The Magazine

X5 Music Group today announced the hiring of Noelle Bell to join their growing U.S. team as Account Director. Bell had previously worked at Sony Commercial Music Group as part of their digital team, and also has worked on digital projects for Warner Music Group's Alternative Distribution Alliance.

That history will work well with X5's plans. The Scandinavian digital-music label had more charting albums on Billboard's Classical Top 50 in 2010 and 2011 than any label except Universal, and hired Amazon's Griff Morris head of content and label relations in August.  The group has focused in the past on classical recordings and repackaging artists' back catalogs into custom-made compilations and focused strongly on emphasizing the digital marketplace.

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At X5, Bell will be orchestrating digital sales plans with music retailers such as iTunes and Amazon and with streaming services like Spotify, while also managing relations with the label's newly-signed catalog accounts, a similar role to the one she had at Sony where she coordinated sales plans for the     label's catalog in tandem with new releases, events or other opportunities.

"Noelle Bell is a widely respected digital music executive and we are thrilled she's joining our dream team," said X5 North American CEO Scott Ambrose Reilly. "As we are growing in North America, we count Noelle as a key part of our expansion strategy."

Reilly and Bell are just two of the industry executives that X5 has signed on; Bell joins a U.S.-based office that also contains Morris and Chief Product Officer Dan Pifer (formerly of Rightsflow and The Orchard).