Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Websites
Affiliations
Languages
Timeline
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Erik Sowden

Toronto,ON

Summary

A dynamic professional with over 20 years of Sales, Account Management, Business Development, Marketing and International Sales experience, whose key areas of expertise include maximizing Sales, Revenue, Partner Relations, managing and leveraging relationships with corporations and creating successful business partnerships. Recognized for identifying future industry trends with an ability to monetize emerging audiences in technology, streaming, retail, data and analytics, consumer marketing, media & entertainment.

Overview

18
18
years of professional experience

Work History

Head of Sales & Business Development

Believe
04.2023 - Current
  • Lead full lifecycle of commercial operations: deal negotiation, revenue generation, strategic planning, and. cross-functional execution.
  • Own Salesforce CRM strategy across sales and partner pipelines, enhancing forecasting, data accuracy, and market intelligence.
  • Collaborate with internal stakeholders on revenue modeling, deal analysis, pipeline performance, and sales workflows.
  • Manage and expand a portfolio of 500+ accounts across Canada & the U.S., surpassing $25M in revenue in Year 1.
  • Direct a 10-member team across Sales Operations, Business Development, Artist Management, Editorial, and Customer Solutions.
  • Drive strategic growth and market expansion across Canada and the U.S., focusing on Label & Artist acquisition, revenue generation, channel marketing, DSP relations, and sales operations.
  • Built and maintained high-level DSP relationships (Spotify, YouTube, Apple, TikTok, Amazon), ensuring global content performance.
  • Led cross-border expansion strategies, optimizing deal conversion and CRM health.

Head of Commercial Development – Music Data & Analytics

Luminate Data
05.2021 - 09.2022
  • Responsible for all aspects of partner development and revenue generation in Canada.
  • Drive all sales, marketing & business development strategy to grow the Luminate brand and sales within the Canadian market.
  • Manage strategic pipeline and forecasting in Salesforce, coach local market team on forecasting and strategic planning to execute and exceed sales plans and targets.
  • Working across all areas of the Canadian entertainment industry including music, film, tv and streaming managing partner relations and solution sales for content providers and their strategic business needs.
  • Identifying, prospecting, and negotiating complex partnership contracts to provide leading entertainment brands with custom data reports, products, and services specific to business needs.
  • Manage a develop a team in Canada consisting of digital sales, customer support, research & analytics, and new business development.
  • Within first month at Luminate, closed a major deal with a $200M backed VC firm in Toronto.
  • Have grown bottom line revenue by 20% over the first 11 months at MRC with key clients including UMG, Sony, Warner Music Group, CBC, Evenko, ADISQ, CCMA, Spotify, Amazon Music.

Director Digital Sales & Business Development

Sony Music Entertainment
06.2015 - 09.2020
  • Promoted to Director or Digital Sales & Partner Development providing leadership and strategic direction in all aspects of the relationship between the company and its top current & future partners.
  • Responsibilities include revenue generation and exceeding sales quotas, building strategic partnerships with emerging technology companies & brands, strategy & marketing of digital content, customer marketing, business development, strategic product development, increasing market share & developing consumption strategies.
  • Manage business development, contract negotiations and deal renewals for digital Sony content including licensing, content, operational and marketing deals with Enterprise account base – Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Google Play, Canadian telcos and technology companies growing corporate revenue from $65M to $80M per annum between 2015-2019.
  • Lead & Deliver QBR’s for key accounts providing quarterly operational and financial review.
  • Successfully managed local and international territory projects focusing on sales, product marketing, deal renewals, post-mortem analysis, data and content quality and analytics driving $20M in international revenue.
  • Created and managed new analytics department creating new KPI’s and metrics to monitor user behaviour and interactions with brands and content equating to a 20% increase in ad spending efficiency and ROI.
  • Created and maintained analytics dashboards/reports for operational metrics using Tableau, partner API’s and Salesforce dashboards.
  • Responsible for local and international lead generation/qualification, campaign management, data and analytics and sales strategies.
  • Lead representative within Sony Music Canada on an international level, identifying and positioning local repertoire internationally, negotiating for global support & working to build global marketing strategies managing a team of global account managers to drive local and international products.

National Account Manager

Sony Music Entertainment
09.2010 - 06.2015
  • Promoted to National Account Manager with two direct reports with an expanded account portfolio.
  • Managed and sustained $30M account portfolio comprised of the telecommunications and physical retail account base comprised of – Bell, Rogers, Telus, Walmart, HMV, Future Shop/Best Buy and non-traditional grocery & pharmacy base.
  • Successfully negotiated contract with private equity firm Hilco Inc during acquisition of largest retail partner HMV, securing an additional 2% share points increasing Sony market share and revenue equating to $1.5M in incremental net revenue.
  • Managed all customer marketing campaigns ensuring all deliverables were met by quality, customer service and customer marketing.
  • Managed all strategic advertising and media budgets ($5M) across account base driving sales of all Sony Music products including – digital ads, traditional TV/Radio, print, on-platform, and social media.
  • Act as day-to-day escalation point for all supported businesses and accounts.

Key Account Manager - Telco

Sony Music Entertainment
07.2007 - 09.2010
  • Managed all retail planning, marketing, and execution for all Sony Music products within the telecommunications vertical including – Bell Canada, Telus and Rogers Communications.
  • Responsible for driving and exceeding $20M in revenue with 15% growth targets per annum between 2007-2010.
  • Responsible for negotiating deal terms and contract renewals within telco account base increasing Sony market share by 1% point per annum between 2007-2010.
  • Successfully negotiated and implemented the first national “Comes With Music” partnership with Bell Canada and Samsung Electronics driving incremental gross revenue of $700K for SME.
  • Coordinate and communicate all day to day content delivery issues from both digital and physical supply chain.

Education

B.A (H) - Social Science - (HONOURS)

The University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario
01.2001

Affiliations

  • Member Board of Directors – Polaris Music Prize 2023 – present
  • Member Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences 2007-present
  • Member Canadian Country Music Association 2018-present
  • Board Member – Canadian Independent Music Association 2023-present
  • Member – Association Quebecoise de l’industrie du disque, spectacle et de la video 2023-present

Languages

English
Native or Bilingual
French
Native or Bilingual

Timeline

Head of Sales & Business Development

Believe
04.2023 - Current

Head of Commercial Development – Music Data & Analytics

Luminate Data
05.2021 - 09.2022

Director Digital Sales & Business Development

Sony Music Entertainment
06.2015 - 09.2020

National Account Manager

Sony Music Entertainment
09.2010 - 06.2015

Key Account Manager - Telco

Sony Music Entertainment
07.2007 - 09.2010

B.A (H) - Social Science - (HONOURS)

The University of Western Ontario

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