Armin Zerza Named COO of Warner Music Group, a Year After Joining as CFO

Warner Music Group’s Armin Zerza adds COO role to his remit, just one year after joining as CFO

May 12, 2026 By Music Business Worldwide

Warner Music Group has promoted Armin Zerza to the role of Chief Operating Officer, in addition to his existing position as Chief Financial Officer.

The move was announced by WMG CEO Robert Kyncl during the company’s fiscal second-quarter earnings call last Wednesday (May 7), with the expanded role taking effect the following day.

Within that quarter, WMG posted total revenue of USD $1.73 billion , up 12% year-on-year at constant currency.

Zerza ‘s new remit as COO will encompass corporate development, central marketing, business and market intelligence, and WMX.

Kyncl told investors: “I want to share that starting tomorrow, in addition to continuing to serve as our CFO, [Armin] will also serve as our COO.”

“I wanted to thank Armin for the impact he has had on the organization and business in a short period of time, and I look forward to continuing partnering with him to deliver operational excellence, growth, and value creation.”

Kyncl later explained that the title change reflected how Zerza had already been operating within the company, rather than a sudden reorganization.

> “We didn’t make any change, didn’t make an announcement – it’s just kind of like things have to work. And now we’ve hit our stride.” Robert Kyncl on Warner’s Q1 and Armin Zerza’s new role

“This is something that actually has kind of been in practice,” Kyncl said during the Q&A portion of the call.

“Armin has added responsibilities along the way over the last 12 months, one by one.

“We didn’t make any change, didn’t make an announcement – it’s just kind of like things have to work. And now we’ve hit our stride.”

Kyncl said the move was driven by WMG ‘s desire to “double down on operational excellence across the company and simplification, which then leads to a lot of automation through AI, which allows us to deliver more for artists and songwriters with the same team and grow our business rapidly”.

“Having a strong alignment between our financials, our budget management, forecasting – it’s just very, very closely tied to the operation of the company, and a role like that makes sense,” he added.

Zerza , for his part, said on the call: “In my new expanded role, I look forward to partnering with you and the team to continue driving top and bottom line growth while strengthening our operational, commercial and financial excellence at the company.”

The promotion arrives just over a year after Zerza joined Warner Music Group as CFO in May 2025, replacing Bryan Castellani .

Prior to joining WMG , Zerza spent a decade at gaming giant Activision Blizzard , where he served as both CFO and Chief Commercial Officer, and played a key role in the company’s $68.7 billion all-cash acquisition by Microsoft in 2023 .

Before that, he held a series of senior finance roles at Procter & Gamble over more than 20 years, spanning North America, Europe and Latin America.

Zerza ‘s elevation to COO comes against a backdrop of accelerating financial performance at WMG .

In the quarter ended March 31, 2026 – the results reported on the same call at which his promotion was announced – Warner Music Group posted total revenue of $1.73 billion , up 12% year-on-year at constant currency.

Adjusted  OIBDA margin increased to  22.9%  from  20.4%  in the prior-year quarter

Recorded music subscription streaming revenue grew 15% on an adjusted basis in the quarter, benefiting from both market share gains and the contractual per-subscriber minimum increases that Kyncl has been championing since joining the company .

Zerza told analysts on the call that the company now expects to achieve the high end of its 150 to 200 basis points margin expansion target for fiscal 2026 .

Since joining WMG , Zerza has been instrumental in a series of moves including the upsizing of the company’s catalog acquisition joint venture with Bain Capital to $1.65 billion in total capacity, plus the agreement to acquire independent music platform Revelator – a deal that Zerza called “an accelerant for profitable distribution revenue growth and market share expansion”.

He has also been a key figure in WMG ‘s AI licensing strategy alongside Kyncl, with the company striking deals with Suno , Udio , and Stability AI .

On the latest earnings call, Zerza said the Suno partnership – which he noted is currently generating $300 million in annualized revenue – “will begin to contribute materially to our subscription streaming revenue growth starting in fiscal 2027”. Music Business Worldwide

_Originally reported by [Music Business Worldwide](https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/warner-music-groups-armin-zerza-adds-coo-role-to-his-remit-just-one-year-after-joining-as-cfo/)._