UMG's East Coast Labels Reorganize As 'Democracy Body' Under New Structure

As the broader restructuring of Universal Music Group's label operations continues on the West Coast with the newly formed Interscope Capitol Labels Group, East Coast labels have also begun to reveal their new structure under the president/CEO Monte Lipmanwith a new own name: House of Democracy.

The new structure and name is set to be the “central operating hub” for each of the labels under it, with former Republic Records co-chairman Jim Ropo serving as president and COO of the new general group, reporting to Monte Lipman and Avery Lipman.

Under Roppo, each label has individual leaders, many of whom remain in the same roles they had before the reorganization: Republic Records will now be led by the president and chief creative officer; Wendy Goldstein, former co-president of the Republic together with Roppo. Mercury Records will continue to be run by the chairman Tyler Arnold and general manager Ben Adelson; Island Records will remain under the responsibility of the co-CEOs Justin Eschak and Imran Majid; Def Jam Recordings will remain under the Chairman/CEO Tunji Balogun; and IMPERIAL Music/Casablanca Records will continue to be run by the chairman Glenn Menlinger. Each of the companies will retain “complete independence and autonomy” under the new structure, according to a statement.

Roppo, head of the House of Democracy. teams, will be responsible for the shared services department that will operate at each of the labels, with former head of global trade of the Republic Kevin Lipson becomes its 'captain in chief', with an expanded role to include revenue strategy across the group. They will lead a series of joint divisions, led by executives from various East Coast tag teams.

Head of Promotion for the former Republic Records Gary Spangler will be given the same title in the new House, backed by the former Republic Records executive Lucas Romeo and former head of island promotions Ayelet Schiffman in support and shape leads that include former Def Jam exec Natina Nimene urban supervision; and former officials of the Republic Gary Dumler overseeing pop, Davey Dee Ingenloff monitoring the rhythm, Manny Simon adult supervision and Amanda Dobbins overseeing the rock.

Most recently General Manager of Island Records, Mike Alexander is moving into a new role overseeing global marketing at Republic Corps, with a team consisting of Mayra De Castro (Def Jam), Steve Rowan (Island) and Zoe Briggs (Republic/Mercury). In addition, former head of the Republic's media Joseph Carozza will lead the media strategy for the House, with a team consisting of Beau Benton (Democracy), Marissa Bianco (Hermes), Lauren Ceradini (Def Jam) and Lauren Snyder (Island).

On the legal side, two executives who previously worked for parent Universal Music on behalf of all East Coast labels will retain their titles in the new Republic Corps. designation: Steve Gawley will remain as executive vice president of operations & legal affairs and business development, while Joe Schmidt retains the title of executive vp/CFO, and both will report directly to Lipmans. In addition, House of Democracy. will include teams led by Jenny Beale (Production), Brittney Ramsdell (creative synchronization), Meredith Oliver and Lisa Corsey (A&R Management) and a data and analytics team, according to a release.

The new House of Democracy. The structure comes amid the broader reorganization of Universal Music Group's labels announced by the Chairman/CEO of UMG Lucian Grainge on February 1, which split the tags into an East Coast-West Coast structure, with Republic Corps. which includes the East Coast section. The West Coast labels, under the President/CEO John Janick, have been rebranded as the Interscope Capitol Labels Group, with that structure coming into focus last week. Both companies have undergone extensive layoffs as part of the reorganization, which included combining several promotions and publicity of several labels into shared services divisions, among other moves.