SoundExchange Hires Music Industry Veteran Barry LeVine as VP of Industry Relations

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- SoundExchange today announced the hire of Barry LeVine as vice president of Industry Relations. In this role, he will lead the organization's artist and label outreach program, along with driving strategic relationships with other organizations within the music community.  

Barry has more than 25 years of industry experience in various capacities, including entertainment relations, partnership development and relationship marketing. Most recently, Barry served as global executive vice president of Entertainment Relations at Gibson Brands. In this capacity, he was responsible for maximizing relationships within the entertainment world and creating awareness of Gibson entertainment and lifestyle products in 19 markets worldwide.

"I'm pleased to announce Barry LeVine will join us as our vice president of Industry Relations. He brings a solid reputation and broad set of industry and artist outreach skills to our team," said SoundExchange President and CEO Michael Huppe. "Barry's unique experience will be key in the development of new programs for the 90,000 artist and 28,000 rights owner accounts that we currently serve, as well as creating new connections and opportunities as we move SoundExchange into its next chapter."

"It's exciting to join a group of individuals who are committed advocates for recording artists and rights owners," said Barry LeVine, vice president of Industry Relations, SoundExchange. "As the music industry continues to evolve to meet the demands of a digital world, SoundExchange is at the forefront of ensuring a fair and balanced approach for getting artists paid for their work. I look forward to fostering our strong relationships with the creative community so we can work together to move the music industry forward."

Prior to Gibson, Barry served in senior management roles at ShoutCrowd Media/Fan2Band Inc. and SonyBMG Music Entertainment. He has experience developing revenue-driving national programs for publicly traded companies and organizations across a number of industries, including entertainment and technology. In the past, Barry played a critical role establishing a number of key initiatives, including creating recruitment programs for promising young entertainment executives; building out membership rewards initiatives for major record labels; and developing programs on behalf of major brands to influence consumer behavior and drive sales.   

About SoundExchange
SoundExchange is the non-profit performance rights organization representing the entire recorded music industry. The organization collects statutory royalties on behalf of recording artists and master rights owners for the use of their content from satellite radio, Internet radio, cable TV music channels and other services that stream sound recordings. The Copyright Royalty Board, created by Congress, has entrusted SoundExchange as the only entity in the United States to collect and distribute these digital performance royalties from more than 2,000 services. SoundExchange has paid out more than $1.5 billion in royalties since its inception. For more information, visit www.SoundExchange.com or www.facebook.com/soundexchange.

SOURCE SoundExchange