Christian P. Pewitt Blogs: Exec Charged With Supporting New Musicians For BBC Just Took A Job At Amazon

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Exec Charged With Supporting New Musicians For BBC Just Took A Job At Amazon

By many measures, Amazon has the biggest U.S. reach of any music streamer. Populated by more casual listeners, who get it bundled with Amazon Prime, the service now appears to turning to discovery - a move that could mean millions of new fans for emerging artists.

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Jason Carter, longtime head of popular music at the BBC, has left the organization for a new gig at Amazon Music.

According to Music Week, Carter is confirmed to be joining the Amazon team in a music-related capacity, though the exact nature of that role has not been announced.

While at the BBC, was responsible for BBC Introducing, an initiative supporting new and emerging musicians across the BBC. Carter also lead the delivery of all of the BBC’s live music events and concerts across BBC Radio 1, Radio 1Xtra, Radio 2, 6 Music and Asian Network.

Bob Shennan, director of music and radio, told Music Week: "Jason has worked at the BBC for nearly 20 years and has been a critical leader in the development of our Live Events team, shaping many of the BBC’s most successful and high profile audience-facing events. He is the man who launched BBC Introducing, some 10 years ago, which launched the careers of artists including Florence and the Machine, George Ezra, James Bay and Jake Bugg. More recently Jason has been a key figure in the development of BBC Music. He will leave a thriving legacy and everyone at BBC Music wishes him well for his new future venture."

Carter's departure comes after a dismal quarterly financial report, which saw flagship radio station BBC Radio One post an average of 9.56m weekly listeners, down by more than 768,000 over last year.

via Celebrity Access