{"id":204174,"date":"2025-11-12T03:10:40","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T08:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/11\/12\/merlin-names-charlie-lexton-as-new-ceo-2\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T03:10:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T08:10:40","slug":"merlin-names-charlie-lexton-as-new-ceo-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/11\/12\/merlin-names-charlie-lexton-as-new-ceo-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Merlin Names Charlie Lexton as New\u00a0CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tMerlin has appointed Charlie Lexton<\/strong> as its next CEO, effective Jan. 1, the indie licensing organization announced Wednesday (Nov. 12). Lexton will succeed Jeremy Sirota<\/strong>, who announced his exit<\/a> in May after serving in the role since 2020.<\/p>\n

\n\tLexton has worked for Merlin since its 2007 founding and has served as the organization\u2019s COO since April 2020. He has played a key role in a number of important developments at the agency \u2014 from negotiating licensing deals with streamers and social media platforms to forming a recently announced partnership<\/a> with AI audio company ElevenLabs, through which Merlin members can opt in to train ElevenLabs\u2019 AI music model. He was also involved in Merlin\u2019s 2012 settlement of a copyright infringement lawsuit against LimeWire, the transfer of parts of Parlophone Label Group to the independent sector after Universal Music Group (UMG) acquired EMI and the sale of Merlin\u2019s equity interest<\/a> in Spotify, which Merlin says resulted in a $125 million payout to its members.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tElevenLabs Launches AI Music Model, Signs Licenses With Merlin & Kobalt: Here\u2019s How It Will\u00a0Work\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tBillboard’s Live Music Summit Honors Khalid with VENU’s Disruptor Award\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tEarly in his career, Lexton co-founded London indie label Dorado Records after previously working as a DJ, songwriter and producer. As an attorney, he worked at UMG and EMI, where he led business affairs for EMEA (excluding the U.K.). Prior to helping launch Merlin, he ran the London indie label City Rockers as co-owner.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI am delighted at the opportunity to lead this organisation,\u201d said Lexton in a statement. \u201cMy focus is on our members \u2014 the most significant grouping of independent music companies in the world \u2014 and on the Merlin team, our incredibly hard working and dedicated staff. I can do nothing without the support of our team. And without our members, there is no Merlin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdded Sirota, \u201cCharlie has been a great partner in evolving Merlin into what it is today. He consistently delivers \u2014 from his unwavering commitment to the Merlin team to pioneering the first significant AI deal with ElevenLabs to empowering our members via Merlin Insights. Next year, I\u2019m proud he will champion Merlin Engage to empower the next generation of female leaders for independent music. I\u2019m excited for Charlie and the team to write Merlin\u2019s next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMerlin chairperson and Secretly Group co-CEO Darius Van Arman<\/strong> said: \u201cWhen we conducted our search for the new CEO, we met a number of extraordinary leaders, however one person stood out. Charlie Lexton has earned the trust of the Merlin membership by consistently delivering immense value throughout the organization\u2019s history. I am extremely confident that under his stewardship and working closely with the exceptional Merlin team, Merlin will reach new heights and further enable the independence of the world\u2019s leading music companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMarie Clausen<\/strong>, Merlin management board member and MD of North America at Ninja Tune, added: \u201cCharlie is a brilliant strategist and remarkable negotiator who has earned the respect of our membership, team, and partners. The industry is at a pivotal moment of change. With Charlie at the helm, Merlin is ideally positioned to turn that change into opportunity. Having worked with him over a decade, I am confident that under Charlie\u2019s leadership Merlin is in the best hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to a press release, Merlin saw record-high revenue of $1.64 billion and a record-low administration fee of 1% in 2024.<\/p>\n


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Aller \u00e0 la source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merlin has appointed Charlie Lexton as its next CEO, effective Jan. 1, the indie licensing organization announced Wednesday (Nov. 12). Lexton will succeed Jeremy Sirota, who announced his exit in May after serving in the role since 2020. Lexton has worked for Merlin since its 2007 founding and has served as the organization\u2019s COO since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musique","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}