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His remit spans UMG’s labels and divisions, shifting his work from listener-focused products to AI efforts intended to support artists.
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UMG is assigning Òscar Celma responsibility for applied AI and machine learning across its labels and other businesses, reporting to chief data officer Hannah Poferl. His background spans Spotify listening features, Condé Nast machine learning and product analytics, and earlier music-recommendation research. The appointment establishes senior AI leadership across the group, but UMG has named no first project or...
Celma’s appointment is effective September 28; the article gives no year.
At Spotify, he led teams behind AI DJ, Jam and Daylist, among other music-discovery features.
UMG has not identified an initial initiative or detailed how the AI work will be allocated across its businesses.
Òscar Celma helped build personalized listening experiences at Spotify. Now Universal Music Group has appointed him senior vice president of applied AI and machine learning, effective September 28. His new role reaches across UMG’s global operations, rather than focusing on a single listening product.
Celma will help lead the development and use of AI and machine learning across UMG’s labels, divisions and other businesses. He reports to Hannah Poferl, the company’s chief data officer. The appointment places him within UMG’s data leadership, with a remit that extends beyond any one label. UMG has not specified how the work will be divided among those businesses.
Poferl sees an opportunity to use UMG’s data to help teams do more for artists. Celma said he wants to advance the company’s AI capabilities in support of human artistry. Those are stated aims, not a specific tool or rollout: UMG’s appointment announcement does not identify a first project. It also does not explain how Celma’s experience building listening products will translate into work for a record company’s labels and divisions.
With the breadth and depth of UMG’s data, there’s enormous potential for him to help our teams do more for our artists.
Hannah Poferl, UMG chief data officer
Celma’s Spotify experience helps explain why UMG chose him. As a director of engineering there, he led teams responsible for new listening experiences. UMG credits him with helping develop AI-powered personalized features including AI DJ, Jam and Daylist, along with other music-discovery products. Those tools were built around what listeners might want to hear; his stated responsibility at UMG is to support the company’s labels and businesses.
He most recently led machine learning and product analytics at Condé Nast. Earlier, he spent seven years in senior data-science roles at Pandora/SiriusXM, focused on machine learning, music discovery and recommendation. That combination gives UMG an executive whose experience covers both music recommendations and product analytics, as it assigns him AI work across businesses with different roles in serving artists.
His work in music technology predates those jobs. Celma was a senior research scientist at Gracenote and co-founded BMAT Music Innovators, where he served as chief innovation officer. He also holds a doctorate in computer science and digital communication and has published research on music information retrieval and recommendation systems. UMG is drawing on a career that spans research, engineering and product leadership.
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