Universal Music Group has appointed Òscar Celma as Senior Vice President of Applied AI and Machine Learning, adding an executive with more than two decades of experience spanning artificial intelligence, music recommendation, personalization, data science, and digital media.
Celma’s appointment is effective immediately. He will help lead the development and application of AI and machine learning across UMG’s global operations, supporting the company’s labels, divisions, and businesses.
He will report to Hannah Poferl, Universal Music Group’s Chief Data Officer.
Celma brings extensive experience building AI-powered music discovery and personalization products used by large global audiences.
At Spotify, he helped lead development of personalized listening experiences including AI DJ, Jam, and Daylist, along with other discovery and recommendation products used by hundreds of millions of listeners worldwide.
His appointment gives UMG additional internal AI and machine learning expertise as the music industry evaluates how rapidly developing technology can support artists, songwriters, labels, and fans.
The company’s strategy is focused on applying AI to expand creative and commercial opportunities while maintaining an emphasis on human artistry.
Celma will work across UMG’s businesses to identify areas where machine learning and large-scale data analysis can improve products, internal capabilities, artist services, and fan experiences.
His background combines technical research, product development, engineering leadership, and music-industry experience.
Most recently, Celma led Machine Learning and Product Analytics at Condé Nast.
Before that, he served as Director of Engineering at Spotify, where he led teams responsible for developing new listening experiences.
He also spent seven years at Pandora and SiriusXM in senior data science leadership positions.
His work there focused on machine learning, music discovery, and recommendation technology, areas that have become increasingly important as streaming services attempt to personalize catalogs containing millions of tracks for individual listeners.
Earlier in his career, Celma served as a Senior Research Scientist at Gracenote.
He also co-founded Barcelona-based BMAT Music Innovators and served as the company’s Chief Innovation Officer.
That background gives Celma experience across several parts of the digital music ecosystem, including recommendation algorithms, listening behavior, metadata, analytics, streaming products, and music technology infrastructure.
At UMG, his role will extend beyond consumer-facing music recommendation.
The company said he will help advance AI and machine learning capabilities throughout its global operations, potentially giving labels and other business units greater ability to analyze large datasets and develop new tools around artists and music.
Poferl said Celma’s combination of quantitative expertise, product experience, and understanding of music will be particularly important as UMG looks for ways to make greater use of the scale and depth of its data.
UMG operates across recorded music, music publishing, merchandising, and audiovisual content.
Its global catalog spans virtually every music genre and includes recordings and songs from established artists as well as emerging talent.
The company has increasingly emphasized technology and data as part of its broader strategy for developing artists, finding audiences, supporting commercialization, and creating new fan experiences.
AI has become an especially important issue for the music industry because of its potential to affect recommendation, discovery, music creation, rights management, licensing, fraud detection, marketing, fan engagement, and other areas.
At the same time, generative AI has created new concerns around artist rights, copyright, attribution, and the unauthorized use of creative works.
UMG has positioned its AI strategy around using technology in ways that support artists and songwriters rather than replace their work.
Celma’s appointment adds an executive whose career has focused on applying machine learning to music discovery and personalization rather than solely on generative content creation.
He also brings a substantial academic background.
Celma holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Digital Communication from Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.
He has published extensively on music information retrieval and recommendation systems and wrote the Springer-published book Music Recommendation and Discovery.
His combination of research credentials and commercial product experience gives UMG an executive who has worked on both the scientific foundations of recommendation systems and large-scale consumer products.
The appointment comes as music companies increasingly seek specialists capable of translating advances in AI into practical technologies that can support artists and audiences.
For UMG, Celma’s mandate will be to help apply those technologies across a global organization while working with teams responsible for data, labels, product development, and other business functions.
KEY QUOTES:
“Òscar brings a unique blend of quantitative and product experience, deep expertise in AI, and a love of music. He’s built teams that have delivered and knows how to turn data at scale into useful insights. With the breadth and depth of UMG’s data, there’s enormous potential for him to help our teams do more for our artists.”
Hannah Poferl, Chief Data Officer Of Universal Music Group
“I’ve spent much of my career exploring how technology can serve artists, songwriters and music fans. It’s an exciting time to join Universal Music Group, given its industry leadership in using AI to expand what’s creatively and commercially possible.”
Òscar Celma, Senior Vice President Of Applied AI And Machine Learning At Universal Music Group
“I look forward to working with Hannah and leaders across UMG to advance our AI and machine learning capabilities to support human artistry.”
Òscar Celma, Senior Vice President Of Applied AI And Machine Learning At Universal Music Group
