SoundExchange names Paul Shaver to lead growth push
SoundExchange has appointed Paul Shaver as senior vice president of business development with immediate effect from 1 October.
Shaver joins the organisation's executive team and reports to president and chief executive Michael Huppe, according to the announcement reported by Music Business Worldwide. He will lead work to find growth opportunities, build partnerships and widen SoundExchange's reach across the music business.
The move is a straight handover. Shaver arrives from the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency, known as CMRRA, where his tenure as president ended on 1 October. SoundExchange confirmed his new role the same day.
CMRRA handles reproduction rights, the permissions needed to reproduce songs on recordings and digital services, for most music publishers operating in Canada. It was founded in 1975 and marked its 50th anniversary in 2025.
SoundExchange bought CMRRA in 2017. It agreed to sell the agency to SOCAN, Canada's performing rights organisation, in July 2026. That sale closed on 1 September. Shaver had also served as president of SX Works, SoundExchange's global publisher services division, which supports publishers in collecting the royalties they are owed.
The numbers tell a busy period in Canada. CMRRA's collections and payouts to clients rose by more than 120% from 2020 under Shaver. He was named president of CMRRA in 2019.
Shaver brings more than three decades in the music industry. Before CMRRA he held senior posts at Nielsen Entertainment Canada, Universal Music Canada, EMI Music Canada and Virgin Music Canada. He was named to Billboard Canada's Power Players list in 2024 and again in 2026.
SOCAN and SoundExchange said on 29 July 2026 that they had signed a purchase agreement for SOCAN to acquire CMRRA. Shaver later said he would step down as CMRRA president following the acquisition, as reported by Billboard Canada.
What makes this stand out is continuity. SoundExchange is keeping an executive who knows its publisher operation from the inside, just as that Canadian arm changes hands. His brief now is broader: new deals and new areas for growth rather than running one agency.
