Courtney Holt, Spotify’s head of talk partnerships, editorial and global markets, will transition to an advisory role next month as the audio giant prepares to divide his responsibilities across multiple executives, a person familiar with the matter told The Hollywood Reporter.
Holt is expected to stay on as adviser for a year. In the meantime, his duties will be taken over by a team primarily led by Julie McNamara, Spotify’s head of U.S. studios and video, and Max Cutler, the head of new content initiatives and the founder of Parcast Studios. The transition has been underway for a few weeks, according to the person, and Spotify is not hiring a replacement for Holt’s position.
“I want to give thanks to the incredible teams at @Spotify I was [lucky] enough to lead and interact with,” Holt tweeted on Tuesday. “The goals we set were ambitious, and yet we achieved so much. There is a great future for the company beyond what you can see and hear today!”
Holt first joined Spotify in 2017 from Disney as the company’s head of studios and video. Since then, the audio giant has made a number of hires focused on entertainment programming, including the 2018 appointment of Dawn Ostroff, from Condé Nast Entertainment, as chief content officer and last year’s hire of McNamara from Paramount+ to lead the company’s podcast studios, which include The Ringer, Gimlet and Parcast, and oversee partnerships for Spotify Originals with companies like the Obamas’ Higher Ground and Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Archewell Audio.
Spotify declined to comment. The Ankler first reported Holt’s upcoming departure.
April 12, 1:05 pm PST Story and headline updated to reflect Holt’s most recent title.
