CD Baby

Downtown Music Holdings (Downtown) is a modern global music company committed to building a more equitable music industry. We help millions of creators, rights holders and their partners to manage their music as a business and get paid fairly for their work. We service over 20 million music assets across North America, Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia, including some of the most well-known songs in popular music. Downtown is the world's most expansive group of music services, supporting creators and the businesses that support them, from every level. CD Baby and Soundrop represent the direct-to-creator channels within the Downtown ecosystem. 

CD Baby, “by artists for artists”. We are the world’s largest digital distribution platform for independent artists. We empower creators to distribute their music on Spotify, Apple Music, Instagram, YouTube, Amazon Music, Pandora, Facebook, TikTok, and 150+ other platforms around the world. We manage the single largest independent sound recording catalog in the music industry and have paid out nearly $1 billion in earnings to independent artists since our inception more than 20 years ago. CD Baby is owned and operated by Downtown Music Holdings.

Throughout its 25+ years, CD Baby has led the industry in creating educational and support materials designed to help empower creators and build sustainable careers in music. Through direct digital advertising, social media and email marketing campaigns, events, industry partnerships and media relations, the CD Baby marketing team designs plans to reach creators where they live, with the services they want and need.

The CD Baby and Soundrop marketing team is responsible for prospecting, nurturing, converting and retaining clients throughout the D2C brands. This unit operates in a nimble and agile environment, using tools such as Salesforce,Miro and Zendesk to manage a large existing client base and a competitive environment for acquiring new customers. 

This hybrid role is open to candidates based in Portland, Los Angeles, or New York City.

The Role:

We are seeking a highly skilled and dynamic individual to join our team as Senior Vice President, Marketing. In this role the SVP, Marketing develops the strategy and leads the global end-to-end execution of marketing plans for CD Baby and Soundrop, with an eye for high-growth initiatives. As SVP, Marketing, you will partner with the leadership team to identify strategic priorities and create marketing campaigns in support of the company goals. You will coach your team and demonstrate collaborative partnership across the organization. The right person for this role combines real world, hands-on marketing and leadership experience with the ability to see the big picture and plan for long-term success.

One of the most important initiatives for the SVP, Marketing is developing a strong team of marketers who can successfully take the company into the future. You will oversee the CD Baby and Soundrop marketing organization which includes brand marketing, product marketing, marketing communications and creative to support customer acquisition and retention. 

What you'll be doing:

Planning & Implementation

• Partner with executives and lead the marketing team to identify target segments, plan, develop and implement the organization’s growth marketing strategies, marketing communications, and public relations activities, both external and internal
• Refine and implement brand positioning, brand architecture, and an integrated, customer communications program
• Funnel management designed to convert prospects into customers
• Lead and support the team in preparation, execution, and iteration on marketing plans, responding to data insights in real-time
• Lead the development and management of digital assets (websites, landing pages, emails, ebooks and ads) 
• Take inventory of existing content and identify ways to reposition and repurpose 
• Oversee the implementation of an international expansion strategy and organizational structure to launch and sustain growth in various geographic regions
• Develop and execute plans for industry event participation, maximizing business ROI

Leading

• Build a strong, high-functioning marketing team: Recruit talented candidates, train, supervise, coach, and mentor staff, and hold them accountable for results
• Be a strategic leader for the team that will implement customer-centric, multi-channel acquisition and retention strategies that drive business growth
• Cross-functional collaboration — collecting context to define, and building buy-in to execute, how we engage, educate, and nurture our target customers and segments and maximize conversion and revenue
• Determine marketing resourcing needs, and manage agency relationships
• Establish and implement short- and long-range departmental goals, objectives, policies, and operating procedures

Budgeting & Measuring

• Understand market dynamics, competitive landscape, and product positioning to generate clear and actionable messaging for internal and external consumption
• Develop, advocate for, and manage marketing budgets, and track spend to budget
• Determine Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the marketing department; measure and report to management and staff 
• Develop and maintain comprehensive ROI reporting around all marketing activity through department KPIs, responding to data insights in real-time 

Must-Haves / Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing or Business
• Advanced degree in Marketing or Business (MBA) is preferred

Demonstrated experience in the following areas:

• A marketing leader with success in driving brand, performance, D2C growth marketing, demand generation, and global marketing 
• developing data-rich, insight-driven, customer-centric strategies
• Hiring, training, developing, and leading high-performing marketing teams
• Creating and managing marketing budgets
• Leading the development and execution of International Expansion strategies, framework, positioning, scenarios, recommendations and decisions based on comprehensive data analyses
• Modern approaches to marketing (video chatbots, personalization, SMS, TikTok, using an omnichannel CRM)
• Direct-to-consumer e-commerce experience is strongly preferred, and music or entertainment experience is a plus
• Strong ability to collaborate effectively with internal and external teams
• Outstanding organizational and project management skills along with the ability to multitask, prioritize workloads and meet deadlines
• Ability to analyze and solve problems, think strategically and maintain a high level of attention to detail, and manage simultaneous projects
• Proficiency in at least one other language in addition to English not required, but a plus; Spanish and Portuguese, preferred

CAREER DEVELOPMENT / EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

In order to provide equal employment and advancement opportunities to all individuals, CD Baby does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of sex, age, race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, religion, marital status, genetic information, veteran status or disability.

COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY

CD Baby is committed to creating and maintaining a workplace in which all employees have an opportunity to participate and contribute to the success of the business and are valued for their skills, experience, and unique perspectives. This commitment is embodied in company policy and the way we do business and is an important principle of sound business management.

ADA POLICY

It is Company policy not to discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities in regard to application procedures, hiring, advancement, discharge, compensation, training, or other terms, conditions and privileges of employment.

Any individual who can be reasonably accommodated for a job, without undue hardship, will be given the same consideration for that position as any other applicant. The People Team is responsible for implementing this policy, including resolution of reasonable accommodation, safety and undue hardship issues.

Final Notes

• If you are a recruiter, please do not contact us with candidates for this position unless we have engaged with you to do so.

Downtown provides base salary ranges for all positions located in the United States at the time of posting. The hiring range for this position is $180,000 - $220,000 annually. As a candidate for this position, your salary and related elements of compensation will be contingent upon various factors including, but not limited to, work experience, geographic location and relevant skills. Downtown is committed to providing a comprehensive market-competitive total rewards program for its employees which includes medical, dental, and vision, life insurance, 401(k) match and generous paid time off. This range does not include any other variable compensation components.