Wealthy Castillo, the broadly revered A&R Director at Atlantic Information UK, is exiting his function on the frontline Warner Music Group label.
MBW has confirmed that Castillo shall be taking over a brand new senior A&R function in London at EMI Information, Common Music UK’s largest label by market share.
Information of Castillo’s transfer to EMI follows a latest shake-up on the label: Common Music UK introduced in March that its EMI and Capitol labels had been uniting below the joint management of Rebecca Allen and Jo Charrington.
MBW understands that Castillo shall be beginning his new place at EMI initially of 2023.
Wealthy Castillo joined Atlantic Information UK as A&R Director in Might 2020, reporting into label Co-Presidents, Briony Turner and Ed Howard.
At Atlantic, he signed the likes of UK rapper Tion Wayne, who at the moment has over 11.5 million month-to-month listeners on Spotify, following hit singles reminiscent of Physique (with Russ Hundreds of thousands) and IFTK. The latter observe peaked at No.6 on the Official UK Singles Chart and is at the moment at No.8.
Castillo joined Atlantic from Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the place he held the place of Senior Director of A&R.
Throughout his time there, he signed the likes of Neave Applebaum, Pa Salieu, TMS, and Wayne Hector.
In an interview with Castillo revealed by MBW earlier this 12 months (carried out by Adrian Sykes) the A&R govt shared tales about his experiences, ambitions, passions and gripes inside the UK music business.
Commenting on what he appears for when he indicators an act, Castillo stated: “Clearly expertise is vital. However I’m searching for ambition. I’m searching for some extent of distinction, and I’m additionally searching for the place the ache is gonna come from. What would be the downside? It’s about work ethic and ambition.
He added: “The expertise needs to be there, however expertise with out the work ethic is simply pointless; we’ve all been there. I’ve been tremendous excited, after which the artist simply wouldn’t need to see it by, as a result of they haven’t obtained the work ethic.”
“The expertise needs to be there, however expertise with out the work ethic is simply pointless.”
Wealthy Castillo, chatting with MBW earlier this 12 months
Castillo began his profession on the administration firm Shalit World, the place he helped launch and develop the multi-platinum, award-winning group N-Dubz.
In 2012, he joined UMTV and All Across the World in an A&R function, signing N-Dubz stars Dappy and Tulisa to solo offers – yielding No.1 data with Dappy’s No Regrets and Tulisa’s Younger.
He additionally signed HRVY and Younger Adz, when the latter was simply 14 years outdated, and loved a prime 10 single with Charlie Brown’s On My Approach.
Castillo then moved to Common Music Canada in 2014, the place he served as an A&R Director for 2 years, touchdown a Juno Award for Finest Dance Track with Bit Funk’s Off the Floor.
In 2016, he returned to the UK to affix Polydor Information and tackle the function of Senior A&R Supervisor. Whereas there, he signed Stefflon Don and had a lot of hits, together with the worldwide smash Hurtin’ Me.
He additionally signed Massive Heath, Blanco, and Mic Lowry, and A&R’d the most recent album from Wretch 32.Music Enterprise Worldwide
