Spotify names former Pandora boss Jane Huxley as managing director
Spotify has named Jane Huxley as managing director of its Australian operations, replacing Kate Vale who left earlier this year to “pursue opportunities outside of the business”.
Huxley was formerly managing director of rival streaming service Pandora, which closed down its Australian operations earlier this week.
Huxley departed Pandora in March after four and a half years to “pursue other opportunities“.
At the time of her departure from Pandora, Huxley, who has also been CEO and publisher, digital at Fairfax said: “It’s been an amazing ride at Pandora, and I’m so proud of all we have achieved.
During my time we have grown a listener base of over 5 million registered users, successfully implemented the commercial model in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, and established many significant market partnerships.
“With the business on these solid foundations, I’m looking forward to my next adventure.”
In her new role, Huxley will partner with functional leads across ANZ to develop and executive strategic plans for Spotify.
Today, Stefan Blom, Spotify’s chief content officer, said Huxley was “an impressive addition” to the team.
“For more than 25 years Jane has built a career based on innovation, media, technology and disruption, and is a respected and awarded business leader,” he said.
“Jane is an impressive addition to Spotify and we have every confidence in her ability to lead our very successful Australian & New Zealand business through the next phase of growth.”
The news comes as Spotify plans its relocation to One Wharf Lane later this year.
It also comes one month after Pandora was announced as Mumbrella’s Sales Team of the Year.
Spotify’s previous Australian boss Vale launched the streaming service in Australia in 2011. In 2016, Vale moved to Los Angeles ‘temporarily’ with her husband, however remained in her role as ANZ boss, before departing the company after five years to “pursue opportunities outside of the business”.
OFFS
Not that she would have been the cause, but Pandora closed remember. It failed locally. Was there no one else in the country who could help out at Spotify? Not sure what happened to Vale but she was rich and had lots of other interests, so probably didn’t have the passion or interest in the end, or possibly, even the smarts. Jane is passionate. About being passionate. Smart. I feel bad saying it, but it’s ‘usual suspects’. Musical chairs even. No imagination. Spotify is a very interesting group. Guess it’s just a sales and marketing gig like at Facebook, Google and the like. Tick that box. I for one say to the bosses in Europe where ever you are, lazy thinking. I’m being insulting I know and I’m loathe to be as Jane is well known and loved by many. I love Spotify and I don’t really know Huxley at all – I just see her speaking everywhere and being sooooooo optimistic about everything and speaking sooooo digitally correctly. Which, like you hear from Google, new world corporate correctness in digital. Which is dull as. The interesting people got boring. And what was once a Telstra top person or a fairfax top person is now in a new guise. A digital leader and genius. But they aren’t usually. They’re boring. It’s disappointing to me because Spotify is so interesting data wise, emotionally and from a whole lot of angles. I guess as someone who loves the product I wanted someone who seemed a little more real and interesting to head this thing up. When I hear Jane is the new head of Spotify I cringe. Which is pretty bad I guess as from any CV point of view, she’s probably great – except Pandora failed, and she did once work for Fairfax high up in digital (which you couldn’t claim is any claim to fame). Same old same old. Things never seem to change here. We’re a backwater as far as the global digital distribution giants are concerned.
Well done Jane. Spotify are lucky to have you.
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This seems a little off to me.
I don’t know Jane- nor have I ever met her… but on paper it seems like she was captain of the ship, and jumped while it was sinking.
She paddled in the back water and reappears as captain of the next ship as the one she abandoned hits the ground…crew and all.
I guess I just feel bad for the people she left behind, and ponder what she could have done to save them, and whether her performance led to their ultimate demise.
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So how long does spotify have left?
She obviously [edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]
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Jane spent her last 4 years trying to build up Pandora (which she arguably succeeded in doing from a management POV).
But the more important aspect of her role was to grow the music streaming industry as a whole, working with other streaming services to establish a new digital channel for advertisers (this included multiple joint ventures and research studies with Spotify)
Her role was to change advertisers thinking when it came to how people consume and interact with music…exactly the same battle that Spotify are fighting.
Seems like a smart move from Spotify to hire someone who can hit the ground running.
Congrats Jane!
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if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em??
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Sniff test, I didn’t see it that way at first but that is a fare analogy.
It’s called GARDEN leave. When you leave one place and cant legally join a competitor immediately so you take 6 months off.
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Looks like the SurfStitch saga didn’t affect Jane’s profile either.
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I really like this comment. So mus-o!
yeah Pandora closed, yeah Jane has corporate mileage, yeah the US companies come with fake smiles, yeah the lazy bosses just want sales, yeah the interesting people got boring, yeah it’s just another market and yeah the sounds of Spotify sounds could make all this a bit more bearable
I’m with ya Jeremy! Let’s start a band?
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Wow, what a long way from Microsoft application tech support.
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