Rod Riley Named President Of Word Entertainment

Rod Riley

WARNER MUSIC NASHVILLE (WMN), the NASHVILLE-based music operations of WARNER MUSIC GROUP (WMG), has announced today (07/28), that ROD RILEY was named President and CEO of WORD ENTERTAINMENT, WARNER MUSIC GROUP’s Christian music division.

In his new role, RILEY will oversee WORD’s entire operation, including A&R, sales and marketing, music publishing, distribution, church resources and artist services. RILEY succeeds MARK BRIGHT and will report directly to JOHN ESPOSITO, President and CEO of WMN. BRIGHT, a well respected NASHVILLE producer, will continue to work with WMN under the terms of his existing production deal with the company.

In making the announcement ESPOSITO said: "MARK has done an outstanding job as the head of WORD, and it is a testament to the great depth of talent we have at WMN that allows us to not only continue our relationship with him under the terms of his existing production deal but also to not miss a beat by appointing ROD as the head of WORD ENTERTAINMENT. And while we are delighted to give ROD this well-deserved promotion, we are thrilled that we can make this change while also allowing WARNER MUSIC NASHVILLE to continue its very valuable relationship with MARK. We could not be more supportive of MARK’s decision to go back full time to being one of the best producers in Country music, and I look forward to continuing to work with him through his production deal with WARNER BROS. NASHVILLE.”

“I am deeply honored to accept this role as we prepare to enter WORD’s 60th year of making Christian music. It's been a great pleasure to work as part of the WORD organization, especially since it has meant seeing this team bring about consistently incredible results, both in our established businesses, as well as in all of the new areas we have entered,” said RILEY. “We're in the midst of the music industry's most challenging transition period, so I'm even more thankful to ESPO for trusting me with these new responsibilities. I'm confident that working together with this exceptional WORD team we'll see that Word's best days are before us.”

RILEY has served as Chief Operating Officer of WORD ENTERTAINMENT since 2008, and has been responsible for all the business operations of WORD LABEL GROUP, WORD MUSIC PUBLISHING, WORD DISTRIBUTION and WORD MUSIC. RILEY joined WORD ENTERTAINMENT in 2005 as Senior Vice President of Marketing.

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