Gvm Appoints Danés, Reduces Size

Spanish music conglomerate Gran Vía Musical (GVM) has appointed Pedro Danés as its new director general. It plans to lay off an unknown number of staff and has reduced its divisions from five to four as it prepares to expand activity in Mexico in the new year. Danés, 38, replaces Ignacio Iglesias.

"My appointment is managerial, because a clear business focus was lacking until now," Danés tells Billboard. "The music-industry crisis obliges us to be more rigorous and to reduce size so that cost increases are zero."

An important section of GVM in this plan is touring and concert-promotion arm Planet Events, which is part of new division GVM Eventos, with Sandra Retondo as director. Music-festival arm Media Festivals has been incorporated into GVM Eventos, and its former director, José María Palacios, has exited.

Another key feature of the changes is that GVM Mexico, which was created this year, will appoint a director early next year. It is currently headed by Miami-based Marco Antonio Rubí, who is director of the Muxxic Latina label, of which GVM owns 75% and Universal Music Group (UMG) the remaining 25%. GVM CEO Luis Merino says there have not been any changes in Miami so far and that GVM is looking to optimize its 2-year-old relationship with UMG regarding Muxxic Latina. Miami will continue to be the regional headquarters of Muxxic Latina under Rubí.

Danés says, "Mexico is to be the passport to the U.S. for [GVM's] Spanish artists, such as Marta Sánchez, Raúl, and Agüita Salá. The general idea is that our successful artists will be promoted in Mexico with the aim of them then reaching U.S. audiences."

As part of the changes, GVM's activities in Miami have been incorporated into the UMG structure to make them more efficient. Danés says the Miami structure "has been condensed.

"We want Mexico to be our launch pad into the U.S. and Latin America in general," he continues. "It is not always enough for our artists to be successful in Spain: Our aim is to internationalize them."

Danés stresses that the priority is to strengthen GVM in Spain. The exact number of staff to be laid off will be known in January 2003, "but our structure will be smaller," he says. Three back-office personnel are known to have been let go already, apart from the exits of Iglesias, Palacios, and former GVM financial director Juan Piedra, who is now VP of finance at Radio Caracol.

Danés adds that the biggest difference between GVM before and now is its size. "It is now smaller and is to operate under different business criteria." Danés previously worked as a business administrator in a leading insurance company.

Merino says that GVM's four divisions will be labels, events, distribution, and publishing. Media Festivals, which helped arrange some of Spain's top music festivals, including Festimad and Esparrago Rock, was incorporated into GVM Eventos because "it did not make sense to have Planet Events and Media Festivals as separate divisions when their functions often coincided," says Merino, who is also director general of leisure and entertainment at GVM's parent company, Grupo Prisa.

Merino says GVM Eventos is "the premier operator of Latin artists in Spain," having organized in recent months tours and concerts by Shakira, Enrique Iglesias, Paulina Rubio, Maná, Juanes, Caetano Veloso, and Eros Ramazotti.

GVM Discos includes labels Muxxic, SunnyLuna, Horus, Palo Nuevo, Rock Muxxic, World Muxxic, and Freequency, with such artists as Marta Sánchez, María Jiménez, Tamara, Sôber, Papa Levante, Gian Marco, Miami Sound Machine, Jon Secada, and Chocolate. Carlos Sanmartín continues as director.

Gran Vía Distribución and GVM Editorial remain unchanged as GVM's distribution and publishing arms, with Felix Iriondo and Dominic Gibson as respective directors.

Merino says, "The aim of the changes is to make GVM more solid, and more changes and enterprises will be announced after the new year—especially on the other side of the Atlantic, where we have to be more active." GVM was created three years ago and has offices in Miami and Mexico City.