In December 2021, when Michelle Jubelirer grew to become Capitol Music Group chair/CEO — and Capitol’s first feminine chief government in its 80-plus-year historical past — she didn’t take a lot time to dwell on her historic accomplishment: She had a flailing firm to avoid wasting.
“The challenges [I inherited] had been plentiful,” Jubelirer admits. CMG confronted a falling market share, employees turnover, pandemic challenges and an unwieldy artist roster. “The reality is,” she says, “a number of change occurred in a brief time period.”
Many believed Jubelirer, then CMG’s COO, was destined for Capitol’s high job the yr prior. By that point, her résumé already included a stint at a white-shoe regulation agency, years in authorized affairs at Sony and almost a decade as an artist lawyer for acts like Nas, Pharrell Williams and Frank Ocean — plus nearly a decade in Capitol’s high ranks. When her longtime mentor, Steve Barnett, stepped down as CMG chair/CEO on the finish of 2020, Jubelirer appeared to some to be a pure selection to interchange him. However Common Music Group (UMG) chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge handed the position to Capitol Information president Jeff Vaughn as an alternative. (Within the shift, Jubelirer was elevated to CMG president/COO.) When Vaughn assumed his new position, the corporate was already on shaky floor; below his management, it continued to falter.
After lower than a yr as CEO, Vaughn left the corporate, and Jubelirer was elevated to the put up. Together with her steerage, the label group’s fortunes rapidly began to vary. At a time when minting new superstars is tougher than ever, the corporate received a bidding conflict (alongside 10K Initiatives) in fall 2022 for Ice Spice, who would develop into the defining breakout star of 2023. It additionally topped the Billboard Scorching 100 with queer anthem “Unholy” by Sam Smith and Kim Petras, labored with Common Music Enterprises to deliver again The Beatles with the synthetic intelligence-powered single “Now and Then,” achieved TikTok virality with Doechii’s “Block Boy (What It Is)” (in a brand new partnership with Prime Dawg Leisure) and reinvigorated the artwork of the music video — which has declined in reputation in recent times — with Troye Sivan’s inventive clips for “Rush,” “One in all Your Women” and “Received Me Began.”
These successes didn’t insulate CMG from affect amid UMG’s widespread restructuring in 2024, although. On Feb. 1 — shortly after Jubelirer’s interview for this story — UMG revealed a lot of its plan: Its frontline label system could be cut up beneath one East Coast government (Republic’s Monte Lipman) and one West Coast government (Interscope’s John Janick), Grainge defined in a letter to employees. The restructure would have moved Jubelirer, who was reporting on to Grainge, below Janick. Six days later, Jubelirer wrote a heartfelt message to her employees saying her exit, efficient instantly.
“After I joined Capitol, I made a stringent promise to myself,” Jubelirer stated in a Feb. 2 speech at an Leisure Legislation Initiative occasion in Los Angeles. “The day I finished altering the file firm greater than it was altering me could be the day I’d stroll away.”
As she finalizes the small print of her exit from UMG, Jubelirer declined to debate her future plans — or Capitol’s. However whether or not she stays within the label enterprise, goes into administration or does one thing else solely, her affect on Capitol and its artists is obvious. “She’s the fiercest in relation to defending artists,” says Jody Gerson, chair/CEO of Common Music Publishing Group (UMPG) and Jubelirer’s longtime buddy. “She’s not afraid to struggle for what she believes is true.”
“I’m so honored to have labored with such an excellent lady and boss like Michelle,” Ice Spice says. “She at all times believed in me and supported my imaginative and prescient from the very starting. I’m so grateful for her and all that she has accomplished.”
What are a few of your greatest wins over the past two years?
At first, I feel the most important win is the unbelievable staff. And what we’ve been in a position to do in two brief years, I feel it’s the quickest turnaround of a file label. And fairly frankly, we’ve been in a position to signal a various roster of artists and modernize the label whereas prioritizing artists and making certain that every artist will get uniquely what they want.
How do you steadiness Capitol’s storied historical past and what you need it to signify at this time?
On condition that it has been in existence for 80-plus years, it wasn’t misplaced on me that I used to be the primary lady chair/CEO. And that’s not an excellent reality, let’s admit, for all girls. However the actuality is the grandeur of the corporate and its [previous] artists’ paths will not be the main target. The main focus is the brand new, recent artists that we’re breaking day in and time out.
How has your background at Capitol helped you as chair/CEO?
It’s sort of humorous: I feel I’ve been main the corporate all alongside in my eleven-plus years right here. [When I became CEO], I knew all of our staff, I knew the entire artists. That basically helped. However in the beginning, essentially the most instructional piece for me was earlier than I bought to Capitol, once I was an legal professional. In my coronary heart of hearts — it doesn’t matter what my title is or the place I work — I’m an artist advocate at my core. That’s who I’m. That’s the thought I deliver each single day to my job.
What was your first transfer as CEO to course-correct Capitol?
The three main pillars I labored on had been signing a various group of artists, making certain that the corporate was reorganized in a manner for artists to work together with labels in the best way that followers work together with artists and making certain that artists had been prioritized in a manner that was proper for them particularly.
Capitol Information/10K Initiatives signee Ice Spice was certainly one of 2023’s greatest breakout stars. What units her aside?
There’s no query about it: She is the breakout artist of 2023. I don’t assume anybody might argue in any other case. And moving into enterprise along with her [has been] extremely thrilling and motivating. Ice is a lady’s lady, and she or he surrounded herself with sturdy girls and signed with sturdy girls. I’m simply certainly one of them. She signed with [UMPG’s] Jody Gerson on the publishing aspect. She has made the correct decisions in her profession each step of the best way, from her look to her circulation to her collaborations. She is aware of precisely who she is, and she or he’s unwavering about it.
What’s the key to label success at this time? You’ve had new successes within the final yr whereas many labels have struggled to interrupt any artists.
Finally, all the things is concerning the artist and the staff of individuals. Now we have these each in spades. I imply, it was unbelievable to see the truth that we had been the No. 1 TikTok label for 2023. Who would have thought {that a} yr or two in the past for Capitol Music Group?
Did you at all times dream of being a record-label CEO?
My dad died once I was 3 years previous. I watched my mom wrestle to determine how one can deal with our household. Music bought me via the entire onerous instances. Not like our artists, nonetheless, I had zero expertise, and I knew it from a younger age. (Laughs.) I wasn’t moving into music based mostly on any expertise that I had.
My father was a lawyer, and I knew that financially I wanted a approach to deal with myself. So I went to regulation faculty, graduated with a number of debt and have become a mergers and acquisitions lawyer at a giant white-shoe regulation agency in Manhattan. If something about me, that I’m not the conservative kind; I usually put on a “F–okay you” belt. I didn’t actually slot in on the white-shoe regulation agency, however I had a plan to enter the music business.
As quickly as I paid off my loans, I bought a job as a lawyer at Sony Music. I used to be there for 2 years, and I didn’t love being a cog. I had been in New York Metropolis for 10 years at the moment and was able to attempt Los Angeles. I used to be additionally relationship a man in Los Angeles, and that was a part of the explanation that I moved — as I let you know that, I see the feminism seeping outdoors of my physique, however that’s true.
After I bought to L.A., I referred to as all of the legal professionals I had negotiated towards who had been artists’ attorneys and met Peter Paterno. I bought a job working for him [at the firm now known as King Holmes Paterno & Soriano] and advised him that for one yr I’d service his shoppers, after which I’d have all my very own shoppers after that.
Whereas that will appear to be bravado, that got here to fruition. I grew to become a companion there after three years and practiced regulation there for 9 years, representing artists. Then I met Steve Barnett, who was co-head of Columbia Information on the time. We negotiated towards one another in a deal for Odd Future and Tyler, The Creator. He stated, “You pantsed me in that deal, you pantsed Columbia in that deal. If I ever go elsewhere, you’re going to be my first rent.” And it occurred. I used to be his first rent [when he became CMG CEO].
How did he persuade you to maneuver to the label aspect?
I at all times dreamed of working a file label from once I was 12 years previous. I didn’t know if it will ever occur as a result of, fairly frankly, I completely love representing artists and the artists that I had. When Steve approached me, imagine me, I put him via the wringer. I requested him each hard-hitting query I might as I made a decision whether or not I might nonetheless be myself and be an artist advocate throughout the system.
Finally, I selected to make the transition for 2 causes. No. 1: I felt like now, greater than ever, artists and file labels must companion with one another. And also you want an artist advocate throughout the label to ensure that an artist to really feel really snug and at dwelling. No. 2: I felt like I might make an even bigger change at a file label than I might make being an artist legal professional.
In your profession, have you ever confronted adversity or discrimination that your male counterparts haven’t?
Since I entered the music business as a lawyer, I’ve been afforded a defend that many ladies within the music business don’t have. Due to that I’ve been protected against loads — as a result of, fairly frankly, individuals are afraid of legal professionals.
However the actuality is, once I began as a lawyer, I didn’t have that defend. In certainly one of my first annual evaluations at [my first law firm], I used to be carrying a white shirt. I’m somebody who at all times wears black, and the companion giving me my overview took his water bottle [and] sprayed it on me. You possibly can think about what he might see. Then he stated, “All proper, we’re prepared in your overview now.” On the time, I folded my arms and simply plodded on and let him give me his overview. I did nothing about it. I beat myself as much as this present day that I did nothing about it as a result of I’m positive he then did that to a number of girls after me. Now I cannot be quiet when issues like that occur round me.
This story will seem within the March 2, 2024, difficulty of Billboard.
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