Tom March has been named president of Geffen Records in the US.
As co-president of Polydor Records, March and fellow co-president Ben Mortimer led the label to a run of chart-topping success with breakthrough acts including Sam Fender, Glass Animals and Olivia Rodrigo, alongside established stars such as ABBA, Paul Weller and Lady Gaga.
Polydor was named Record Company Of The Year by Music Week for the last three years running.
March will begin his tenure at Geffen Records - Rodrigo’s US label - in July. After March’s move to Geffen in July, Polydor UK will continue under the leadership of Ben Mortimer, who is being promoted to sole president of the label.
Geffen Records was relaunched by Interscope Geffen A&M chairman & CEO John Janick two years ago as a label within Interscope. Geffen’s signing of Olivia Rodrigo - Music Week’s Artist Of The Year - became last year’s breakthrough global superstar.
The label also announced a global partnership with HYBE, home to BTS, Seventeen and Enhypen.
Last week, Geffen had two albums in the Top 10 of the US Top 200 Albums Chart – Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour at No.5 and newcomer Yeat whose 2 Alivë debuted at No.6.
“In 2020 we re-launched Geffen Records, entering a period of great success by breaking a new global superstar and forming important strategic partnerships along the way, all while reimagining how a modern label should be – nimble with the perfect match of major label resources and entrepreneurial spirit,” said John Janick.
“Tom has a proven track record of breaking new artists and shares our commitment to artist development. For the last six years, he has looked after Interscope’s expansive roster while leading Polydor to become the premiere label in the UK. He is the perfect executive to lead a Geffen team that has already done such an amazing job these last two years.”
Tom has a proven track record of breaking new artists and shares our commitment to artist development
John Janick
March, who chaired the BRIT Awards 2022, has worked at Universal Music Group for 16 years, spending the last six years as co-president of Polydor Records.
March worked with such artists as Glass Animals, who currently have a global hit with Heat Waves, as well as Olivia Rodrigo, Juice Wrld, Sam Fender, Eminem, Billie Eilish, James Blake, Haim, Ellie Goulding, the Rolling Stones, The Who, ABBA, Lady Gaga, Michael Kiwanuka, Florence & the Machine, Lana del Rey, Selena Gomez, and others.
“It’s been an incredible honour and privilege to have had the opportunity to run Polydor with Ben Mortimer and our team and build it into the best record label in the UK,” said March. “Over these past six years, I have had the great fortune to work closely with John, [IGA vice chairman] Steve Berman and the IGA team on some incredible artists, so when the opportunity came to join them and continue to propel Geffen into the most exciting modern record label in the world, I couldn’t have been more excited. I would like to thank David Joseph and Sir Lucian Grainge for their help and support in making this happen.”
In addition to Rodrigo, Yeat, Yungblud and others, the Geffen label, via Universal Music Group, is the home of a joint venture with HYBE to create a global pop group made up of women from around the world.
In its storied past, Geffen records launched the careers of such iconic artists as Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Guns N’ Roses, Beck, and many others.
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