Disney Music Publishing is setting up a new office in Nashville and has assigned the A&R man of its affiliate, Lyric Street Records, to run the office.
Doug Howard, senior vice president of artist & repertoire (A&R) for Lyric Street, has been named senior vice president and general manager of Disney Music Publishing/Nashville.
Howard will continue his A&R role at Lyric Street while heading the publishing company's efforts to acquire song catalogs, sign local writers and pitch their songs.
Disney Music Publishing and Lyric Street Records are part of the Buena Vista Music Group, the recorded music and music publishing arm of the Walt Disney Co.
Howard started with Lyric Records when the Disney established the country record imprint in 1997. Since then, the label has turned out CDs by Rascal Flatts, SHeDAISY, Josh Gracin and Aaron Tippin, among others.
Headquartered in Burbank, Calif., Disney Music Publishing controls thousands of copyrights to songs representing the musical legacy of the Walt Disney Co.
Howard said Disney has long planned to establish a Nashville publishing office to take advantage of song promotion in Music City.
"There have been people expecting this from us for several years, and we finally this year made the decision to jump and we're now set up to do it," Howard said.
He said he plans to make an announcement next week on the company's first signing to its publishing company.
Although Howard is in charge of finding talent for the Lyric Street record label, his background is in publishing. From 1992 until 1997, he served as vice president and general manager of PolyGram International Music Publishing/Nashville, which was later sold to Universal Music.
