Downtown-owned music distributor CD Baby has appointed Faryal Khan-Thompson as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Community Engagement.
New York-based Khan-Thompson most recently served as Vice President of International at TuneCore, overseeing the distributor’s scaling operations and product localization in more than 30 markets.
Khan-Thompson will report to Christine Barnum, CD Baby’s Chief Revenue Officer, and will be responsible for developing and overseeing the company’s marketing strategy, branding initiatives, and international growth alongside evolving its extensive artist education and engagement efforts.
The exec is an active advisor to UK charity, Black Lives in Music and was this year’s recipient of the Women In Music Canada ‘International Leader of the Year’ award.
CD Baby, which was launched in 1998, claims to serve more than 1 million active artists and a catalog of nearly 12 million tracks, celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2023.
The company became part of New York-based independent rights management and music services company, Downtown Music Holdings in 2019 when the latter acquired the AVL Digital Group and its portfolio of businesses for about $200 million.
Described as an “anti-label” by Downtown Music’s Chief Commercial Officer Tracy Maddux, CD Baby has paid out over $1 billion to artists since its founding in 1998.
In 2020 alone, it paid out $125.4 million from digital platforms to artists, equivalent to around $2.4 million every week.
“We are thrilled to welcome Faryal to the team during this exciting time of transformation and evolution for our company and are confident that her leadership and vision will play a pivotal role in CD Baby’s continued success,”
Scott Williams, CD baby
“CD Baby has always been creator-first, and by aligning our growth with that of our diverse roster of artists, we succeed when they do. We’re proud to be celebrating our 25th anniversary alongside more than a million artists that work with us,” said Scott Williams, President of CD Baby.
“We are thrilled to welcome Faryal to the team during this exciting time of transformation and evolution for our company and are confident that her leadership and vision will play a pivotal role in CD Baby’s continued success.”
“I am humbled and excited to be joining the CD Baby and Downtown Music Holdings team, especially during this milestone year.”
Faryal Khan-Thompson
Faryal Khan-Thompson added: “I am humbled and excited to be joining the CD Baby and Downtown Music Holdings team, especially during this milestone year. I am committed to building on the great work that has been done and positioning CD Baby as the leading provider of music distribution services for independent artists.”
“I’d like to personally thank Christine Barnum, Scott Williams, Molly Neuman, and Andrew Bergman for their support and trust in me, and for giving me this opportunity. ”
Music Business Worldwide
