Cooking Vinyl builds marketing prowess with key appointments

 - Sammy Andrews to head Digital Marketing- Chris Farrow joins as Product & Marketing Manager- Erik Gilbert and Lance Meade appointed to Essential boardLondon, 13th January, 2014: Kicking off the New Year with a bang, North Acton’s third favourite indie Cooking Vinyl welcomes in new faces, with the appointment of Sammy Andrews as head of digital marketing, and Chris Farrow as product and marketing manager.Coming from a background that includes a role as head of digital for 19 Recordings, a division of Simon Fuller's XIX Entertainment, and leading her own company, Sabotage New Media, Andrews’ brief is to build and run a growing digital marketing department capable of handling all of Cooking Vinyl’s needs, including The Prodigy’s forthcoming album.Chris Farrow joins from Sunday Best Recordings where, as marketing manager, he worked on the debut and sophomore albums by film director David Lynch, and the third album from dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip, which garnered their highest ever chart position. Prior to that, as marketing manager at Columbia he worked on the platinum selling debut album from Glasvegas and releases by Mark Ronson, Manic Street Preachers, and Editors. Before that, as product manager at EMI his responsibilities included the double platinum selling debut from The Magic Numbers, which was shortlisted for Music Week Best UK Marketing Campaign in 2006.Farrow will be initiating and delivering creative frontline marketing campaigns for the UK for a roster that includes Embrace, Röyksopp, and Reverend & The Makers.Cooking Vinyl founder and CEO Martin Goldschmidt said of the new appointments: “We’re excited to welcome Chris and Sammy to the team. Their skills and expertise will enable us to provide an even stronger offering to our artists and kick ass in 2014.”Sammy Andrews, head of digital marketing, Cooking Vinyl exclaimed: “I am delighted to be joining such an established label. Digital marketing has never been more important, and I’m looking forward to helping Cooking Vinyl and its artists with campaigns that make the most of the opportunities digital presents.”Chris Farrow, product and marketing manager, Cooking Vinyl added: "I am hugely honoured to have joined the team at Cooking Vinyl who I have admired for many years. They have delivered many successful campaigns and I'm looking forward to adding to that list"Elsewhere across the group, Essential Music & Marketing has appointed Erik Gilbert (CEO CV America) and Lance Meade (sales director) to its board of directors.Gilbert joined CV Group in Dec 2011, launching CV America in 2012 to provide strategic services such as artist/label acquisition, business strategy and music publishing services across the Cooking Vinyl Group. Spanning a 30 year career in the business, Gilbert was previously in charge of label acquisition and client strategy at the Independent Online Distribution Alliance (IODA), and successfully started, built, and managed the independent record labels Asphodel and 75 Ark.Meade joined Essential in November 2008 as sales manager for the group before assuming his current position of sales director. His background includes roles as national accounts manager at Pinnacle, and sales manager, digital, online and traditional retail, at Sanctuary.Commented Essential Music & Marketing MD Mike Chadwick on the new Board appointments “Erik and Lance have both made important and notable contributions to the growth of Essential, and I am delighted to welcome them to the board to help inform the direction of the business for the years to come.”About CV GroupThe CV Group of companies includes Cooking Vinyl Records, Essential Music & Marketing, CV America, Cooking Vinyl Australia, Cooking Vinyl Publishing and Cooking Vinyl Property.About Cooking Vinyl RecordsEstablished in 1986, Cooking Vinyl has developed a reputation as one of Europe’s prime artist-focused independent labels, inspiring an enviable loyalty among its artist roster. It is also in the vanguard of music companies offering innovative services-only deals that claim no stake in artists’ copyrights.Cooking Vinyl takes full responsibility for the management of a project whether functioning as a label or in a services-only setting. Adding more than just marketing muscle, Cooking Vinyl devises and implements worldwide sales, marketing and distribution plans for its artists, working alongside booking agents and artist managers.Artists signed to Cooking Vinyl include Amanda Palmer, The Prodigy, Marilyn Manson, Underworld, Ron Sexsmith and Billy Bragg. Such is the loyalty and affection among artists for the label that the likes of Frank Black have returned close to 20 times to record fresh collections with them. The Prodigy’s Invaders Music Die was Europe’s biggest selling independent album in 2009.