Dan Chalmers, Federico Scialabba, Tasha Taylor, Paul Smith, and Charlie Sánchez
At the YouTube Global Convention held in Madrid, a key session brought together five professionals with active roles across different areas of the music industry. The participants included executives responsible for regional operations within the platform and leaders of record labels with an international presence.
Among those in attendance were Dan Chalmers, Head of Music for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at YouTube; Federico Scialabba, President of Music Brokers; Tasha Taylor, Head of Strategic Partnerships for EMEA at YouTube; Paul Smith, Managing Director of YouTube Music for Asia-Pacific; and Charlie Sánchez, founder of Metales Preciosos Música & Discos. The meeting took place at a time when digital music consumption is booming, with over 600 million paid streaming subscribers globally at the beginning of 2025, according to industry data. This landscape has broadened the reach of music catalogs while also increasing the technical demands for rights management, accurate content identification, and efficient publishing workflows.
Labels such as Music Brokers and Metales Preciosos Música & Discos operate through a mix of production, licensing, and distribution without relying on corporate intermediaries. This approach requires technical expertise to ensure that content is correctly configured, accessible, and available across various platforms. In parallel, YouTube Music’s regional executives manage systems that must adapt to diverse legal frameworks, contractual conditions, and user behavior depending on the market.
The current operational environment is defined by process automation, a surge in content volume, and the widespread use of artificial intelligence tools. These technologies impact access, visibility, and consumption analytics, creating challenges for editorial models that do not align with fast-paced content rotation cycles. During the session in Madrid, professionals from different parts of the same ecosystem came together—some manage catalogs from independent structures, while others design and adapt the platforms that host and process that content.
The presence of these five key figures in a shared space highlights the potential for interaction between distinct yet interconnected areas, united by technical, legal, and distribution processes that enable the circulation of music in the digital age.