Rachel Kelly joins Utopia Music as VP for Australia

Rachel Kelly has resurfaced at Utopia Music, the European music tech and data solutions specialist, where she takes the lead on its activities in Australia.

The Sydney-based music publishing, A&R and sync veteran is tapped for the new role as Utopia’s Vice President for Australia.

Going forward, Kelly will be responsible for setting up and rolling out Utopia’s activities in Australia, New Zealand and other Australasian key territories, reporting to Utopia COO Roberto Neri.

Kelly most recently served with Downtown Music, having established the New York-based independent music group’s affiliate here in 2018.

In its first year under Kelly’s guidance, the local arm enjoyed successes with Stella Donnelly, Little Quirks, Taka Perry, Elliot and John Butler Trio, whose LP Home blasted to No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart (another homegrown act, Teskey Brothers, was signed by Daniel Lloyd Jones in the U.K. office). 

Her stellar efforts as Creative Director and Head of Sync in Australia and New Zealand were recognised with entry in Billboard’s International Power Players List for 2019.

Rachel Kelly

Following a restructuring of the global Downtown business and a new focus on the music services sector, Kelly exited in July of this year.

Previously, Kelly was VP creative at BMG Australia, and, before that, Head of Licensing at Alberts.

Kelly also serves on the boards on publishers’ association AMPAL, and MODA DAO, the technology network and community.

Founded in 2016 by Mattias Hjelmstedt and Thomas Gullberg in 2016, Utopia’s own mission is to create “a better world for music,” by collecting, organizing and utilizing music data in a fair and transparent way.  

Its team numbers more than 70 employees across Switzerland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Finland, and now Australia.

Kelly’s appointment, notes MBW, comes on the heels of Utopia’s acquisition of Nashville-based financial services company, Lyric Financial, and the purchase of the Quincy Jones-backed emotional data enrichment business, Musimap, in September.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.