Senior jobs gone at Vinyl Media as company looks for path to profit
Vinyl Media has laid off several senior staff, including its head of publishing, as its parent company, Vinyl Group, looks to become profitable by the end of the calendar year.
In its recent annual report, CEO Josh Simons foreshadowed the move by saying the company would “restructure to maximise revenue and cost synergies”.
A Vinyl Group spokesperson told Mumbrella the redundancies affected “just under 10% of headcount”, which it said was “a small adjustment following acquisitions”.
Mumbrella understands affected staff were informed on Friday, including recently appointed head of publishing, Tahlia Phillips.
As someone who has been in this industry for a long time, I find the level of negative coverage around Vinyl to be harsh. I’ve never seen so many people across media made redundant, and it hasn’t just been Vinyl, plenty of publishers and media houses have let go of senior talent in order to adapt to the current climate and build for long-term sustainability. Yet, you don’t hear about most of those.
Vinyl Media, formerly Brag Media, started as what many would have considered a tier 4–6 publisher without much weight. Today, it’s one of the largest media companies in the Australian market. Its story of rapid growth and scale is significant and shouldn’t be overlooked.
Clearly, they must be doing something right, after all, Mumbrella can’t seem to stop talking about them
Fact check: It’s actually one of the smallest media companies in the Australian market. It only receives this much oxygen due to the pure spectacle of mismanagement.
Australia’s independent publishing sector is already in dire straits and doesn’t need this level of short-sighted mismanagement damaging it further. What is the point of buying up good publications just to run them into the ground?
Vinyl Group’s shift to AI-driven journalism is yet another nail in the coffin for Australian music media. Instead of backing real writers, critics, and commentators who actually get the scene, we’re about to get fed more algorithm sludge, content with zero nuance, zero heart. Just lifeless headlines and copy-paste commentary.
The Music Network’s already a glorified advertorial feed, completely void of serious industry takes. For a country with such a rich music culture and an industry facing serious challenges, this move feels less like innovation and more like a step toward erasing the very voices that made the scene worth reading about. Don’t get me started on Rolling Tombstone…
Unfortunately, there was a time and a place for this type of business model and it is not in 2025.
If your model as a supposed music company involves letting go of an editorial talent like Lars Brandle, I can’t understand it.
They have done refinements, so has every media house across 2025. I’ve never known so many people to be made redundant this year. I wouldn’t say it’s Vinyl doing anything different.