The Business and Accounting Side of Music

BY KATHLEEN HOFFELDER, NJCPA SENIOR CONTENT EDITOR

Jennifer L. Rosen, CPA, didn’t immediately set her sights on accounting or what it could lead to, nor did she expect to end up on the business and accounting side of music when she was playing the piano growing up in South Jersey. At that time, accounting was probably one of the furthest professions from her mind.

Jennifer and her older brother, Stephen, were introduced to music by their mother at an early age. Her brother, also a music enthusiast, eventually became an attorney who specializes in music. Jennifer performed in regional piano competitions throughout her childhood, driven around by her mother and father, and enjoys music so much she left at least one job to get back into it.

Following the Notes

After obtaining both her Bachelor of Science degree in accounting and her M.B.A. in finance from American University, Jennifer started out in a traditional accounting job where she worked in auditing for a public accounting firm and then made the leap to EMI Music as the publishing royalties manager. There, she managed the department responsible for the calculation and payment of foreign royalties to music publishers and songwriters.

After briefly leaving EMI to be an internal auditor for the sports and entertainment group at Aramark, the food services company, she returned to EMI — this time to EMI Music Publishing, feeling something was missing. There she spearheaded the team responsible for uncovering missing or misappropriated royalties that songwriters and producers are due, somewhat like forensic accounting. “It highlighted to me that the music part of it was key to me enjoying the number aspect of it,” she adds.

“At EMI, I was running the Infringement and Compliance unit. My job was to bring in money that otherwise wasn’t coming in — identify folks using music without a license, etc. My job was really investigative but on the financial end of it,” she explains. “There was something very satisfying about that full-circle approach, knowing that songwriter is getting paid. We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars over my 15 years at EMI.”

In 2012, she joined Google Play Music, which was looking for someone who understood digital music licensing. “If they had an accounting background, it was considered even better,” she says, noting her CPA license was highly regarded. Later, she was also part of the team that sunset Google Play Music when Google Play and YouTube merged products in 2018. “At that time, we had two competing music services. It didn’t make sense to operate both,” she says.

Jennifer, now head of music publishing partnerships (North America) at YouTube, combines the best of both the business world and music. She manages YouTube’s relationships with music publishers who represent artists like Taylor Swift who writes many of her own songs. “I still talk to the folks I met back in the ’90s. The music business is very small in the grand scheme of things,” she adds.

The relationship part of the job has been key to her success. “At EMI, people had to like you to want to pay you and at YouTube, it’s critical in keeping the music available. So, if I’m calling, it’s essential the phone is answered; it’s a lot about building partnerships and relationships,” says Jennifer, who now resides in Wayne with her husband, Chad, and still enjoys playing the piano. “Even when I was doing the forensic accounting stuff, the relationship was the biggest piece of that,” she adds.

However, the most interesting part of her job is meeting famous singers and performers and hearing about their journeys as well as listening to live music. “I have met a lot of celebrities. Stevie Wonder and Sting were heros, and of course, being a Jersey Girl, meeting Jon Bon Jovi was epic,” she says. “For me, it was very cool to present Cyndi Lauper with her million-subscriber button. That’s an accounting function!”