From left: Taylor Amazan, Janine Kerr, Richard Hellstern of Riptide Music Group

Advertising tune shop Riptide Music Group has expanded its creative team with two new heavyweights: Janine Kerr and Taylor Amazan, who will help power the Culver City-based firm’s work in synchronization, rights management and original music for trailers, TV programming and promos in the motion pictures, videogame and multi-media sectors.

Kerr joins as creative director from FOX Sports Music where she was a VP. Amazan, the new creative manager for trailers, segues from Ant Farm, where he was a music supervisor and producer. The staffing expansion also sees the company’s Richard Hellstern has been promoted VP operations, it was announced by Riptide president Rich Goldman and CEO Keatly Haldeman.

Riptide’s personnel expansion comes on the heels of the company’s Fall 2017 partnership with Mark Ross, who brought to Riptide a multi-million dollar investment to finance the future growth of the business. During the past six months, Riptide has been using the new funding to expand operations and personnel, acquire additional music, and sign and develop new songwriters, producers, and recording artists. Mark Ross, son of legendary music executive Steve Ross (founder and CEO of Warner Communications and former CEO of Time Warner, Inc.) has been active over the last three decades at the highest level of the music business.

“It’s a very exciting time for us right now at Riptide,” Goldman said. “Working with Mark Ross has further energized our business and allowed us to pursue a number of exciting opportunities, while also hiring some of the best talent out there. We are delighted to welcome Janine and Taylor to our growing team, and to announce Richard’s well-deserved promotion.”

Dan Silver, Riptide vice president of creative, added, “I am excited to grow our team! Janine and Taylor have amazing resumes and talent, bringing years of solid music industry experience across several mediums. In addition to their film and TV backgrounds, they also have strong relationships with artists around the world. We anticipate big things in the coming months now that they are both onboard. Richard’s new position has provided more structure within the core of the company, helping to grow our business development plans.”

Kerr’s New Duties

At Riptide, Kerr is now responsible for placing the company’s music within film, TV and promos, as well as overseeing the licensing department.

Prior to joining Riptide, Kerr’ duties as VP FOX Sports Music saw her heading-up music supervision and spearheading the network’s music department. She was involved in the music featured on such programs as NFL Sunday, as well as music for the Super Bowl, College Football, MLB, NASCAR, Soccer, Women’s World Cup, Golf and all sports programming on FS1 and FS2, which span 30 regions.

Before FOX Sports, Kerr was Director, NBC Universal Promo Music Services, as Music Supervisor and head of Promo Music. During this time, she secured music for NBC, Bravo, USA, Syfy and Oxygen as well as for news and sports programming. She also helped find music featured in promos for The Voice, Parenthood, The Real Housewives, Suits,  The Super Bowl, and Sunday Night Football, among others.

Kerr started her career on the publishing side. She was Associate Director, Licensing, with Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and during this time, she was involved with Ken Burns’ renowned“Jazz” documentary. (She even has a Miles Davis song named after her from the documentary, “Janine’s Theme”. Originally from Australia, Kerr launched Mushroom Group’s licensing department – and when she moved to LA in 1993, she brought the Mushroom catalog with her.

During the course of her career in the music industry, Kerr has worked with everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Lil Wayne, with lots of other major artists in between. As the executive music producer on the song “No Mercy,” she had the song written for – and vocals recorded by – Lil Wayne for the daily FOX Sports TV show Skip & Shannon: Undisputed. She also Executive Produced the promotional video shoot for that song.

Amazan’s Riptide Territory

As Riptide’s creative manager for trailers, Taylor Amazan — who went by the name Taylor Horton at Ant Farm — will work closely with Riptide’s roster of composers and artists to create and produce exciting music for the trailer community using the experience and skills  acquired as a music supervisor and producer at Ant Farm, one of the top trailer houses.

In her previous position at Ant Farm, Amazan worked on marketing campaigns promoting such hit movies as Transformers, Mission Impossible, Fifty Shades and American Hustle, as well as the video game series Call of Duty among other entertainment properties. Amazan’s final project at Ant Farm was securing music for the Tomb Raider 2018 trailer, which featured the Destiny’s Child cover version of “Survivor.” In addition to her production chops, Amazan’s vocals have been featured in marketing campaigns behind The Blair Witch, Voyeur, Triple Nine, The Promise and others.

Regarding her new position with Riptide, Amazan said, “I’m thrilled in having made the jump over to the music creation side to round out the amazing trailer team here at Riptide,” Amazan said. “As the new creative manager for trailers, I will help to pitch and manage the existing Riptide catalog, and will also be producing a bunch of exciting new material throughout the year. We have a TON of incredible Riptide artists and composers on board that are itching to create new songs. I’m just so very excited to jump in and start developing new sync-perfect gems for all of our great existing and potential new clients.”

About Richard Hellstern

As Riptide Music’s vice president of operations, Richard Hellstern brings together his experience in finance, publishing, writing and producing to be an agile and effective head of daily operations for a growing company in a fast-changing music industry. He was previously royalties and finance manager for the company.

Hellstern got his start in music publishing and administration 14 years ago, after having spent 10 years in music production and performance. Previously at PEN Music Group, Inc., he has represented marquee catalogues like the Bob Marley estate and Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, artists including Olivia Newton John, Gina Schock of The Go-Go’s, and Don Felder of The Eagles, as well as platinum-selling copyrights by Christina Aguilera, Selena Gomez, Luther Vandross and many others.

Hellstern has produced numerous musicals for the stage including The Full Monty, Into the Woods, The Burnt Part Boys and others. He is also a published writer, having contributed celebrity interviews and cover stories, op-eds, and film and TV reviews for 6 years to the national magazine Instinct.

“Music has always been the dominant force in my life, whether playing the piano, producing a musical, recording in the studio or shepherding the career of another musician,” Hellstern said. “The most exciting thing for me about working at Riptide, is the chance to lead a team of talented professionals right as the music industry tips headlong into the technology space. We’ve seen a gradual trend over the last decade from physical product to digital product to streaming music; now the trend is sharing platforms, audience engagement and, in a way, a return to more intimate musical experiences for fans. I’m looking forward to shaping how Riptide becomes a leader in innovation in the decade to come.”

About Riptide

Formed in early 2014 by the merger of Riptide Music and Pigfactory, Riptide Music Group is comprised of five operating units: Riptide Rights looks after publishing and master rights for administration and sync representation; Riptide One, a carefully curated catalog of independent artists, bands, producers and composers, master & publishing controlled 100% by Riptide; Pacifica Music Library, a modern production music library focused on current popular music styles; DIVER, a boutique catalog of label-signed, active and touring artists; and Incubator, Riptide’s pop and urban songwriter, producer and artist development division.