Paula Salvatore, who was for many years the face of Capitol Studios to every client that passed through its doors, has been named to a freshly created VP role by Universal Music Group that will see her responsibilities expand to working with all of the company’s U.S. studios.
Salvatore’s new role is vice president of client relations and studio marketing. The company says she’ll work on booking, marketing and overseeing client relations at all of its commercial recording facilities in the U.S.
“There are very few people in our industry with Paula’s breadth of relationships and deep knowledge of managing recording studios,” said Patrick Kraus, UMG’s senior VP of recording studios and archive management, to whom she’ll report. “Simply put, Paula is a legend in our field — highly respected and beloved by recording artists, engineers and producers alike. This elevated role will leverage her experience managing Capitol Studios across all of UMG’s U.S. facilities and in our global strategy.”
Salvatore’s role with UMG had been a source of intrigue in the music industry since January, when changes took place at Capitol Studios in Hollywood, where she had been VP of studio administration and sales. Her position was cut at the same time the mastering rooms were shut down, leading to what amounted to an outpouring of grief from producers, engineers and artists. Behind the scenes, though, both Salvatore and UMG had quietly indicated in the intervening months that a new position was in the works.
“I’m excited to start this new position at UMG and to work across the company’s growing roster of best-in-class recording studios and facilities,” Salvatore said. “The past 30 years at Capitol Studios have been an extraordinary time, both in my life and career, and I’m thrilled that I’ll continue to interact with so many of the friends that I made during that time. I’m thankful to Pat Kraus and Michael Frey for this wonderful opportunity and I’m looking forward to some extraordinary recording sessions in the future.”
Prior to joining Capitol Studios, where she was involved on some level in practically every recording session during her time there, Salvatore managed Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, and she made an appearance in Dave Grohl’s documentary about the venerable, much-mourned facility.
