Arriving in London in the teeth of the pandemic to take a top music industry job, Shani Gonzales had few opportunities to immerse herself in British culture, with venues shut and parties off the table. The New Yorker instead turned to TV for her education, bingeing on The Crown, Downton Abbey and – a more left-field choice – Naked Attraction.

“I was trying to get as much of a cross-section as possible!” says Gonzales, who heads the UK arm of music publishing giant Warner Chappell. “Music is culture, taste, environment – it felt daunting not being able to leave the house and meet artists in a role like this.”

Nearly four years on, she has hit her stride and believes her appointment provides a signal for songwriters. “[The UK] is a very important music market, both historically and continues to be cool … But also I’m American, so clearly we’re showing you that we walk the walk – you come and sign here and it isn’t just a UK approach.”

She says expanding songwriters’ reach globally has boosted Warner Chappell’s revenues. The publisher traces its roots to 1811 and has been in its current form since the 1980s, its history connecting the compositions of Ludwig van Beethoven to modern artists such as Lizzo and Madonna. Its roster includes David Bowie, Dua Lipa and Shaboozey.

While music labels are occupied with the business of record releases and artists’ tours, publishers act as “labels” for songwriters, helping land them licensing deals, collecting royalties, connecting them with recording artists and getting songs played on adverts, film and TV. Their charges may be big name singer-songwriters in their own right, lower-profile artists, or, increasingly, dedicated behind-the scenes songwriters, who also attract fame.

Warner Chappell has just over 12% of the music publishing market, lagging rivals Sony and Universal, which have about double that share each. But the company is on the front foot. Last year it broke $1bn in revenues for the first time. In the UK, profits rose sharply to almost £26m on turnover of £137m, which is up 29% on 2022, according to its last publicly available accounts.

“This business cannot and does not stop in the US, so we’ve made some changes, paid more attention around the world, and been more global, not just local,” Gonzales says in her London office off Kensington High Street, where gold and platinum discs from artists such as Rihanna and Central Cee are stacked up.

She praises Len Blavatnik, Britain’s second richest person, according to the Sunday Times rich list, who is a majority owner of Warner Music through his Access Industries vehicle, saying he is “tuned in and paying attention”. (She’s met him “a couple of times” but “we don’t braid each other’s hair and toast marshmallows on the weekends”, she jokes.)

But despite the rising revenues, the industry faces a significant headache in the form of generative AI – from machine-spawned songs deliberately designed to land on popular playlists to video mock-ups of artists singing covers.

“I want to make sure my songwriters and artists continue to be treated fairly and compensated financially. There’s so many versions of AI – the people who are providing the lyric and the melody that generative AI is learning from need to be remunerated,” says Gonzales.

“You can play around in the studio and you can make, like, Drake sing a Bruce Springsteen tune. Right now, people are just having fun and throwing it up online, but what ­happens when someone says: ‘I’m going to sell that’? I wouldn’t go to a restaurant, take the food and not expect to [pay].”

Gonzales believes governments need to step in to tackle the issue and prevent a repeat of the piracy that ravaged the CD industry. “It took years to recover from that,” she says, admitting she happily used the file-sharing software Napster as a “dumb college kid”.

The roots of her career were set before college, however. Her mother and father had migrated from Jamaica and Trinidad respectively, with Gonzales born while they were studying at Cornell University.

She grew up in Queens, New York City, and recalls her bemused dad watching on as she “blustered about the house crying” over the death of rapper Biggie Smalls. Shunning expectations that she would go to law school, she pursued a career in the music industry, although her initial intention was to eschew the unstable hedonism of being an artists and repertoire (A&R) representative, the industry’s talent scouts.

However, she eventually relented and rose through the ranks, developing artists including DJ Khaled, Justin Bieber and a young Travis Scott. She moved through some of the industry’s biggest companies – BMI, Epic Records, Def Jam and BMG – and led international A&R for Warner Chappell before her current role.

Today, one issue is a constant for her: artist remuneration. Returns to artists have been described as “pitiful”. The singer Raye, who dominated at this year’s Brit awards and with whom Gonzales has worked closely, has claimed “songwriters are being manipulated” in the industry and called on other artists to push the cause for better pay for them.

“I agree with her, and I respect that she is using her platform and fame to talk about it,” says Gonzales. “Songwriters do deserve a bigger piece of the pie, and that’s what we’re here to do.”

Is it embarrassing to present streaming royalties of fractions of a penny to her talent? “I don’t know if I find it embarrassing – it’s a moment to teach them how, or if, you want to prioritise commerciality versus creativity. It’s a balance. Sometimes it’s fractions of a penny and you say ‘something’s got to change’ – at other times, it seems about right.”

Another boss who has pushed for better returns for songwriters is Merck Mercuriadis, whose company Hipgnosis hit turmoil over the valuation of the music rights it owns. Industry sources had long griped over Hipgnosis’s tactics, claiming it had overpaid and driven up the price of big artists’ back catalogues.

“They definitely got to a level of ambition that I did not always appreciate … I was curious about how they value things and if it could sustain itself long term,” Gonzales says. But with Sony reportedly landing Queen’s back catalogue for a record-breaking $1bn last week, the volume is still turned up on music dealmaking.

CV

Age 44
Family A Jamaican mother, Sharon Robertson, and a Trinidadian father, Francisco Gonzales.
Education Cardozo high school, New York, and Temple University, Philadelphia.
Pay Undisclosed. “I’m lucky enough to get paid very well to do my dream job. It can be hard work, but I never take for granted how lucky I am.”
Last holiday Jamaica for new year.
Biggest regret “I’m quite tough on myself but regret I’m not tough about. I did regret moving to New York just before Covid started, living in the middle of three hospitals. I was thinking: ‘What have I done with my life – I could be living back in LA, where the weather is good and people were at least outdoors.’”
Best advice she’s been given “You’ll forget most of the things that are technical but you’ll always remember the things that inspire you.”
Phrase she overuses “‘Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration’ is one we use a lot in this company.”
How she relaxes “I’m not great at drawing a line between work and play. I can be a bit of an insomniac. I’ll find a jazz playlist and read.”