Head of Ad Sales, Commercial Partnerships

We are looking for a highly motivated Head of Ad Sales to join the global Commercial Partnerships team in New York City or Los Angeles. This team represents our Marketplace custom-built paid-promotional tools to our Music partners.

This person will be responsible for driving adoption of these tools as we expand our offering to major & independent labels, managers & artists. They will have a strong track record of building & growing sales teams through tools & processes - setting & exceeding quarterly sales targets, building systems to track & grow key accounts.

The Commercial Partnerships team runs business-critical relationships with major and indie labels, drives cross-functional strategic initiatives, and helps our industry partners optimize their use of Spotify’s full suite of products and services. The successful candidate will be on the frontlines, managing a team of sellers & Spotify’s relationships with the Marketers in the music industry, directly impacting the way that the world experiences music.

The role will be based in our Los Angeles or New York City office and report into the Head Commercial Partnerships.

What you'll do:

• Build & expand our sales team working with marketers at record labels & key management companies
• Maintain senior relationships with some of our biggest label partners
• Work with Business Analytics to set appropriate goals by Product & Region then build & optimize the team to exceed those goals
• Create & deliver business reviews as appropriate to drive growth & renewals
• Maximize the seller / account manager / campaign manager relationships
• Proactively anticipate problems & solve them on a rapidly growing sales team
• Work with Creator Business to create new packaging options
• Utilize appropriate sales methodology to optimize the team and anticipate future growth needs
• Become deeply familiar with Spotify’s full-range of products, tools, and business processes, in order to advise labels, field functionality and capability questions, and resolve issues of all shapes and sizes.
• Coach & mentor the team of high performers
• Rely on your strong communication skills to appropriately position Spotify in a way that drives excitement and engagement with our promotional tools and services.
• Regularly attend and participate in formal and informal external meetings to deepen label relationships as a trusted and valued partner.
• Prepare and lead global business reviews; identify and execute opportunities to drive growth for both Spotify and our partners’ core businesses.
• Maintain a solid understanding of the evolving music industry to inform dialogue with partners.
• Collaborate closely and develop strong relationships with cross-functional internal teams including R&D, Legal, Licensing, Sales, Marketing, Editorial and Spotify’s other partnership teams to deliver cohesive outstanding service to labels and to advance the Spotify mission.

Who you are:

• You have a minimum of 5-10+ years of experience in the music business; experience working with or within both major & independent music sectors preferred
• You have successfully led sales teams and exceed revenue goals in a consultative selling environment
• Experience setting overall revenue goals, then allocating those to sales reps
• Track record of creating & managing a pipeline and maintaining accurate forecasting
• You are an expert in how record labels operate, including understanding record label, distributor, and artist aggregator business models, their interactions with DSPs, and how they market and promote recorded music.
• You are personable and enthusiastic
• You quickly master complex topics, think creatively, proactively problem-solve, and drive results.
• You feel very comfortable analyzing and applying data to craft strategies and make decisions.
• You have excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills, and are comfortable leading meetings and presentations with senior stakeholders.
• You have strong interpersonal skills and proven experience working seamlessly with and advising both creative and business-oriented colleagues and partners.
• You are collaborative and have a stellar ability to work cross-functionally with internal teams across various functions and levels.
• You are highly organized self-starter, attentive to detail, and thrive in a fast-paced environment.
• You are passionate about music and Spotify’s mission.

Where you'll be:

• Our offices are currently closed due to COVID-19.
• Post COVID, while we will ask you to pop into the office from time to time, we are giving you the flexibility to work from home should you choose to do so.
• This position will be based out of our New York or Los Angeles office.

Spotify is an equal opportunity employer. You are welcome at Spotify for who you are, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or what’s playing in your headphones. Our platform is for everyone, and so is our workplace. The more voices we have represented and amplified in our business, the more we will all thrive, contribute, and be forward-thinking! So bring us your personal experience, your perspectives, and your background. It’s in our differences that we will find the power to keep revolutionizing the way the world listens.

Spotify transformed music listening forever when we launched in 2008. Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the chance to enjoy and be passionate about these creators. Everything we do is driven by our love for music and podcasting. Today, we are the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with a community of more than 381 million users.

This role is not eligible for hire in Colorado, USA.

Global COVID and Vaccination Disclosure

Spotify is committed to safety and well-being of our employees, vendors and clients. We are following regional guidelines mandating vaccination and testing requirements, including those requiring vaccinations and testing for in-person roles and event attendance. For NYC, we have mandated that all employees and contractors be fully vaccinated in order to work in our offices and externally with any third-parties.For all other locations, we strongly encourage our employees to get vaccinated and also follow local COVID and safety protocols.