Bella Figura Music has announced two key appointments.
The independent creative music rights company, which was founded by Alexi Cory-Smith and Neelesh Prabhu in 2022, has made a number of high-profile acquisitions from artists, writers and producers such as David Gray, R3hab, Jeff Silverman, Darrel Brown and Guy Chambers. It also has a boutique recordings division.
Billy Millar, who previously held senior executive roles at BMG and Hipgnosis, has been named senior vice president of creative at Bella Figura. He has a remit to oversee global sync and creative output, while proactively creating new opportunities for the company’s catalogue.
With over a decade of experience and expertise across sync, publishing, recorded music and music acquisitions, Millar has worked with various high-profile artists and has been a key part of creative and sync campaigns for acts including Blink-182, Bon Jovi, Labrinth, Bicep, The Heavy, John Legend, Lenny Kravitz, Robbie Williams and many more.
He will be based in London and report directly to Hannah Overton, head of operations.
Billy Millar said: “I’m really pleased to be a part of Alexi and Neelesh’s vision to build a home for established catalogues. We aim to be as creative and innovative as possible to bring these iconic copyrights and recordings to new audiences.”
Alexi Cory-Smith, co-founder & CEO of Bella Figura Music, said: “When drafting the role of the person who would build and lead our sync business from scratch we wrote down, ‘creative, experienced, commercial, ambitious, data and tech orientated, self-starter, must share our values, passion and energy and will roll up their sleeves and do the dirty work as well as the big ticket and high-level stuff’. I had worked with Billy at BMG, and I knew he would be a great fit for Bella Figura. I am delighted he felt the same way.”
We aim to be as creative and innovative as possible to bring these iconic copyrights and recordings to new audiences
Billy Millar
Bella Figura Music has also announced the appointment of Chris Presland to the role of catalogue project manager. Among other responsibilities, Presland will oversee the transition of David Gray’s recorded output to Secretly Distribution, which will include his album White Ladder, with global digital support and vinyl reissues across the entire catalogue.
Based in London, Presland started his new role earlier this month and will also report to Hannah Overton.
“We’re very pleased to have Chris join us to manage our catalogue, his knowledge, passion and skills will be of huge benefit to our artists,” said Hannah Overton.
Presland has joined Bella Figura Music from AWAL, where he spent eight years working on campaigns for a wide range of established artists and labels.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to have joined the team at Bella Figura and excited to be helping to build a truly innovative and forward-looking company,” he said. “It’s a privilege to be part of such a world-class group of industry experts with a mission to nurture and grow the legacies and careers of some of the greatest artists in music. There’s a palpable sense of passion in the office that’s inspiring to be around, and I can’t wait to see what we achieve.”
PHOTO: (L-R) Billy Miller and Chris Presland
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