Michael McCarty is a respected veteran music publishing executive with a successful track record in catalog acquisition, talent discovery, and business development. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2019 for his significant impact on the Canadian music industry.
Michael co-founded Kilometre Music Group Inc. with Rodney Murphy after leaving his role as Chief Membership Officer at the Canadian Performing Rights Organization (“PRO”) referred to as The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (“SOCAN”), where he led a team of 40 people who were instrumental in building SOCAN’s world-class catalog, by repatriating and recruiting the top Canadian songwriters, who currently dominate the global charts.
Starting as a recording engineer under the legendary record producers Jack Richardson (The Guess Who) and Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper), Michael worked on Pink Floyd’s The Wall, and with Neil Young.
Shifting to music publishing with ATV Music Canada, he worked directly with Michael Jackson following Jackson’s acquisition of the Beatles catalog, spending 6 years with EMI in L.A., where he co-signed the group Wilson Phillips (Hold On). He was subsequently appointed President of EMI Canada, where he began an unprecedented 17 year run of success developing and signing artists such as Billy Talent, City and Colour, Sum 41, Three Days Grace, Matthew Good, Moist, Nelly Furtado, and producer/writers Gavin Brown and Simon Wilcox.
Prior to joining SOCAN in 2014, Mr. McCarty was President of one of the world’s largest independent music rights companies, the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Fund’s music royalty investment Anthem (formerly Ole), where among other achievements he acquired the catalog and futures rights of superstar hip hop producer Timbaland.