Tom March appointed Chairman & CEO of Capitol Music Group

07 February 2024 - Press release

TOM MARCH TO LEAD CAPITOL MUSIC GROUP AS COMPANY’S CHAIRMAN & CEO FOLLOWING EXECUTIVE’S HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL TWO YEARS AS GEFFEN RECORDS PRESIDENT AND SIX YEARS AS CO-PRESIDENT OF UNIVERSAL MUSIC’S LONDON-BASED POLYDOR RECORDS 

LILLIA PARSA CONCURRENTLY NAMED CO-PRESIDENT OF CAPITOL MUSIC GROUP WILL WORK CLOSELY WITH MARCH TO DEFINE CREATIVE DIRECTION OF COMPANY FOLLOWING SIX YEARS OF MAJOR SUCCESS AT UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING GROUP

Announcement was made by John Janick, Chairman & CEO of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, following his recent elevation to lead broader portfolio of Universal Music Group’s U.S. recorded music business.

Tom March has been appointed Chairman & CEO of Capitol Music Group (CMG), it was announced today by Interscope Geffen A&M Records (IGA) Chairman & CEO John Janick, to whom March reports. In his new position, March is responsible for the overall management and direction of the company, which encompasses Capitol Records, Blue Note Records, Motown Records, Astralwerks, Harvest Records and Capitol Christian Music Group. Concurrently, Janick has appointed Lillia Parsa as Co-President of CMG, joining Co-President Arjun Pulijal, who will continue to focus on the company’s artist development efforts. Parsa will work closely with March in planning the company’s creative direction and future growth, including the pursuit and nurturing of partnerships with artist and executive entrepreneurs to broaden and strengthen CMG’s connections within the creative community. Both March and Parsa will be based in Hollywood, within the iconic Capitol Tower. CMG and IGA are divisions of Universal Music Group [UMG], the world’s leading music company.

According to Janick, “I’ve worked closely with Tom for the better part of a decade, first as he looked after IGA repertoire in his role as co-President of Polydor in the UK and more recently in his position as President of Geffen,” said Janick. “He is a passionate and savvy executive who is a relentless advocate for artists and is committed to building successful executive teams. I know he will thrive in this important new role.

Lillia is a gifted creative executive with very strong relationships throughout our business. I’ve personally gotten to know her over the years through artists we’ve signed together and via the amazing roster of songwriters she’s assembled at UMPG. I’m excited for her to take on this key position at Capitol, working alongside Arjun to continue to build a powerful platform for Capitol Music Group.”

March said, “I’m thrilled to be charged with leading Capitol Music Group. The company’s deep legacy includes so many iconic artists and records that have long played important roles in my life, and the opportunity to help write CMG’s next chapter is a dream come true. I’m excited for Lillia to be joining me to define the creative direction of the company; she is spectacularly talented, and one of the most respected A&R executives in the business today. 

“Together, we’ll work with Arjun and the brilliant CMG team to enhance the careers of artists on our current roster, as well of those who will be joining us in the future. John Janick and I have forged a great working relationship over the past decade, and it’s only become stronger with our amazing run at Geffen. That will absolutely intensify as we take CMG to the next level and share in even greater success together. I’m grateful to all of the artists at Geffen for their incredible music I’ve had the privilege to work on these past two years, and for the teams at Geffen and IGA who have been so supportive along the way.”

Parsa stated, “I’m excited to be working with Tom to write the next creative chapter for Capitol Music Group; to work with an array of artists that currently call CMG home, as well as those that will be joining us in the near future. I’m also looking forward to working alongside Arjun as co-president of a company with such an illustrious and ongoing legacy. I thank John Janick for this great opportunity, and my longtime mentor [UMPG Chairman & CEO] Jody Gerson for always supporting me and encouraging this next important step in my career.”

March was most recently President of Geffen Records, having joined that company two years ago after six highly successful years as co-president of London-based Polydor Records and nearly twenty years total within the Universal Music Group global system. Under March’s leadership, Geffen Records has been thoroughly revitalized and is achieving its biggest wave of success in many years. Olivia Rodrigo’s sophomore album GUTS, achieved #1 status in 14 countries; the company’s partnership with HYBE, has delivered massive hits for V, Jung Kook and others; Kali Uchis, who is currently experiencing a massive global hit with “Igual Que Un Ángel,” and has achieved two Top 3 albums, Red Moon In Venus and Orchideas, in 10 months; K-pop superstars JK and Jimin both had number one Hot 100 singles; newcomer Yeat delivered his third Top 10 album in the last 16 months; rock legends the Rolling Stones new album, Hackney Diamonds, became the #2 album in the US, was a global sensation and the group’s highest-profile album release in years.

During March’s tenure as co-president of Polydor, the company was named Major Label of the Year by MusicWeek three years in a row, and became renowned for breaking a slew of artists. March has been integral to the careers of a diverse array of artists, leading projects for The 1975, ABBA, Avicii, James Blake, BlackPink, Billie Eilish, Eminem, Sam Fender, Florence & the Machine, Selena Gomez, Glass Animals, Ellie Goulding, Haim, Juice WRLD, Lorde, Lana del Rey, Michael Kiwanuka, Lady Gaga, Pop Smoke, Rolling Stones, Swedish House Mafia, The Who and many others. He was GM of Virgin EMI (now EMI Records) for three years before joining Polydor. March was the Chair of the highly successful 2022 BRIT Awards.

Prior to joining CMG, Parsa was Senior Vice President of A&R at Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), based in New York, having joined the company in 2018. While there, she developed the reputation for spotting creative talent early in their careers, and working closely with them to nurture their abilities and develop them into hitmakers. Among the many superstar artists, writers and producers Parsa has signed, developed and built relationships with are Renee Rapp, Ice Spice, Julia Michaels, Billy Walsh, Blake Slatkin, Gracie Abrams, Omer Fedi, Nija Charles, Louis Bell, Cirkut, and Jimmy Napes.

In only five years that Parsa has been at UMPG, her clients have worked across songs that have accumulated billions of streams, countless Grammy Award wins and nominations, and numerous Billboard Hot 100 #1s. These songs include Kid Laroi’s “Stay (feat. Justin Bieber),” Lizzo’s “About Damn Time,” Sam Smith’s“Unholy,” Halsey’s “Without Me,” Lil Nas X’s “Montero” and “That’s What I Want,” 24k Goldn’s “Mood,” and Ariana Grande’s “Positions.”

Parsa’s achievements have been recognized in Variety’s Hitmakers, Billboard’s Women in Music, Hits’ Rainmakers, and Forbes’ 30 under 30.