What is it with digital services pinching Warner Music Group execs?

TikTok’s global music licensing team is currently led by two ex-senior WMG’ers in Ole Obermann and Tracy Gardner.

Facebook’s music team, meanwhile, is run by ex-Warner exec Tamara Hrivnak, whose understudy at Mark Zuckerberg’s company, Jeremy Sirota – also ex-WMG – was recently named CEO of global indie rights agency Merlin.

Over at YouTube, former Warner Bros boss Lyor Cohen leads the global music team, working with another senior ex-Warner figure in Stephen Bryan. And, in EMEA, YouTube Music is now being run by Dan Chalmers – the respected Brit who previously ran Warner divisions in London including distribution/services arm ADA, plus imprints East West and Rhino.

Now, we have another big name to add to this list.

Jeff Bronikowski has worked at Warner’s New York office for the best part of the past three years, in the position of Senior Vice President, Global Business Development/Head of New Technology & Innovation.

Now, though, according to a LinkedIn update, he has a new, high-powered job at Apple – Global Head of Strategic Music Initiatives.

Bronikowski (pictured) – who was hired by Ole Obermann at Warner – is giving nothing else away about his New York-based role, aside from the fact that he started last month.

Fact is, his job title has the words ‘Global’, ‘Apple’ and ‘Music’ in it – which alone suggests that Bronikowski’s influence in the worldwide business is only set to grow.

Apple confirmed it had over 60m subscribers to its Apple Music service at the end of June last year. Spotify recently confirmed that six months later, at the close of 2019, it counted 124 Premium Subs on its platform.

Prior to joining WMG, Bronikowski held leadership positions at Tribeca Shortlist, IAC, The Echo Nest, AOL, and Universal Music Group.Music Business Worldwide