Cohen is the founder and current CEO of 300, which has Fetty Wap, Young Thug and more signed to the label, Cohen had previously headed up Warner Music Group as its chairman/CEO of recorded music until 2012.
According to a YouTube spokeperson, Cohen will continue as CEO of 300 until December 5 of this year, after which that company’s management “will transition Lyor’s day-to-day responsibilities to the leadership team within the company.”
“Lyor is a lion of the music industry,” says YouTube’s Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl in a statement. “From Rush to Def Jam to Island Def Jam to WMG then 300, he has consistently been a pioneer, charting the course for where music is heading. As we enter the growth era of the music industry, Lyor is in a position to make tremendous difference in accelerating that growth in a fair way for everyone. We are thrilled to welcome him to YouTube.”
Cohen has his work cut out for him at YouTube, particularly in repairing the company’s relationship with the music business. For the past year Kyncl has, effectively, been serving as the video streaming giant’s interim head of music — which has been a rough one for the company’s relationship with the music industry. Beginning in April of this year, music stakeholders began pressuring YouTube over what they dubbed “the value gap” — that YouTube, despite being one of the most common digital destinations for music listening, was not paying rates on par with services like Spotify or Apple Music.
This pushback came in the wake of the company’s introduction of its YouTube Red subscription tier, and the YouTube Music app.
In addition to the unrelenting pressure placed on it by the music industry, it also faces an uphill battle in Brussels. The European Commission recently announced plans to overhaul the concept of “safe harbor,” a legal provision designed to protect user-generated sites like YouTube from being liable for copyrighted material that is uploaded to their platforms.
With this appointment, YouTube becomes the latest streamer to bring in a music executive with decades of experience dealing with artists. Apple Music launched with Jimmy Iovine leading the charge, who had previously run Interscope for 25 years; Spotify recently brought on Troy Carter as global head of creator services, who had managed Lady Gaga and Charlie Puth through his Atom Factory company; and Jay Z is, of course, the public face of Tidal’s ownership structure.