A leading major label executive in the Swedish music business has been suspended following multiple serious allegations of sexually harassing young women.
The news comes just one day after MBW reported that 1,993 women in the Swedish music industry had undersigned an open letter in which they allege to have experienced sexual abuse, harassment or overt sexism.
MBW understands that the Stockholm-based individual is regarded as one of the most powerful figures in the market’s record industry, and that he is based within Warner Music Sweden.
Our sources tell us the executive recently accepted a senior job at a Warner Music UK frontline label, based in London.
We’re told he was set to begin a UK-based General Manager role in January, before his suspension in Stockholm was enacted on Thursday last week (November 16).
Crucially, we’re told that the UK Warner label’s London-based management had no idea about the allegations before making the job offer earlier this year.
“We have a code of conduct regarding harassment of any kind and these allegations are being treated very seriously. We have suspended the individual concerned while a thorough independent investigation is conducted.”
Company MBW believes is Warner Music Sweden
The news of a mystery Scandinavian music executive’s suspension first arose on Friday (November 17) in Swedish newspaper AftonBladet, which did not name him or his company.
The publication reported that the individual is accused of sexually harassing both his employees and artists he worked with.
One of the allegations suggests that the executive once grabbed a woman’s hand in the back of a taxi and ‘pushed it down into [his] underwear’.
In another article, it is suggested that ‘several colleagues’ have testified of ‘how he abused [his] power to exploit young women, both employees and artists’.
Alongside ‘inappropriate touching’ he is accused of inviting women in his team to join him at strip clubs.
In a statement given to AftonBladet, a spokesperson for the company (which MBW now believes to be Warner) said:
“We have a code of conduct regarding harassment of any kind and these allegations are being treated very seriously. We have suspended the individual concerned while a thorough independent investigation is conducted.
“We’ve also held an internal meeting in Stockholm to reiterate to our team the avenues available to make any complaints and how carefully and swiftly we will respond.”
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