Pictured (L-R): Randy Goodman; (top) Ken Robold, (bottom) Steve Hodges

Randy Goodman has been appointed Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Sony Music Nashville, effective immediately under Sony Music CEO Doug Morris. Goodman has appointed Ken Robold as Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer and Steve Hodges as Executive Vice President, Promotion & Artist Development. Robold and Hodges begin their new roles effective July 13.

“Randy Goodman is a highly respected member of the Nashville community with a proven track record of success in developing hit artists,” said Morris. “We are very happy to have him leading our business in Nashville and welcome him to the Sony Music family.”

“Having started my career at RCA Records Nashville, now a cornerstone of Sony Music, this is a homecoming for me, and I couldn’t be happier or more honored to be entrusted to lead this great group,” said Goodman. “And getting to work with an icon of the business, Doug Morris and his team, makes this opportunity all the more exciting. I’m thankful to Doug for his belief in me and to Julie Swidler for her dedication and commitment to me and Nashville during this transition.”

Goodman replaces Gary Overton in the Nashville leadership role, responsible for overseeing all of Sony Music Nashville operations, including Arista Nashville, Columbia Nashville, RCA Nashville, as well as Provident Music Group.

In welcoming Robold and Hodges, Goodman remarked, “Ken and Steve are consummate professionals whose industry acumen, passion, and accomplishments speak for themselves. I am extremely proud to add their vision and experience to our already extraordinary team here at Sony Music Nashville.”

Robold remarked, “It’s an honor to be joining a company with the rich musical legacy Sony enjoys. I’d like to thank Doug Morris, Julie Swidler, and Randy Goodman for the opportunity to work with such a talented group of artists and staff, as we take Sony Music Nashville to new heights.”

On the announcement, Hodges offered, “It’s an extremely exciting time for Sony Music Nashville! It’s an exciting opportunity for me, and I can’t say enough about the vision and leadership that Randy embodies. I’m honored at his vote of confidence. I’m also thrilled to be a teammate with Ken in this endeavor. Needless to say, I’m ecstatic and ready to get to work with the incredible roster of artists and staff!”

Hodges comes to Sony with a background that includes a dozen years in radio and programming and more than 20 years in promotion with Capitol Records Nashville, dating back to the third album of superstar Garth Brooks and the career launches of such artists as Trace Adkins and Deana Carter. Beginning as a regional, Hodges advanced to Senior Vice President, Promotion in 2009, with Capitol earning “Label of the Year” honors throughout his six-year tenure, which also saw the 2010 launch of Capitol imprint EMI Records Nashville. Hodges worked from day one of the Capitol/EMI careers of such chart-topping, platinum-selling artists as Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town, Darius Rucker, and Keith Urban.

Robold most recently served as President of Zac Brown’s Southern Ground Artists, where he oversaw the operation’s record label, publishing, and studio divisions. The role followed nearly 22 years with PolyGram Records/Universal Music Group, where he rose to the post of Executive Vice President and General Manager of Universal Music Group Nashville. Among his many accomplishments, Robold is a past Chairman of the ACM Board of Directors.

Goodman trained under revered former Sony Nashville leader Joe Galante for 16 years in the Nashville and New York offices, when both were at RCA, the forerunner of what is now Sony Music Nashville. Goodman’s final role was Executive Vice President/General Manager of RCA Nashville, working with such superstars as Waylon Jennings, Alabama, Dave Matthews Band, Martina McBride, Clint Black, Keith Whitley, and The Judds. In 1997, Goodman opened Lyric Street Records for the Walt Disney Co., overseeing the label as President through 2010 and enjoying multi-platinum success with Rascal Flatts and SHeDAISY, as well as platinum-sellers Aaron Tippin and American Idol finalist Josh Gracin. A CMA board member and past President and Chairman of the board, Goodman has co-chaired the Music City Music Council with Nashville Mayor Karl Dean since 2011 and is a board member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. In addition, he has served in a wide range of industry consulting roles, as well as serving as an artist manager with Maverick in Nashville.

According to MusicRow’s most recent records, Sony Music Nashville is home to: Arista Nashville (Kix Brooks, Cam, The Henningsens, Logan Mize, Brad Paisley, The Swon Brothers), Columbia Nashville (Tyler Farr, Steven Lee Olsen, Chase Rice), RCA Nashville ( Josh Dorr, Sara Evans, Miranda Lambert, Old Dominion, Jake Owen, Pistol Annies, Dee Jay Silver, Chris Young), and has partnerships with 19 Recordings (Carrie Underwood, Casey James), Sea Gayle Records (Jerrod Niemann), Blue Chair Records (Kenny Chesney), Pearl Records (Garth Brooks) and Gwendolyn Records (Trisha Yearwood). Ben Gallaher, Go Down Moses, Ryan Griffin, Michael Tyler are also signed to Sony Music Nashville.

SESAC, Inc. today (July 7) announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the Harry Fox Agency (HFA), the leading U.S. mechanical rights organization. The Harry Fox Agency is owned by the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA). The proposed transaction has been approved by the NMPA Board and is subject to NMPA member approval.

The New York Times reports the purchase price is upwards of $20 million.

According to SESAC, this transaction positions it to be the only music rights organization in the United States with the ability to offer singular licenses for the works of its affiliated writers and publishers that aggregate both performance and mechanical rights. This would allows greater efficiency in licensing for music users, as well as enhanced value for music creators and publishers.

According to SESAC Chairman and CEO John Josephson, “Licensing is fragmented across both multiple types of rights, as well as multiple territories for the streaming services that represent the future growth opportunity of the music industry. The result is a complex, opaque and currently inefficient licensing regime that fails to deliver the best outcomes for creators and publishers, as well as end users What excites us about this transaction is the ability it provides to make the licensing process both simpler and more efficient, and in so doing create additional value for music creators and publishers, as well as the digital music platforms.”

SESAC’s acquisition of HFA is part of a previously announced strategy under its new leadership team to pursue a simplified and more efficient, multi-right, multi-territory licensing model utilizing an ongoing focus on information technology and data science to meet the developing needs of music users, distributors, writers, composers, publishers and other stakeholders. The transaction enables SESAC to offer music streaming and other digital platforms greater efficiency and transparency in the music licensing process.

“I am thrilled that we have found the perfect strategic buyer in SESAC given their forward-looking approach to rights management and commitment to servicing publishers and songwriters efficiently in the new digital music economy,” said NMPA President & CEO, David Israelite. “Not only will this transaction ensure that mechanical licensing continues in the method best for creators, it will also strengthen NMPA for the many battles we are fighting on behalf of all songwriters and music publishers.”

Through its commercial relationships with over 48,000 music publishers, HFA has created one of the largest and most comprehensive databases of musical works in the world, including metadata on over 6.7 million compositions and 21.4 million unique master recordings. SESAC will integrate this database with its own. In addition, SESAC plans to introduce an expanded suite of services for publishers on the HFA platform including micro-licensing on social video networks, automated license verification with RADKey™ and premium YouTube Content ID administration services via its Rumblefish subsidiary.

HFA’s Slingshot platform provides royalty tracking, administration and payment services and solutions to virtually every digital music service of scale in the market today. SESAC plans to invest heavily in this segment of HFA’s business in order to create a best of breed suite of data and administration services to digital service providers.

A rep for SESAC tells MusicRow there are no immediate plans for HFA to relocate to Nashville, where SESAC is headquartered.