Sony Music Names A&R Veteran Ezekiel Lewis Chairman and CEO of Epic Records
Sony Music appointed Ezekiel Lewis as Chairman and CEO of Epic Records, effective March 30, filling the top role with an internal promotion. Lewis joined Epic in 2018 as EVP of A&R and was named President in 2023. He is a Grammy-winning songwriter and producer whose artist development work spans 21 Savage, Travis Scott, Future, Madison Beer, and GIVEON, among others. He reports to Rob Stringer, Chairman of Sony Music Group, who said Lewis is 'eminently qualified to take the label forward as its leader.'
THE BREAKDOWN
A CEO from an A&R background rather than operations or finance signals that Epic will prioritize artist development over catalog monetization and cost cutting in the near term. For managers and agents currently in label deal negotiations with Epic, Lewis's personal track record in creative direction is a talking point: the incoming CEO has built his career on artist relationships, which tends to produce less adversarial deal structures at the outset. Anyone who built a direct working relationship with Lewis during his A&R years now has access to the CEO seat -- that is a rare advantage to use in negotiations. Watch for A&R-weighted deal terms at Epic to be slightly more favorable over the next 12 to 18 months.
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