Manager, Commercial Partnerships

At Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc., we fuel the creative journey. We have played a pioneering role in music history, from the first-ever music label to the invention of the flat disc record. We have nurtured some of music’s most iconic artists and produced some of the most influential recordings of all time. Today, we work in more than 60 countries, supporting a diverse roster of international superstars, developing and independent artists, and visionary creators. From our position at the intersection of music, entertainment, and technology, we bring imagination and expertise to the newest products and platforms, embrace new business models, employ breakthrough tools, and provide powerful insights that help our artists push creative boundaries and reach new audiences. In everything we do, we are committed to artistic integrity, transparency, and entrepreneurship. Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc. is a member of the Sony family of global companies.

Reports to: Director, Commercial Partnerships & Audience Intelligence

Work Location: Liberty Village, Toronto

Salary Grade: 31

Salary Range: $64,000 to 80,000 CAD

Job Type: Full Time, Permanent

Work Arrangement: At least four (4) days/week onsite, 37.5 hours a week

The Manager, Commercial Partnerships manages Sony Music Canada's strategic relationships across streaming, digital media, and e-commerce partners, driving commercial growth, artist visibility, and campaign performance across frontline and catalogue priorities. This role combines account management, platform optimization, playlist strategy, and commercial development, ensuring Sony artists are positioned for maximum visibility, audience growth, and revenue across the evolving global digital music ecosystem. Working across both established and emerging global music platforms, the Manager identifies commercial opportunities, strengthens strategic partnerships, and ensures artists and releases are optimized for success across domestic and international markets. The ideal candidate brings exceptional relationship management skills, deep digital music expertise, and a commercial mindset, with the ability to translate platform opportunities into meaningful artist growth, revenue and market share growth, and achieving business goals.

The Role

The Manager, Commercial Partnerships will:

Digital Partner Management

• Manage day-to-day relationships with key streaming, digital media, and e-commerce partners, such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Amazon.com YouTube, Deezer, Pandora, Audiomack, SoundCloud, TIDAL, and emerging international services.
• Represent Sony Music Canada in regular business reviews, planning sessions, and strategic initiatives with platform partners.
• Drive partnership planning, commercial opportunity development, and long-term account growth across digital and e-commerce partners.
• Secure and maximize platform support including editorial placements, merchandising opportunities, marketing activations, promotional campaigns, and exclusive programming.
• Resolve platform, release, metadata, and operational issues in collaboration with internal teams and external platform stakeholders.

Platform Optimization & Playlist Strategy

• Oversee artist profile optimization, metadata, release readiness, and merchandising across DSP ecosystems, ensuring artists are presented according to platform best practices.
• Manage playlist strategy, programming, and curation across both partner-owned and Sony-owned playlist ecosystems, driving artist discovery, audience growth, and sustained catalogue engagement.
• Develop and optimize Sony owned playlist brands and programming, ensuring cultural relevance, editorial quality, audience growth, and strategic alignment with priority campaigns.
• Identify opportunities to improve editorial, algorithmic, and discovery performance through best practices in content positioning, release strategy, metadata optimization, and platform merchandising.
• Partner with Marketing and Audience Intelligence teams to continually optimize artist and catalogue performance across digital services.

Campaign & Commercial Strategy

• Partner with Marketing, Audience Intelligence, CRM, D2C, and International Marketing teams to develop integrated streaming and commercial strategies for priority releases.
• Ensure commercial platform opportunities are embedded throughout the campaign lifecycle, from announcement and pre-release planning through launch and post-release optimization.
• Identify catalogue growth opportunities through anniversaries, themed programming, seasonal and cultural moments, and international repertoire.
• Champion innovation across digital platforms by identifying emerging products, merchandising opportunities, creator tools, and new commercial initiatives that accelerate artist growth and audience development.

Insights, Performance & Opportunity Development

• Monitor platform performance and identify commercial opportunities through trend analysis, market intelligence, partner reporting, and competitive benchmarking.
• Deliver performance recaps, business insights, and strategic recommendations for artists, managers, label teams, and senior leadership.
• Analyze share-of-stream performance, platform opportunity gaps, audience trends, and market dynamics to support commercial decision making.
• Surface emerging platform capabilities, international opportunities, and evolving best practices that strengthen Sony Music Canada's digital strategy.

Qualifications:

• 4–7 years of experience in digital partnerships, streaming strategy, account management, or commercial roles within the music, media, or entertainment industries.
• Deep understanding of the global streaming ecosystem, digital music consumption trends, audience development, and artist growth strategies.
• Proven experience developing strategic partnerships with digital music platforms and securing commercial opportunities that drive measurable business outcomes.
• Strong knowledge of artist-facing platform tools including Spotify for Artists, Apple Music for Artists, Amazon Music for Artists, YouTube Studio, and related DSP ecosystems.
• Familiarity with audience intelligence and performance measurement platforms including Luminate, Chartmetric, and social analytics platforms.
• Strong understanding of metadata management, digital merchandising, playlist programming, and streaming optimization best practices.
• Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Commercially minded with strong analytical skills and the ability to translate platform insights into actionable business strategies.
• Passion for music, digital culture, technology, and evolving fan engagement.

What We Give You:

• A modern, diverse, and innovative work environment.
• An investment in your learning & development.
• An excellent range of benefits, including health and dental group insurance, life insurance, short and long- term disability plans, group RRSP Pension plan, tuition reimbursement, an EAP program, Health and Lifestyle Benefit Plan.
• Winter recess (office closure Christmas through New Year’s).

Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc., is committed to Employment Equity and maintaining a diverse workforce. Job applicants with a disability who require reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process can contact our People Experience team. Reasonable accommodation will be determined on a case-by-case basis, and your request will be responded to as soon as possible.