Spotify has promoted Joe Hadley, who becomes VP of Global Music Content and Partnerships, a role that hands him both the Music Editorial and Music Partnerships teams and widens his remit across the company's relationships with artists, labels and the wider industry.
J.J. Italiano has been named Head of Editorial as part of the same reshuffle, covering global curation, North American editorial and overall editorial strategy. Italiano reports to Hadley, which is the structural change that matters: the two functions used to sit alongside each other.
Spotify says the new arrangement will preserve editorial's distinct voice, expertise and decision-making while creating a more connected music team. Charlie Hellman, the company's SVP and global head of music, said the team's judgment and taste is what fans and artists rely on.
Italiano steps up roughly three months after Sulinna Ong left the company. Ong had held Spotify's top editorial job since October 2021 as Global Head of Editorial and Curation, and joined U2's management team as a management partner alongside Irving and Jeffrey Azoff.
The promotion lands inside a music organisation Spotify has been consolidating since 2024. Jeremy Erlich left in October 2024 and his reports moved under David Kaefer; Hellman took over in October 2025 after Kaefer's seven years ended, with an internal memo describing all music functions being centralised under him.
It also arrives as Spotify pushes its editors into public view. The company launched Playlist Notes and Editor Profiles on August 17, letting editors attach written context to tracks on playlists including Today's Top Hits and RapCaviar, and giving them their own pages in the app.
Hadley joined Spotify in March 2022 from CAA, where he had become Global Co-Head of Hip-Hop and R&B and worked with Beyonce, A$AP Rocky, Jorja Smith and Tems, after five years at The Windish Agency. Spotify closed the second quarter of 2026 with 777 million monthly active users and 300 million premium subscribers. The move follows other editorial and product shifts, including the plan to flag AI artists and the Merlin licensing deal for AI covers.
The facts
- Joe Hadley is now VP of Global Music Content and Partnerships
- He now leads both Music Editorial and Music Partnerships
- J.J. Italiano is named Head of Editorial and reports to Hadley
- Sulinna Ong left the editorial job about three months earlier for U2's management
- Charlie Hellman became SVP and Global Head of Music in October 2025
- Spotify launched Playlist Notes and Editor Profiles on August 17
- Spotify closed Q2 2026 with 777 million monthly active users
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