In January of this year Swedish X5 Music opened their U.S. office in New York. The U.S. venture starts by recruiting a key person from Amazon. Joy O’Shell is the new COO at X5 U.S. As of this week she can be reached at X5 Music’s new office, located in the Empire State Building in New York City.
Joy O’Shell was earlier in charge of Indie music at Amazon.com and she was one of those responsible for making Amazon the world’s second largest music store.
РJoy has reached agreements with thousands of indies and artists in the U.S. Her network and profound knowledge is unique, says Johan Lagerl̦f, CEO of X5 Music.
– Furthermore, Joy is one of the sharpest persons we have come across which makes this is a real dream start for us. The fact that she also passionately loves Sweden makes it even better!
Before X5 Music Joy O’Shell worked for one the most successful Internet companies in the U.S. She has also worked with licensing of music streaming at American AOL.
– In dialogues with the most significant music companies, X5 has always come across as the most innovative and creative one, she says.
– In cooperation with Amazon, X5 has transformed the image of how we perceive a music album and the marketing of it. In terms of classical music, for example, where all of the twenty-five best selling albums at times have been exclusively X5 products, they have illustrated that their way of doing things gives unique results.
– I think it is going to be extremely exciting to be part of this journey. Together, I trust that we can continue to develop the company to reach new heights.
This year X5 Music will have approximately 5-10 employees at the new office in New York. The U.S. office will focus its efforts on contracting artists and signing agreements regarding music catalogues in the U.S. as well as marketing X5 products.