Spotify has promoted Joe Hadley to VP of International Music Content material and Partnerships.
The transfer palms Hadley management of Spotify‘s Music Editorial and Music Partnerships groups. It widens his remit throughout the corporate’s relationships with artists, labels, and the broader music trade.
Spotify says the brand new construction will protect Editorial’s “distinct voice, experience, and decision-making,” whereas creating “a extra related Music crew.”
“Editorial is a key a part of bringing a vital human contact to Spotify,” mentioned Charlie Hellman, SVP and International Head of Music at Spotify. “The crew’s judgment and style is what followers and artists depend on.
“Joe‘s succesful management will preserve artist advocacy on the middle of our work and convey much more influence to the programming we do.”
Charlie Hellman, Spotify
“Joe‘s succesful management will preserve artist advocacy on the middle of our work and convey much more influence to the programming we do.”
“Joe‘s succesful management will preserve artist advocacy on the middle of our work and convey much more influence to the programming we do.”
Hadley‘s expanded function sits contained in the Music group Hellman leads.
J.J. Italiano has been named Head of Editorial as a part of the identical restructuring.
Italiano‘s function covers International Curation, North American Editorial, and general editorial technique.
Italiano stories to Hadley.
In his earlier function as International Head of Music Partnerships & Viewers, Hadley ran Spotify‘s international and North American partnership features, spanning label, artist, songwriter, and writer relationships, in addition to viewers and style technique.
Italiano steps up round three months after Sulinna Ong – beforehand Spotify‘s International Head of Editorial & Curation, Music – exited the corporate to hitch U2’s administration crew.
Ong joined as a Administration Companion alongside Irving and Jeffrey Azoff, having held Spotify‘s high editorial job since October 2021.
She was named a Billboard Ladies in Music Govt Honoree for 4 years working, from 2023 by way of 2026.
The place Ong‘s function had reported alongside Hadley‘s, Italiano‘s stories to him.
Hadley‘s promotion lands inside a Music group that Spotify has been consolidating since 2024.
International Head of Music Jeremy Erlich exited in October 2024, and his direct stories – Ong and Hadley amongst them – moved below David Kaefer, then the platform’s VP Music & Audiobook Enterprise.
Hellman grew to become SVP and International Head of Music in October 2025, succeeding Kaefer, who left after seven years on the firm.
Asserting that change in an inside memo obtained by MBW, Alex Norström – then Spotify‘s co-President and Chief Enterprise Officer – wrote that “as we enter our subsequent period of scale, we’re centralizing all music features below his management.”
Norström credited Kaefer in the identical memo with main “key music features, together with Editorial, Partnerships, and GTM.”
Norström grew to become co-CEO alongside Gustav Söderström on January 1, 2026, when founder Daniel Ek moved to Govt Chairman.
The reshuffle additionally arrives as Spotify pushes its editorial crew additional into public view.
The corporate launched Playlist Notes and Editor Profiles on August 17, letting editors connect written context to tracks on playlists together with In the present day’s High Hits and RapCaviar, and giving the editors their very own pages contained in the app.
Hadley joined Spotify in March 2022 as International Head of Artist Partnerships & Viewers, arriving from CAA.
He had spent 5 years at The Windish Company from 2011 earlier than becoming a member of CAA in 2016, happening to change into International Co-Head of Hip-Hop & R&B.
He has described the artists he labored with at Windish as “very a lot left-of-center, however with a robust touring enterprise.”
His purchasers at CAA included Beyoncé, A$AP Rocky, Jorja Smith, and Tems, and he additionally helped lead the company’s range, fairness, and inclusion work.
Spotify closed Q2 2026 with 777 million Month-to-month Energetic Customers and 300 million Premium subscribers.Music Enterprise Worldwide
