Marty Silverstone promoted to President, Global Sync at Primary Wave – Music Business Worldwide

Primary Wave Music has promoted Marty Silverstone to President, Global Sync.

Silverstone, who is also a partner at Primary Wave, will continue to oversee the sync licensing department from the company’s new Los Angeles location in Beachwood Canyon, while simultaneously driving sync strategy and opportunities for the company’s catalogs, as well as its contemporary songwriters and artists on a global level.

A 13-year veteran of Primary Wave, Marty joined the firm as Sr. Creative Director and was promoted to VP/Head of Film & TV before being named SVP/Head of Sync in 2014.

As SVP/Head of Sync, Silverstone built and leads a dynamic sync department that specializes in the creative re-imagination and placement of copyrights across Primary Wave’s music catalog.

Primary Wave says that some of its most notable placements include commercials for Amazon using Burt Bacharach’s Always Something There To Remind Me and James Brown’s It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World, Pepsi who used Whitney Houston’s cover of Higher Love, and Virgin Voyages who highlighted Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon.

Additionally, he and his team have been responsible for placing a number of Primary Wave’s songs across a variety of film and television projects including Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse, Elvis, The Fabelmans, Stranger Things, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Shrinking.

“Marty is an invaluable part of the Primary Wave family and has been for over a decade. His vision for how our catalog of music can be reimagined has no bounds.”

Larry Mestel, Primary Wave

Apple TV’s Ted Lasso used several songs from the Primary Wave catalog over the course of their three seasons including a major look during the show’s season finale with the Emmy-nominated song A Beautiful Game. Primary Wave sys that the idea began at Primary Wave with Silverstone and team working closely with Ted Lasso’s team to coordinate the songwriting session between Ed Sheeran, Max Martin, and Primary Wave songwriter Foy Vance.

Under Silverstone’s lead, Primary Wave scored nine Super Bowl commercials in the last three years alone. Those placements include Tina Turner’s The Best for Pringles, Kenny Loggins’ I’m Alright for Michelob Ultra, and Google Pixel licensing Missy Elliott’s We Run This– which samples the classic Primary Wave copyright Apache.

Over his 20 years in music publishing and licensing, Silverstone has also worked with and secured major placements in advertising and film/TV projects for Nirvana, Rod Stewart, Aerosmith, and Hall & Oates.

Before joining Primary Wave, Silverstone was head of creative licensing at independent publisher North Star Media. During that time, he teamed up with ad agency Leo Burnett in Chicago to establish the “Artist-In-Residence” program.  The program led to a major ad campaign for the band Collective Soul.

“It’s been very rewarding to see Primary Wave’s growth over the years, and to have our sync department contributing at every turn.”

Marty Silverstone

“It’s been very rewarding to see Primary Wave’s growth over the years, and to have our sync department contributing at every turn,” said Silverstone.

I’m proud to continue leading the team, as we focus on developing new creative opportunities for our clients. It’s such an exciting time for our company and our industry.”

“His leadership, knowledge of our catalog, relationships, and respect for all our clients and their song legacies makes me proud to announce this well-deserved promotion to President, Global Synch.”

Justin Shukat, Primary Wave

Justin Shukat, President of Publishing at Primary Wave, added:  “Marty has been with us now for over 13 years.

“His leadership, knowledge of our catalog, relationships, and respect for all our clients and their song legacies makes me proud to announce this well-deserved promotion to President, Global Synch.”

Primary Wave’s CEO & Founder, Larry Mestel said: “Marty is an invaluable part of the Primary Wave family and has been for over a decade. His vision for how our catalog of music can be reimagined has no bounds.

“He and his team have brought new life to our iconic and classic songs helping to usher them into the modern era. There’s no one more deserving of this promotion.”

 Music Business Worldwide