UMPG promotes Maree Hamblion to lead Australia and New Zealand creative
Universal Music Publishing Group has promoted Maree Hamblion to executive vice president, A&R and creative, for Australia and New Zealand.
The promotion was announced on Oct. 19 by David Gray, UMPG managing director for the U.K. and head of global A&R. Hamblion will report to Gray and lead the publisher’s creative and talent-development strategy across Australia and New Zealand from Sydney, according to Billboard.
Music publishing is the business behind the song itself. It handles songwriting copyrights and collects royalties when songs are streamed, performed, recorded or used on screen. A&R, short for artists and repertoire, is the team that finds and signs songwriters and helps develop their work.
Hamblion joined UMPG’s Australia and New Zealand office in 2024 as senior vice president, A&R. Since then she has signed singer-songwriter-producer Tones and I, along with Benny Morrell, Matthew Ifield, Esha Tewari, Rupert Bullard, Ownlife and Lach Bostock.
Tones and I is best known for “Dance Monkey”, which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, the United States singles chart. In January 2020, she became the No. 1 act on Billboard’s Hot 100 Songwriters chart. Warner Chappell signed her in 2019 to administer her compositions worldwide outside Australia and New Zealand.
Hamblion has also set up joint ventures with Peach Publishing, THIS IS NOISE, Apple Street Music and Artist Labs. Artist Labs has signed Midnight Til Morning, Lane Pittman and Lime Cordiale.
The Sydney office is also adding to its creative space. UMPG will open a dedicated writing room and content space alongside its existing LVL 4 recording studio.
Hamblion arrived at UMPG with a long publishing record. She spent more than a decade at Sony/ATV, later renamed Sony Music Publishing, and was promoted to senior vice president, international A&R in 2021. Her signings there included Sarah Aarons, Alex Hope and Jawsh 685.
She began her career at EMI Music Publishing’s Sydney office in 1995 and spent more than 17 years there. Her work at EMI included Savage Garden, PNAU and The Veronicas.
For listeners, this kind of appointment rarely changes what plays next week. It shapes who gets signed, where songs get written, and which writers get matched with artists and producers.
