Top Publishing Exec Kos Weaver Exits BMG Nashville
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One of Nashville’s top-ranked music publishing executives, Kos Weaver, is out at BMG after a reorganization, the company has confirmed.
Weaver, an executive VP at BMG Nashville, had worked with songwriters including Hillary Lindsey, Carly Pearce, Margo Price, Kings of Leon, Russell Dickerson, Runaway June, Shy Carter, Buddy Miller and the late Busbee. He was a fixture of who’s who in Nashville lists since joining the company in 2013, after previously serving as VP of publishing at Disney Music and an A&R VP at Warner-Chappell Music before that.
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Three support staffers also exited the company along with Weaver in the reorganization. No changes were made in the other two divisions of BMG’s Nashville operation, its label side (BBR Music Group) and its royalties/copyright department.
The company minimized the disruption in a statement. “Nashville is a major growth market for BMG,” the statement read. “The restructuring is consistent with our ongoing US strategy — maintaining our core strength and position in publishing while increasing our investment in writer-performers (case in point: Lewis Capaldi going to #1 in the U.S.). We are now extending that approach to Nashville and it requires a different skillset and experience, hence the reorganization. Kos’s success over the past years speaks for itself and we wish him well.”
Reports indicate the position will not be filled. If so, that would leave Weaver’s co-head, Jon Loba, EVP of the BBR Music Group, solely in charge of BMG’s Nashville operations. Another top exec at the company, Zack Katz, left at the end of 2018. Loba came aboard at BMG three years ago when the company acquired the Broken Bow Music Group, which had become a powerhouse in country music with the ascent of Jason Aldean.
The current importance of Nashville to BMG was reinforced in the September opening of a 36,000-square foot office on Music Row that houses the three combined divisions. BMG quoted Weaver in a press release just six weeks ago as boasting about the new facility, “The new Nashville set-up typifies the BMG approach,” Weaver said then. “It’s a thrill being in an environment where you have writers working on a song in one room, the creative A&R team just outside those doors, an impressive full-service record label just beyond that, and a world-class administrative team all seamlessly integrated in the same office.”
Variety has reached out to Weaver for comment.
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