JENNIFER KNOEPFLE:
THE HITS INTERVIEW

We here present some highlights from Craig Marks' recent interview with UMPG's Jennifer Knoepfle, which you'll soon be able to read in its entirety in our print edition.

The biggest album of 2024 is largely a UMPG affair.

On April 19, Taylor Swift, a Universal Music Publishing Group songwriter, released her 11th LP, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. As was the case with Swift’s Grammy-winning Midnights album, her chief collaborator on TORTURED POETS is songwriter-producer Jack Antonoff, who, like Swift, is now a UMPG client, having followed his longtime publishing exec, Jennifer Knoepfle, when she left Sony Music Publishing to join UMPG as the pubco’s co-head of U.S. A&R.

Knoepfle reunited with UMPG Chairperson/CEO Jody Gerson in 2022 after spending 13 years at Sony, with Gerson serving as her boss and mentor for about half of that tenure. At Sony, Knoepfle signed or developed such artists, writers and producers as Antonoff, Noah Kahan, Aaron Dessner, Dan Nigro (Olivia Rodrigo), Tate McRae, Leon Bridges, Ariel Rechtshaid, BloodPop, Willow, King Princess, Lord Huron, Wallows and Maggie Rogers.

Since joining UMPG, a number of Knoepfle’s songwriters, producers and artists followed her to the pubco, including Antonoff and his band, Bleachers, Maggie Rogers, Lord Huron and Wallows. She has also signed a number of major stars to UMPG like boygenius’ Lucy Dacus and Dan Wilson (Adele, Chris Stapleton).

In addition to the Swift/Antonoff blockbuster, Knoepfle’s UMPG spring slate includes the new album from Rogers, the latest LP from Grammy Best New Artist nominee Gracie Abrams, a new David Kushner song, and Knoepfle and UMPG A&R Co-Head David Gray’s latest signing, Danny L. Harle, who is a key producer on Dua Lipa’s upcoming album, “Radical Optimism.”

“As far as I am concerned,” says Gerson, “Jenn Knoepfle is one of the best music executives I have ever known. She has impeccable taste in music and deep belief in the songwriters and artists she signs. She commits to them and knows how to support and amplify their talents. She is also a tremendous leader, mentor and role model. I am so happy she is leading our A&R team with David Gray in the U.S.—they are a formidable team.”

How would you compare the culture at Sony to that of Universal?

At Universal, A&R is at the center of every decision. Everything we do is centered around, “Do we feel this artist or this songwriter is going to be important for a long time? Are we the people who are going to be able to help this person get to where they want to be? Are we the right fit?” And Jody has built one of the best rosters in the entire business. Even when I was at Sony, I was looking at Universal and like, “Oh my God, this artist roster is absolutely insane.”

I mean, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Ariana Grande, Drake, Metro Boomin, Kendrick Lamar, Harry Styles, Rosalia, SZA. The most important artists of the last 10 years are at this company.

When I was at Sony, we were always trying to figure out how to get our writers and producers on to those projects. I had a great experience at Sony, but when we merged with EMI, we went from being a small company to a very, very large company. What does it mean to be part of this company? What is our focus?

The difference I see here is that there is a lot of focus around “What are we trying to achieve? What are the things that are going to be meaningful in the next 10 or 20 years?” It’s quite deliberate in terms of how we approach A&R, which I think is a very good strategy, because it doesn’t really burn your A&R team to the ground.

When we were at Sony, Jody used to say, “Everything we do here has to count. You can’t hide anything under the rug. Everything has to work.” Now, obviously, everything is not going to work. But I think that’s an important intention when you approach something, especially now where we don’t really have a lot of metrics guiding us into who’s going to be meaningful for 10 years. You have to lean into your A&R skills and your gut, to be like, “I see something in this person. I see what my place could be in helping them achieve their goals and we can take action on those things.”

When I got here, I really liked that we had conversations about A&R, versus, like, “Oh, that person has a piece of a song. We should get that because we have to maintain market share.” Now, market share is important, of course. We have to keep it in mind. But I don’t want that to be my driving factor. Because if we’re looking at things quarter to quarter, it’s very difficult to make good decisions about being in business with people over the long term.

Is there a particular artist who exemplifies the values you’re talking about?

I always talk about Jack Antonoff, because he and I have had a really long-term relationship. He was at Sony and then came over to UMPG a few months back. We worked together from a very early part of his life, particularly in his production phase. I saw qualities in him that made me think, “I want to be on a journey with this person. I feel like he is going to be relevant in 10 years.”

What do you value most in your boss and co-workers: Jody, COO Marc Cimino and co-head of A&R David Gray in particular?

Obviously, Jody and I have had a long relationship. Eight years had passed between us working together. She’d gone on to become the chief executive of a company. I went on to be a head of A&R. Each of us was doing our thing. So coming to UMPG, I was really excited to see how our relationship had grown. And she’s delivered on absolutely everything that she’d said this would be.

Mark is like the North Star—he’s just steady. He’s a family man. He’s really caring and collaborative. We share a similar musical background, so we align on a lot of artists that we love: the Chili Peppers, Wilco, Tom Petty, artists like that.

And then David is just the best partner I could have in terms of a co-head of A&R, because he and I do very different things musically. He would say, “I do the most commercial music on Earth, and you do the cool kid stuff,” and we would both laugh. We actually did our first signing together this year with an amazing producer named Danny L Harle, who worked on the upcoming Dua Lipa record and has worked with Caroline Polachek. David had been here eight years when I arrived, and I could have come into a situation where I was met with a lot of resistance. David was the absolute opposite. He was like, “I’m so happy you’re here. Let’s work together. Let’s be a team.” And that’s how it’s been ever since. We talk multiple times a day. But I love that the CFO, the COO, the head of admin, the chairman, are all in this building together. I love that. It’s really great to have access to all those people literally across the hall. I want to learn from the best people in business.

Do you think there’s a difference working at a woman-led company?

Yes. It’s subtle. I think the best way to put it is that there’s a shared understanding. I’d never worked at a woman-led company, and towards the end of my tenure at Sony, I started to feel that that was very important to me. It’s so hard for women to get into positions of power in the business, and I wanted to put my money where my mouth is. I wanted to work with a woman. I wanted to work at a place where not only do we have a chairwoman, but where the head of Latin is a woman [Alexandra Lioutikoff] and where our head of sync is a woman [Marni Condro].

I don’t want to generalize, but I do feel that a more collaborative spirit exists here. And I also think that women can multitask better than men.

I am a parent to an 8-year-old boy, and I’ve always worked for family-friendly bosses. Certainly, no one has ever asked me to put my child aside to do my job. But you start to become very cognizant when you look at the lives of people at the top of the companies and think, “That’s not my situation. I don’t have a partner who stays at home and raises my children. I have a husband who has an equally demanding job. I have to balance family and work.” I don’t know that you can really explain that to someone who’s never had that experience.

From top: Knoepfle with Gerson; with Dan Wilson; with Jack Antonoff