Music Industry Moves: Ticketmaster Names Saumil Mehta Global President to Grow AI Opportunities Thania GarciaOctober 15, 2025 at 10:15 PM 0 Ticketmaster Ticketmaster has appointed Saumil Mehta as its new global president, reporting to Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, effective Nov. 1.
- - Music Industry Moves: Ticketmaster Names Saumil Mehta Global President to Grow AI Opportunities
Thania GarciaOctober 15, 2025 at 10:15 PM
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Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster has appointed Saumil Mehta as its new global president, reporting to Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, effective Nov. 1. Mehta succeeds Mark Yovich, who has served as president since 2020 and will now become chairman of Ticketmaster with a focus on the company's long-term strategy and global growth.
"Ticketmaster is an incredible business that serves as the world's portal to the best live entertainment," said Mehta. "The real opportunity lies in how we evolve the experience by building smarter and more intuitive ways for fans to connect with the live experiences that matter so much to them."
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Under his leadership, Ticketmaster will execute AI opportunities for venues, fortifying the ticketing infrastructure against bad actors, and enhancing the ticket-buying experience for fans.
Michael Rapino, CEO of Live Nation Entertainment, added, "Over the past several years, Ticketmaster has been working to build a strong foundation for the next phase of growth. Saumil brings a fresh perspective and deep product and technology expertise that will help us build on that momentum."
Mehta steps into the role with a strong foundation in product innovation, scaling technology businesses and global commerce. He spent over nine years at Square, where he was most recently chief product officer and head of business org.
Prior to this role, Mehta founded LocBox, a marketing automation startup that helped local businesses grow through targeted, multi-channel marketing, which was acquired by Square in 2015.
+ Nice Life Recording Company (NLRC) has signed LA-based singer-songwriter Beatrix (Arielle Kasnetz). Beatrix joins the label home to Lizzo, the Marías and Tinashe, amongst others.
On the signing of Beatrix, NLRC Founder and CEO Ricky Reed shared, "Beatrix is an artist who has already written and recorded songs that stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the great works of our time. I was blown away by her talent upon meeting her, but her kindness, work ethic, and dedication to her craft solidified her as a perfect fit for Nice Life. We are so excited to welcome her to the family and to introduce her art to the world."
Beatrix added, "I'm thrilled to be joining Nice Life after putting my first album out independently. Ricky has assembled a special group of people – from our first meeting and through each step in the process they've understood and supported my vision and I'm so excited to partner with them."
The announcement follows the release of Beatrix's first single and accompanying video under the newly inked partnership, "Ghosts of Tennessee."
+ Big Picture Media has upped Natalie Schaffer to vice president, and Becky Kovach to director of publicity. Founded in 2007 by Ghiraldi-Travers, Big Picture Media was born from a vision of providing unwavering dedication to clients across all areas of publicity.
Leading the New York City office, Schaffer has been a part of Big Picture Media since 2013. A California native, she began her tenure at BPM in the original Los Angeles office before relocating to New York City in 2015 as the agency unified its staff under one roof.
"I'm incredibly excited to step into this new role as Vice President at Big Picture Media," said Schaffer. "After over a decade with the company, I'm proud of how far we've come and energized about where we're headed."
Kovach has been with the company for over a decade, successfully running BPM's competitive internship program while leading press campaigns for artists like Winona Fighter, LS Dunes, Lilith Czar, American Authors, Bayside, Switchfoot, Simple Plan and Midtown, among others.
"I feel so honored to follow in Natalie's footsteps as Big Picture Media's new Director of Publicity," Kovach shared. "Over the past decade I have learned so much from her and Dayna about what it takes to be a good publicist: dedication, creativity, and, above all, passion. Even as an intern it was clear to me that Big Picture Media cares deeply about the clients."
In addition to its recent promotions, Big Picture Media has added Los Angeles–based publicist Liz Wiltshire. Liz joins the company after three years at The Oriel Company, where she worked on projects for artists including Hot Mulligan, Finn Wolfhard, Barry Can't Swim, Katie Gavin of Muna, and more.
Tuesday, Oct. 14
Universal Music Publishing Group has inked the Marías to an exclusive, worldwide music publishing agreement.
Known for their fusion of alternative, psychedelic rock, jazz and Latin, the Latin Grammy-nominated band is comprised of Atlanta-raised María Zardoya, Los Angeles native Josh Conway, Jesse Perlman on guitar and Edward James on keys.
Zardoya said, "We're thrilled to sign with Jen and Ana Rosa at Universal Music Publishing. Having spent some time with them alongside Jody Gerson, we trust they're the perfect partners to guide us through the next phase of our collective and individual writing career(s)."
Most recently, Zardoya released her debut solo album under the moniker Not for Radio entitled "Melt." Beyond their own records, the Marías have also collaborated with Bad Bunny, Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco, and toured with Billie Eilish on her sold-out arena run.
UMPG's Jennifer Knoepfle, executive vice president and head of U.S., and Ana Rosa Santiago, senior VP of Latin music, said, "It's so exciting to work with a band like the Marías who are so clear and singular in their vision. They have cultivated a devoted audience over the last several years and are now on the cusp of the global stage. We could not be more ecstatic to partner with them at such an exciting time."
+ Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Chappell Roan, Dina LaPolt, Larry Mestel and Girls Make Beats were recognized by the Songwriters of North America (SONA) at the Warrior Awards on Oct. 12 in Los Angeles.
SONA additionally awarded Toby Lightman with the 2025 Emerging Songwriter Warrior Award, presented by YouTube Songwriters. Linda Perry made a surprise appearance, and delivered a performance, while Bonnie McKee and Shane Stevens hosted.
+ Rebellion Records, the independent label co-founded by artist and CEO Michael Turner (PLVTINUM) and COO Daniel Nall, has announced a strategic seven-figure partnership with music technology company Too Lost. The deal combines capital investment with Too Lost's technology to accelerate Rebellion's rapid artist development model.
Since launching just two years ago, Rebellion has experienced breakout success with Chris Grey, who grew from 100,000 to over six million monthly Spotify listeners and earned a JUNO Award nomination within his first year at the label, as well as Vana, whose single "Beg" topped Octane Radio.
"Michael and the Rebellion team have an incredible vision to build artists up by focusing heavily on user-generated social engagement," said Gregory Hirschhorn, CEO of Too Lost. "The team has extraordinary taste and a fantastic track record. Too Lost's investment and our larger partnership will help Rebellion reach new heights."
"Too Lost brings best-in-class distribution technology, financial firepower, and a shared appetite to break molds to this partnership," said Michael Turner, co-Founder and CEO of Rebellion Records. "With our teams aligned, we'll leverage our viral engine at scale, sign zeitgeist artists, and move faster than the industry can copy."
+ Warner Chappell Music (WCM) Nashville has promoted experienced music executive Christina Wiltshire to VP, A&R. In her new role, she will continue to elevate Nashville's presence by discovering and fostering top talent, and facilitating local and international collaborations and partnerships. She will be reporting to Austen Adams, President, WCM Nashville.
Wiltshire shared: "Feeling incredibly grateful to Austen, Phil, Guy, and Carianne for believing in my growth and creative vision at WCM. It's a privilege to work alongside such talented songwriters and artists – and I'm deeply passionate about championing their songs and finding them innovative opportunities.
Wiltshire joined WCM in 2019 as director, A&R, having previously served as creative director at Sea Gayle Music. Prior to that, she served as creative coordinator at Patrick Joseph Music/SONGS, learning directly from the legendary music publisher Pat Higdon.
+ Tesseract Music and Hawkeye Music Publishing have announced a strategic partnership to acquire and manage music related intellectual property rights including "name, image, and likeness" ("NIL") rights for licensing and merchandising.
Hawkeye Music Publishing is founded by Richard Stumpf, founder and former CEO of Atlas Music Publishing, president of Imagem Music, US and senior VP at Cherry Lane Music. Tesseract Music is an intellectual property management company founded by Richard Seet, an entrepreneur who has been backed by major strategic and/or private equity investors including United Business Media (Informa PLC), Angelo Gordon and Company, and Brookfield, amongst others; and Charles Riotto, the former President of LIMA (International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association).
The partnership has access to $50 million in equity capital from family offices and high net worth investors to actualize its business plan. The principals are in discussions with numerous debt providers to supplement their capital stack and are in conversations with music catalog owners to acquire their copyright libraries.
+ 1916 Enterprises is promoting Ruchir Mohan to partner as he leads the launch of the company's artist management and services division.
1916 is led by Founder/CEO Jonathan Gordon, who has knowledge and experience across several verticals in music publishing, including records, film and TV, and investments. This expands them further into management, with new signings including Tommy Genesis (Ultra), Christian Hayes (Capitol), LOVELI LORI (broke. Records) and gavn! (Th3rd Brain).
Ruchir will keep overseeing the publishing and producer management verticals where he works with Yung Lan, James Maddocks and Jack Riley, among others.
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