Just days after Warner/Chappell CEO Jon Platt announced he is leaving the company for Sony/ATV, sources tell Variety that his longtime lieutenant Katie Vinten is striking a new deal with Warner that will see her launching a label backed by the company in partnership with Grammy-nominated songwriter/producer Justin Tranter (DNCE, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, Britney Spears) and moving to a consulting role with Warner/Chappell.
Details on her new roles are thin, as Vinten is currently on maternity leave, but it seems reasonable to speculate that one artist on the new label, which sources said has not yet been officially named, would be Shea (pronounced “shee-ya”) Diamond, a transgender singer whose recent “Seen It All” EP was executive-produced by Tranter and released on the Warner label Asylum. In May the two appeared together at the Music Biz conference in Nashville called “The Power of Queer Storytelling in Song.”
Vinten — one of Variety’s 2017 Hitmakers — joined Warner/Chappell in 2012 as an A&R director, was soon upped to VP and, late in 2015, was promoted with Ryan Press to co-head of A&R in the U.S., excluding Nashville. Along with Tranter and his frequent collaborator Julia Michaels, she has worked closely with Audra Mae (Kelly Clarkson, Miranda Lambert), Captain Cuts (Walk the Moon, Halsey), Nick Monson (Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez, Nick Jonas), and Felix Snow (SZA, Kiiara), and others. She also united Tranter and hitmakers Mattman & Robin with Imagine Dragons for the band’s “Evolve” album.
Prior to Warner/Chappell, Vinten worked with Platt at EMI Music Publishing where the two of them signed the songwriter MoZella, co-writer of Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball.”
