Warner Music Group has appointed Mateusz Smółka managing director of Warner Music Eastern Europe, a role that did not exist before and which he takes up on Monday, September 7.
He will be based in Warsaw and report to Simon Robson, the company's president for EMEA, overseeing operations across Poland, the Czech Republic, South Eastern Europe and Ukraine.
The brief is broader than running a local label. Warner says he will drive expansion across the region, building scale and market share while supporting local music cultures, with talent development, distribution and mergers and acquisitions all inside his remit.
He arrives from Spotify, where he spent eight years and led the editorial and artist and label partnership teams across ten Eastern European markets. That is more than two decades in music, media and technology in total, having started out as a journalist before moving into advisory and leadership roles.
"Mateusz has a proven record of driving creative and commercial growth across Eastern Europe," Robson said, calling the region Europe's fastest-expanding market. Smółka said the volume of creative talent coming out of the region is extraordinary.
The appointment sits on top of years of buying. Warner Music South East Europe took a minority stake in the Slovenian independent NIKA in March 2024, and the company holds stakes in Hungary's Magneoton and Serbia's Mascom and has invested in the Czech hip-hop label Mike Roft. In Poland it has backed the promoter Big Idea and the label Step Records, bought Slovakia's Forza Music in 2019, and acquired Polskie Nagrania, the country's oldest label, for 1.9 million euros in 2015.
The hire follows a run of structural moves at the major, which recently opened a technology hub in Bengaluru and reported an 11% rise in subscription streaming revenue for calendar Q2.
The facts
- Mateusz Smółka becomes managing director of Warner Music Eastern Europe
- The newly created role starts on Monday, Sept. 7
- He is based in Warsaw and reports to EMEA president Simon Robson
- His remit covers Poland, the Czech Republic, South Eastern Europe and Ukraine
- He spent eight years at Spotify before joining
- He led Spotify editorial teams across ten Eastern European markets
- Warner bought Polskie Nagrania for 1.9 million euros in 2015
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