Sentric hires Simon Perry as President and Head of A&R, North America

Move marks indie publisher’s full entry into US market

Sentric has hired senior industry creative and executive Simon Perry as President and Head of A&R, North America, signalling the independent publisher’s full entry into the US market and further global expansion. 

In the two newly created roles, Perry will establish Sentric’s operations in North America, hiring staff in every major US market across offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Nashville, Atlanta, Miami and the Mid-West.

Perry will join Sentric’s leadership team, and report directly to CEO Chris Meehan. He will be tasked with growing the company’s global footprint and building a North American network of industry executives to spearhead Sentric’s growth in the region. The team will grow Sentric’s roster of clients and utilise the company’s comprehensive suite of publishing services to benefit writers at every stage of their careers.

He will also help bolster Sentric’s wider tech-enabled artist identification and development capabilities, allowing the company to uncover talented prospects early in their careers.

Perry began his creative career as a BMG-signed artist, later signing a publishing deal with Steve Mac and becoming a multi-platinum writer and producer. In the UK alone, he has had three No.1 albums and seven Top 20 singles.

He has a broad range of writing and production credits ranging from pop acts including Westlife and Sandi Thom, solo releases for members of Busted, Blue, Steps, and Atomic Kitten, to indie rock acts including Echo And The Bunnymen’s critically acclaimed 11th studio album, The Fountain. Perry continues to write and produce today..

As an executive, he founded licensing initiative Archangel Media with Nettwerk’s Maria Alonte. Most recently, he spent 8 years as Chief Creative Officer and Head of A&R at leading US artist services platform ReverbNation, which was recently acquired by BandLab.

At ReverbNation, he oversaw all rights, licensing, brand and A&R initiatives. He designed, built and led the company’s award winning, industry-first, data driven scouting-at-scale capability. The platform was utilised to identify the best emerging artists by major and leading indie labels, publishers, marquee festivals and brands. 

Perry also designed and launched ReverbNation’s tech-enabled artist development CONNECT Program, which boosted DSP streams from less than 5,000 to more than 30 million in 18 months across 300 previously unknown acts.

Sentric Music Group CEO Chris Meehan said: “I am very excited to be welcoming Simon to the team as he is the perfect candidate to start building on the foundations of our US operations which represents an important step in the next stage of our international growth.  After working with him for some time as a partner it was evident to me that his work ethic and values completely align with that of Sentric. With experience as both an artist, writer/producer and an executive, he brings with him a unique blend of tech expertise and a deep understanding of the creative needs of our writers and artists. I look forward to honing in on that skill set to strengthen our commitment to early-stage artist identification and development.”

Sentric Creative Director Peter McCamley said: “I’ve known Simon as a writer and producer since he came to Windswept via a partnership with Steve Mac. He has a great track record of developing artists, and his career sales speak for themselves. We’ve also been following his work as a creative executive, and no one understands the space around tech-driven artist discovery quite like him, I am wholly certain he will bring a host of exciting opportunities for the company and our clients.” 

Perry said: “I’m excited to be joining Sentric, particularly at this moment when technology is creating both challenges and opportunities in publishing. As a company, Sentric seems uniquely equipped to address both of those.  I’ve worked with Chris for over a decade as a business partner, so I know how good he and the team are at what they do. I’ve also known Pete since my days as a writer at Windswept, and know first-hand he is the very best a writer could wish for in a publisher.”