Warner Chappell Australia MD to Depart as WMG Eliminates 10% of Staff

The fallout from Warner Music Group's company-wide slaughter has already reached Australia, where Warner Chappell's domestic chief Matthew Capper is understood to be among the departures.

Capper has led Warner Chappell Australia as managing director since 2010 and has more than 20 years of service with the company.

A popular figure in the music publishing community, Capper joined Warner Chappell in 2003, initially as a copyright/rights analyst, was promoted to general manager in 2004, and was named managing director in July 2010.

Before working at Warner Chappell, Capper cut his teeth as managing director at festival Music Publishing, a now independent Australian independent music publishing brand that was acquired by Mushroom Music in 2005.

In addition to his duties leading Warner Chappell's Melbourne subsidiary, he is a non-executive director of APRA and AMCOS, deputy chairman of AMCOS, chairman and non-executive director of publishers' trade association AMPAL and treasurer and non-executive director of ICMP. global trade organization representing the music publishing industry worldwide.

On his election to APRA's board in 2007, he became the agency's youngest copyright director, aged 30 – a record that still stands.

Capper will finish with Warner Chappell Australia on February 29, 2024, sources say, linked to sweeping changes announced earlier in the week by Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl.

In an internal memo to staff received Advertising sign, Kyncl wrote that the company will cut its workforce by 10%, or about 600 people, as part of a plan to free up $200 million in cost savings to reinvest in the business.

These cost savings will be realized by the end of September 2025, Kyncl said in the note. Some of those laid off have already started to be notified, while the “vast majority” will be notified “by the end of September 2024,” he writes.

“As we implement our plan, it is important to keep in mind why we are making these difficult choices,” the memo continues. “We are on track to create a sustainable competitive advantage over the next decade. We will do this by increasing the funding behind artists and songwriters, new skill sets and technology to help us deliver on our three strategic priorities,” which he says include growing engagement with music, increasing the value of music and the evolution of how the Warner teams work together.”

Shortly before news of these company-wide cuts broke, WMG announced that its quarterly revenue rose 17% for the period ending December 31, 2023, up 11% on normalized revenue, to $1.75 billion — its highest quarterly result ever.