Warner Music Group’s Armin Zerza provides COO function to his remit, only one yr after becoming a member of as CFO
Warner Music Group has promoted Armin Zerza to the function of Chief Working Officer, along with his present place as Chief Monetary Officer.
The transfer was introduced by WMG CEO Robert Kyncl through the firm’s fiscal second-quarter earnings name final Wednesday (Could 7), with the expanded function taking impact the next day.
Inside that quarter, WMG posted whole income of USD $1.73 billion, up 12% year-on-year at fixed foreign money.
Zerza‘s new remit as COO will embody company growth, central advertising and marketing, enterprise and market intelligence, and WMX.
Kyncl instructed buyers: “I need to share that beginning tomorrow, along with persevering with to function our CFO, [Armin] may even function our COO.”
“I wished to thank Armin for the influence he has had on the group and enterprise in a brief time period, and I look ahead to persevering with partnering with him to ship operational excellence, progress, and worth creation.”
Kyncl later defined that the title change mirrored how Zerza had already been working inside the firm, relatively than a sudden reorganization.
“We didn’t make any change, didn’t make an announcement – it’s simply sort of like issues should work. And now we’ve hit our stride.”
Robert Kyncl on Warner’s Q1 and Armin Zerza’s new function
“That is one thing that really has sort of been in apply,” Kyncl stated through the Q&A portion of the decision.
“Armin has added tasks alongside the best way over the past 12 months, one after the other.
“We didn’t make any change, didn’t make an announcement – it’s simply sort of like issues should work. And now we’ve hit our stride.”
Kyncl stated the transfer was pushed by WMG‘s want to “double down on operational excellence throughout the corporate and simplification, which then results in numerous automation by way of AI, which permits us to ship extra for artists and songwriters with the identical workforce and develop our enterprise quickly”.
“Having a robust alignment between our financials, our funds administration, forecasting – it’s simply very, very intently tied to the operation of the corporate, and a task like that is smart,” he added.
Zerza, for his half, stated on the decision: “In my new expanded function, I look ahead to partnering with you and the workforce to proceed driving prime and backside line progress whereas strengthening our operational, business and monetary excellence on the firm.”
The promotion arrives simply over a yr after Zerza joined Warner Music Group as CFO in Could 2025, changing Bryan Castellani.
Previous to becoming a member of WMG, Zerza spent a decade at gaming big Activision Blizzard, the place he served as each CFO and Chief Business Officer, and performed a key function within the firm’s $68.7 billion all-cash acquisition by Microsoft in 2023.
Earlier than that, he held a sequence of senior finance roles at Procter & Gamble over greater than 20 years, spanning North America, Europe and Latin America.
Zerza‘s elevation to COO comes in opposition to a backdrop of accelerating monetary efficiency at WMG.
Within the quarter ended March 31, 2026 – the outcomes reported on the identical name at which his promotion was introduced – Warner Music Group posted whole income of $1.73 billion, up 12% year-on-year at fixed foreign money.
Adjusted OIBDA margin elevated to 22.9% from 20.4% within the prior-year quarter
Recorded music subscription streaming income grew 15% on an adjusted foundation within the quarter, benefiting from each market share positive aspects and the contractual per-subscriber minimal will increase that Kyncl has been championing since becoming a member of the corporate.
Zerza instructed analysts on the decision that the corporate now expects to realize the excessive finish of its 150 to 200 foundation factors margin enlargement goal for fiscal 2026.
Since becoming a member of WMG, Zerza has been instrumental in a sequence of strikes together with the upsizing of the corporate’s catalog acquisition three way partnership with Bain Capital to $1.65 billion in whole capability, plus the settlement to purchase unbiased music platform Revelator – a deal that Zerza referred to as “an accelerant for worthwhile distribution income progress and market share enlargement”.
He has additionally been a key determine in WMG‘s AI licensing technique alongside Kyncl, with the corporate hanging offers with Suno, Udio, and Stability AI.
On the newest earnings name, Zerza stated the Suno partnership – which he famous is presently producing $300 million in annualized income – “will start to contribute materially to our subscription streaming income progress beginning in fiscal 2027”.Music Enterprise Worldwide
