{"id":2077366,"date":"2026-08-04T18:34:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T15:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2077366"},"modified":"2026-08-04T18:34:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T15:34:25","slug":"sony-music-promotes-stephanie-yu-to-top-legal-job-after-julie-swidler-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2077366","title":{"rendered":"Sony Music Promotes Stephanie Yu to Top Legal Job After Julie Swidler Exit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Stephanie-Yu-Resized.jpg?w=1024&#8243;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"a-content a-content--featured a-bb-pro-article-image-offsets a-bbpro-font-body-m a-dropcap\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<div class=\"pmc-contextual-player\" data-pmc-adm-ad-id=\"10140328\">\n<h3>\n\t\t\tTrending on Billboard\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSony Music announced Tuesday (Aug. 4) that longtime in-house counsel <strong>Stephanie Yu<\/strong> will take over as general counsel and executive vp of business and legal affairs following the recent departure of <strong>Julie Swidler<\/strong> from the role.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tYu, who has been with Sony for more than two decades, will oversee the music giant\u2019s business, legal and governmental affairs work, reporting directly to chairman <strong>Rob Stringer<\/strong> and COO <strong>Kevin Kelleher<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"injected-related-story \/\/ lrv-u-align-items-center u-align-items-flex-start@mobile-max  lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest  lrv-u-flex lrv-u-flex-direction-column@mobile-max u-width-710@desktop lrv-u-margin-lr-auto lrv-u-margin-tb-1 u-margin-b-250@mobile-max u-margin-t-275@mobile-max u-margin-t-250@desktop u-margin-b-250@desktop u-margin-lr-n1@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-1 lrv-u-border-color-brand-secondary-dark lrv-u-border-t-1 lrv-u-padding-tb-1  lrv-u-padding-tb-1@mobile-max lrv-u-padding-r-1@mobile-max lrv-u-padding-l-00@mobile-max u-grid-gap-18@desktop u-grid-gap-0@mobile-max\">\n<div class=\"lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-text-align-center lrv-u-flex-shrink-0 lrv-u-padding-a-050 u-padding-l-0625@mobile-max u-padding-b-0.375@mobile-max  lrv-u-background-color-brand-primary u-margin-t-n2@mobile-max lrv-u-margin-l-1@mobile-max lrv-u-margin-b-075@mobile-max\">\n<h3 id=\"title-of-a-story\" class=\"c-title  a-article-related-module-title a-article-related-module-title--color-brand-primary a-font-accent-xl u-font-weight-800 u-letter-spacing-0179 u-line-height-normal lrv-u-color-grey-dark bb-pro-related-stories-label lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"injected-related-story-wrapper lrv-u-flex lrv-u-justify-content-space-between  a-children-border-vertical a-children-border--grey a-children-border-width-050\">\n<div class=\"o-card  lrv-u-width-100p\">\n<div class=\"o-card__image-wrap lrv-u-flex-shrink-0 u-width-191 u-width-150@mobile-max\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image   lrv-u-margin-b-00@mobile-max u-width-130px@mobile-max lrv-u-margin-b-00@mobile-max\">\n<div class=\"a-crop-6x4 a-crop-3x2@mobile-max\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/P1013UN4-e1772220886420.jpg?w=237&amp;h=147&amp;crop=1\" alt=\"Julie Swidler at the Billboard Women in Music 2025 held at the YouTube Theater on March 29, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.\" height width><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"o-card__content  lrv-u-padding-l-150@desktop lrv-u-flex lrv-u-flex-direction-column lrv-u-justify-content-center\">\n<div class=\"c_title \">\n<h3 id=\"title-of-a-story\" class=\"c-title  c-title a-font-basic u-font-size-22@desktop u-font-size-16@mobile-max u-line-height-26px u-line-height-22px@mobile-max u-margin-b-0.625@mobile-max a-truncate-ellipsis-3line@desktop a-truncate-ellipsis-4line@mobile-max lrv-u-color-grey-dark lrv-u-color-grey-dark:hover\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tSony\u2019s Julie Swidler on 35 Years in the Music Industry, AI Deals &amp; Mentor Clive Davis: \u2018I Always Felt I Was Just Lucky to Be\u00a0Here\u2019\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<ul class=\"o-article-byline \/\/ lrv-a-unstyle-list a-font-accent-m lrv-u-color-grey lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-word-spacing-n3px u-padding-t-0.875@desktop u-padding-t-00@mobile-max\">\n<li class=\"lrv-u-flex a-byline-color\">\n<div class=\"c-tagline  u-word-spacing-n3px a-children-link-color-black:hover a-truncate-ellipsis-2line\"><span>Melinda Newman<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cStephanie has the expertise, guile and poise in all the appropriate complex areas to take on this incredibly important position in our organization,\u201d Stringer said in a statement. \u201cShe has earned the right to be the head legal player at Sony Music.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tYu, who has repeatedly been named to <em>Billboard<\/em>\u2019s Top Music Lawyers and Women in Music, fills a spot left vacant by Swidler, who announced in May that she would step down in June. Swidler spent 18 years in the top Sony role and was long one of the highest-ranking women in the record industry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAfter a stint as a litigator at the law firm Covington &amp; Burling, Yu joined Sony in 2005 and spent six years working across licensing agreements, distribution deals, M&amp;A and other negotiations. She then spent more than a decade at Epic Records, where she rose to the rank of executive vp for business and legal affairs. She had most recently served as executive vp and U.S. lead of business and legal affairs at Sony itself, where she oversaw legal operations and strategy for all of the company\u2019s U.S. labels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI want to thank Rob and Kevin for this opportunity,\u201d Yu said. \u201cOver the past 21 years, Sony Music has supported me to pursue new roles and take on new challenges. I look forward to bringing that same encouraging spirit to this role, working across the company to champion our artists and our teams during this particularly dynamic moment in our industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/2HpFicp.png\" alt=\"Billboard VIP Pass\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/sony-music-promotes-stephanie-yu-to-top-legal-job\/&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Stephanie-Yu-Resized.jpg?w=1024&#8243;] Trending on Billboard Sony Music announced Tuesday (Aug. 4) that longtime in-house counsel Stephanie Yu will take over as general counsel and executive vp of business and legal affairs following the recent departure of Julie Swidler from the role. Yu, who has been with Sony for more than two decades, will oversee [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,226],"class_list":["post-2077366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-billboard-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2077366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2077366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2077366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2077366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}