture later this year.
Felsen worked with AdRev CEO Ryan Born, who founded the company.
US-based AdRev – which also offers an analytics service to users – tripled its royalty payouts to music rights-holders in 2014 to US $14.8m.
In February, it announced that it now represented over 7 million music copyrights across 30 million YouTube videos, attracting 4.6 billion views a month.
That represents just under half of the views pulled in by Vevo, which is part-owned by Universal Music and Sony Music.
Assets under AdRev management have included the production music libraries of Universal Publishing Production Music, Warner/Chappell Production Music, Extreme Music (Sony/ATV), Selectracks (BMG), 5 Alarm Music (Imagem); master recordings of Universal Pictures Film Music, including Pharrell Williams’ Happy; songs recorded by artists such as Eminem, T.I., Creedence Clearwater Revival, Imagine Dragons, Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Wu Tang Clan, Two Steps from Hell, Celldweller, Dino Merlin; and YouTube stars Kurt Hugo Schneider, Mack Z and comedian Kat Williams.
In addition to his tenture at CD Baby, Felsen is also the founder of BookBaby, which distributes the works of thousands of writers worldwide.Music Business Worldwide
