GYROstream, the Australian-owned music distribution company, assembles a new-look leadership team at home and abroad, as the business pursues its goal to become the country’s No. 1 net exporter of music, Billboard can exclusively reveal.
Leading the changes is Adrian Burke, former label partnerships lead at Spotify Canada, who is tapped to steer its North America activities, which include GROUP SPEED, GYROstream’s recently-launched boutique artist services company.
Based in Toronto, Burke is named GM at GROUP SPEED, with duties for guiding strategic direction for the new business in North America and liaising with the group’s team to help “elevate artist careers,” reads a statement.
Burke completed a seven-year stint with Spotify, where he cultivated key partner relationships for the streaming giant, developed global artist campaigns and implemented data-driven strategies to help create millions of incremental streams for artists worldwide, reads a statement.
Burke is one of several new faces at GYROstream, which, across all brands, boasts 39 employees in seven countries, including company co-directors Andy Irvine (CEO), Viv Mellish (CMO) and Alex Wilson (head of distribution and customer service).
New faces at the tech business include Harry Young, who steps into the newly-created role as senior A&R manager role across the group, working alongside Burke. Young served in A&R capacities for more than a decade with Dew Process Records + Publishing, where he discovered Mallrat and worked with a roster that includes Spacey Jane, Tkay Maidza, Allday, YNG Martyr, Tyne-James Organ, Alice Ivy and more.
The fleshed-out A&R team includes Benjamin James, now appointed as global head of A&R across all brands; and Australia-based A&R and streaming partnerships coordinators Molly Jackson and Taylor Dwyer, a new recruit based in Los Angeles with a primary focus on GROUP SPEED.
Among the key arrivals at GYROstream is trailblazing digital strategist Alison Bremner, who is named as head of artist marketing strategy, a prominent music post working across both GROUP SPEED and GYROstream. Bremner is recognized for her part in @thexhan’s success on TikTok as the short-video platform’s most-followed creator in Australia with 18 million fans, and for facilitating partnerships with Gucci, Red Bull and other blue-chip clients.
Based in Brisbane, GYROstream expands its core operations team at its headquarters, adding staff in customer service, distribution operations, product development and royalty management, topped off with a fresh website.
“Expanding our artist services offering globally through GROUP SPEED and opening it up to new markets as a standalone product is the next evolution of our business and we can’t wait to see what this team achieves together,” comments group CEO Irvine. Exporting Australian and New Zealand music to the world is a critical piece. “We believe we are well on the way to becoming Australia’s leading net-exporter of recorded music within five years and this new team are determined to achieve that goal,” he continues.
Founded in the Queensland capital in 2018, GYROstream represents thousands of artists across Australia and New Zealand for artist services and global digital distribution, and delivers to upwards of 100 digital platforms, including Spotify, Apple, TikTok, Amazon and YouTube.
In 2021, GYROstream took out The Music Network’s Tinnie award for Music Distributor of the Year; the following year launched Find My ISRC, a tool to assist DIY artists, managers and labels to keep track of their recordings online; and in 2022 established the GYROrecords label.
Today, its suite of activities include royalty payment splits, publishing administration via GYROpublishing, publicity through GYROpr, digital marketing through GYROdigital, and the white-label distribution platform DistroDirect.
Key staff have made the long haul for SXSW 2024 for DistroDirect’s official showcase event next Tuesday, March 12 at Las Perlas, in Austin, TX.
