Phylicia Fant has been named head of music industry partnerships at Amazon Music, the company confirmed today (March 2). In the newly-created role, in which Fant will be based in Amazon’s Culver City office, she’ll be overseeing music partnerships and entertainment campaigns for the music service, reporting to vp music industry Ryan Redington.
Fant was most recently executive vp, urban music at Columbia Records, a post she exited in January after a three-year tenure that began in December 2018 when she was named co-head of urban music alongside now-Azoff Company executive Shawn Holiday. During that period, the label charted hits by Lil Nas X, The Kid LAROI, Polo G, Chloe x Halle, 24kGoldn, Lil Tjay and Tyler, The Creator.
Prior to Columbia, Fant served as senior vp of publicity and special projects at Warner Bros. (now Warner Records) for seven years, developing global campaigns for Prince, Andra Day, Saweetie and Drake’s OVO Sound. She had segued to Warner after working in publicity at Universal Music Group from 2001-2011, working on media campaigns for Stevie Wonder and Amy Winehouse, among other artists.
Fant is also founder and CEO of The Purple Agency, a multi-discipline agency specializing in public relations, publicity, marketing and events. Spotlighted in Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Power and Women in Music executive features, Fant is a current member of the board of governors for the Los Angeles chapter of the Recording Academy.