Van Natta Takes Playlist CEO Job, With New Investment By Pittman
Former Facebook exec Owen Van Natta will take the CEO job at a music discovery site called Playlist, a move that had been speculated last week, after he did not end up taking another position as head of MySpace Music.
Context & Ripple Effects
Owen Van Natta has been unmoored since he departed Facebook as its chief revenue officer earlier this year, and his name surfaced last week as the leading candidate to run MySpace Music's newly formed joint venture. That deal never closed — News Corp had separately floated the role to an MTV executive — leaving the former Facebook No. 2 to land instead at Playlist, a smaller music discovery startup, with veteran media executive Bob Pittman investing alongside him.
First-order effects
- Playlist gains a high-profile CEO with deep social-networking and revenue experience, plus fresh capital and credibility from Pittman's investment.
- MySpace Music is left still without a confirmed leader after its top candidate walked, prolonging uncertainty around the label-backed venture's launch.
Second-order effects
- News Corp faces pressure to close on an alternative hire quickly — the reported courtship of MTV's Holt shows it already casting a wider net — or risk ceding momentum in ad-supported streaming to rivals.
- Pittman's money signals that experienced operators see acquisition-priced value in small music startups during the downturn, potentially drawing more ex-Facebook and ex-MySpace talent toward early-stage music ventures.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the social-music space consolidates around a two-tier structure: heavily capitalized label joint ventures like MySpace Music competing against nimble, celebrity-investor-backed startups like Playlist.
- The circulation of senior Facebook and MySpace executives through music startups suggests social networking and music are converging into one talent market, foreshadowing the integrated social-streaming products that later defined the industry.
The trend: This is one data point in the late-2000s convergence of social networks and music, where proven web executives and celebrity investors are flowing into music startups as the industry rebuilds around digital distribution.