Warner Music Group Combines Global Sync Operations Under Ron Broitman

Warner Music Group is bringing its worldwide synchronization, or “sync,” operations into one combined organization spanning recorded music and music publishing. Ron Broitman has been promoted to President of Global Sync and will lead the streamlined operation from Los Angeles.

The new setup places WMG’s global sync rights under a single structure rather than separating the work between its recorded-music business and publishing division. Broitman will report to WMG Chief Operating Officer Tom Corson, with Guy Moot, Chair and CEO of Warner Chappell Music, providing additional oversight.

For a business built around getting music into film, television, advertising and other screen-led projects, the central idea is straightforward: make a licensing process that can be approached through one door, while retaining the creative expertise needed to find the right track, composition and rights holders.

What the combined sync unit will handle

Broitman’s remit covers sync teams globally, including personnel across Warner Chappell, Atlantic Music Group, Warner Records Group and ADA distribution. The unified operation is set to handle creative pitching and marketing, business development, licensing clearance, administration and data analytics for WMG’s sync rights around the world.

Sync licensing is the process of authorizing music for use alongside moving images or other media. A song used in a trailer, television episode, commercial or major live-event broadcast is a familiar result of that work. But placing a recording can involve multiple business and creative steps, especially when the rights to the underlying song and the rights to a particular recording are administered separately.

That distinction explains why combining recorded-music and publishing operations matters. The recorded-music side concerns a specific recorded performance. Music publishing concerns the underlying musical work and the interests of its songwriters and publishers. A prospective user may need both sides of a deal addressed before a well-known recording can be used. The announced structure is designed to give clients a single entry point for WMG’s catalog across those areas.

WMG says the arrangement will create one creative strategy, one commercial discussion, one clearance route and one administrative path for its sync rights globally. In practical terms, that is intended to reduce the number of handoffs involved when a client wants to explore music across the company’s recorded and publishing catalogs.

Clearance speed is at the heart of the change

The company has emphasized simpler licensing and faster turnaround. That is a meaningful goal in sync because a project may be working toward a fixed production, campaign or release timetable. Creative teams often need to know not only whether a song fits a scene or concept, but whether it can be cleared in time and through a workable business process.

A combined global structure does not mean every proposed use will automatically be approved. Clearance remains a distinct responsibility within the new organization, and rights questions can still be specific to the music and deal involved. What the reorganization aims to change is the route through the organization: a coordinated operation can assess opportunities across the full catalog and keep the commercial, clearance and administrative conversations aligned.

The company also expects the global coordination to widen the reach of its creative pitching. Creative pitching is the work of matching music to a possible use and presenting that option to a client or creative partner. It is not merely catalog search. The task can involve identifying a song or recording that works artistically for an intended setting, then moving the opportunity through the rights and administrative process.

For artists and songwriters, the potential value is exposure to a more unified pitching effort alongside a process intended to make deals easier for clients to pursue. For clients, the stated benefit is less fragmentation between the recorded and publishing sides of the catalog. For WMG’s internal teams, the structure puts pitching, licensing, administration and analytics inside a shared global framework.

Warner Chappell remains embedded in the business

Moot described the move as a growth measure intended to unlock more value for songwriters, while stressing that the Warner Chappell team will stay embedded within the sync operation. That point is important because publishing representation is central to the songwriter side of a sync opportunity.

Bringing operations together under a global leader is therefore not presented as removing publishing from the conversation. Instead, WMG is pairing a combined business structure with continued publishing-team involvement, with the goal of maintaining focused care and creative pitching for writers.

The announcement also points to the broader operational scope of a modern sync division. Alongside relationship-building and song selection, the combined group will oversee data analytics. In this context, analytics forms part of the unit’s overall rights operation, sitting beside marketing, licensing and administration rather than being treated as a separate function.

That blend of roles makes the position more than a playlist-curation job. The leader of global sync must coordinate the creative proposition of a placement, the commercial opportunity, the required clearances and the processing that follows. WMG’s new structure is explicitly built around joining those functions across its worldwide rights portfolio.

Why Ron Broitman was selected

Broitman comes into the presidency with direct experience managing a joint sync operation inside WMG. Before the promotion, he was Executive Vice President of Global Sync for the company’s recorded-music business. He had also served as Executive Vice President and Head of Sync across publishing and recorded music, overseeing a combined U.S. operation.

His placement history includes work ranging from the Super Bowl to the finale of Stranger Things. More recently, he secured the use of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven in the trailer for Greta Gerwig’s forthcoming Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew.

Those examples illustrate the range of contexts a sync team can serve: a major live-event setting, a high-profile television conclusion and a film trailer. They also underline why the company is emphasizing both creative strategy and rights administration. A high-visibility placement begins with a music choice, but it requires the relevant parties and permissions to line up.

Before WMG, Broitman was Senior Vice President of Film, TV & Advertising at Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Earlier, at BMG Music Publishing, he merged and ran the joint sync operation covering BMG and Zomba Music Publishing catalogs as well as BMG recorded-music labels. His background repeatedly includes the same kind of bridge WMG is now formalizing at a global level: bringing publishing catalogs and recorded-music labels into a joint sync approach.

A single global path, with local teams still in the picture

The announcement describes a worldwide organization rather than a purely U.S. consolidation. Broitman will lead teams around the globe, while Warner Chappell, Atlantic Music Group, Warner Records Group and ADA distribution are all named as part of the operational picture.

That broad scope matters because WMG is not simply changing a title or combining two small departments. The company is positioning the move as a unified system for creative pitching, commercial engagement, clearance, administration and analysis across all of its global sync rights.

Corson framed the goal as getting music to market faster, making the client experience simpler and creating more opportunities for artists, songwriters and the wider creative community. Moot’s comments add the complementary publishing perspective: the integrated structure is intended to grow the opportunity while keeping writers connected to an embedded publishing team.

The immediate result is clear: Broitman becomes WMG’s global sync president, and recorded-music and publishing sync operations are being consolidated beneath that role. The longer-term measure of the change will be whether one coordinated entry point can deliver the quicker clearances, broader pitching reach and more efficient licensing process that WMG has set out as its objectives. For more developments affecting the business side of entertainment, see our industry coverage of LFI’s 2027 Inclusion Fellowship.