Riptide Music Group (Riptide), a leading synchronization, rights management, and creative company that provides music to advertising, movie trailers, TV programming and promos, major motion pictures, videogames, and multi-media productions, has expanded its creative team with two significant new hires. Janine Kerr, former VP with FOX Sports Music, has been named Creative Director, and Taylor Amazan, former Music Supervisor and Music Producer with Ant Farm, will now serve as Creative Manager for Trailers. In addition, Richard Hellstern has been promoted to the title of VP of Operations. The announcement was made today by Riptide executives Rich Goldman, President, and Keatly Haldeman, CEO.
Riptide’s personnel expansion comes on the heels of the company’s Fall 2017 partnership with Mark Ross, who brought to Riptide a multi-million dollar investment to finance the future growth of the business. During the past six months, Riptide has been using the new funding to expand operations and personnel, acquire additional music, and sign and develop new songwriters, producers, and recording artists. Mark Ross, son of legendary music executive Steve Ross (founder and CEO of Warner Communications and former CEO of Time Warner, Inc.) has been active over the last three decades at the highest level of the music business.
“It’s a very exciting time for us right now at Riptide,” said Goldman. “Working with Mark Ross has further energized our business and allowed us to pursue a number of exciting opportunities, while also hiring some of the best talent out there. We are delighted to welcome Janine and Taylor to our growing team, and to announce Richard’s well-deserved promotion.”
Dan Silver, Riptide’s VP, Creative, adds, “I am excited to grow our team! Janine and Taylor have amazing resumes and talent, bringing years of solid music industry experience across several mediums. In addition to their film and TV backgrounds, they also have strong relationships with artists around the world. We anticipate big things in the coming months now that they are both onboard. Richard’s new position has provided more structure within the core of the company, helping to grow our business development plans.”
Adds Haldeman, “Richard Hellstern has proven to be an invaluable member of the team and a natural leader. We couldn’t be happier we are promoting him and that he has agreed to take on this responsibility. The company is much stronger with Richard directing operations.”
About JANINE KERR
Janine Kerr, Riptide’s new Creative Director, is responsible for placing the company’s music within film, TV and promos, as well as overseeing Riptide’s Licensing Department.
Prior to joining Riptide, Kerr was Vice President, FOX Sports Music, where she was the Head of Music Supervision and spearheaded the network’s music department. She was involved in the music featured on such programs as “NFL Sunday,” the Superbowl, College Football, MLB, NASCAR, Soccer, Women’s World Cup, Golf, and shows covering all sports airing on FS1 and FS2 – a total of 30 regions.
Before FOX Sports, Kerr was Director, NBC Universal Promo Music Services, as Music Supervisor and head of Promo Music. During this time, she secured music for NBC, Bravo, USA, Syfy and Oxygen, as well as for news and sports programming. She also helped find music featured in promos for “The Voice,” “Parenthood,” “The Real Housewives,” “Suits,” the Superbowl, Sunday Night Football, and many more shows.
Kerr started her career on the publishing side. She was Associate Director, Licensing, with Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and during this time, she was involved with Ken Burns’ renowned “Jazz” documentary. (She even has a Miles Davis song named after her from the documentary, “Janine’s Theme”. Originally from Australia, Kerr launched Mushroom Group’s Licensing Department – and when she moved to LA in 1993, she brought the Mushroom catalog with her.
During the course of her career in the music industry, Kerr has worked with everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Lil Wayne, with lots of other major artists in between. As the executive music producer on the song “No Mercy,” she had the song written for – and vocals recorded by – Lil Wayne for the daily FOX Sports TV show “Skip & Shannon: Undisputed.” She also Executive Produced the promotional video shoot for that song.
About TAYLOR AMAZAN
As Riptide’s Creative Manager, Trailers, Taylor Amazan (formally Taylor Horton from Ant Farm) will work closely with Riptide’s abundant roster of composers and artists to create and produce exciting music for the trailer community. The experience and skills she acquired in her career as a Music Supervisor and producer at one of the top trailer houses is invaluable to her new position at Riptide.
In her previous position at Ant Farm, Amazan worked on marketing campaigns promoting such hit movies as “Transformers,” “Mission Impossible,” “Fifty Shades,” “American Hustle,” and the video game “Call of Duty,” among many other entertainment properties. Amazan’s final project at Ant Farm was securing music for the “Tomb Raider” 2018 trailer, which featured the Destiny’s Child cover version of “Survivor."
In addition to her production chops, Taylor’s vocals have been featured in marketing campaigns behind “The Blair Witch,” “Voyeur,” “Triple Nine,” “The Promise,” and others.
Regarding her new position with Riptide, Amazan says, “I’m thrilled in having made the jump over to the music creation side to round out the amazing trailer team here at Riptide! As the new Creative Manager for Trailers, I will help to pitch and manage the existing Riptide catalog, and will also be producing a bunch of exciting new material throughout the year. We have a TON of incredible Riptide artists and composers on board that are itching to create new songs. I’m just so very excited to jump in and start developing new sync-perfect gems for all of our great existing and potential new clients.”
About RICHARD HELLSTERN
As Riptide Music’s Vice President of Operations, Richard Hellstern brings together his experience in finance, publishing, writing and producing to be an agile and effective head of daily operations for a growing company in a fast-changing music industry. He was previously Royalties and Finance Manager for the company.
Hellstern got his start in music publishing and administration 14 years ago, after having spent 10 years in music production and performance. Previously at PEN Music Group, Inc., he has represented marquee catalogues like the Bob Marley estate and Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, artists including Olivia Newton John, Gina Schock of The Go-Go’s, and Don Felder of The Eagles, as well as platinum-selling copyrights by Christina Aguilera, Selena Gomez, Luther Vandross and many others.
Hellstern has produced numerous musicals for the stage including The Full Monty, Into the Woods, The Burnt Part Boys, and others. He is also a published writer, having contributed celebrity interviews and cover stories, op-eds, and film and TV reviews for 6 years to a national magazine, Instinct.
“Music has always been the dominant force in my life, whether playing the piano, producing a musical, recording in the studio or shepherding the career of another musician,” says Hellstern. “The most exciting thing for me about working at Riptide, is the chance to lead a team of talented professionals right as the music industry tips headlong into the technology space. We’ve seen a gradual trend over the last decade from physical product to digital product to streaming music; now the trend is sharing platforms, audience engagement and, in a way, a return to more intimate musical experiences for fans. I’m looking forward to shaping how Riptide becomes a leader in innovation in the decade to come.”
About RIPTIDE MUSIC GROUP
Formed in early 2014 by the merger of Riptide Music and Pigfactory, Riptide Music Group is comprised of five operating units: Riptide Rights looks after publishing and master rights for administration and sync representation; Riptide One, a carefully curated catalog of independent artists, bands, producers and composers, master & publishing controlled 100% by Riptide; Pacifica Music Library, a modern production music library focused on current popular music styles; DIVER, a boutique catalog of label-signed, active and touring artists; and Incubator, Riptide’s pop and urban songwriter, producer and artist development division.
Riptide Music Group is located at 9469 Jefferson Blvd., Ste. 114, Culver City, CA 90232. The phone is 310.437.4380. For more information, please visit: http://www.riptidemusic.com/
