Spotify wants to go public soon. In the meantime it is shuffling its corporate org chart: The streaming music service is bringing in a new executive to head up its public relations team.
Spotify has brought in a new head of PR as it gets ready for a 2018 IPO
Dustee Jenkins, who used to run comms for Target, moves to the streaming music service.
Peter Kafka covered media and technology, and their intersection, at Vox. Many of his stories can be found in his Kafka on Media newsletter, and he also hosts the Recode Media podcast.
Dustee Jenkins, who headed up communications for the Target retail chain until this summer, will take on the same role for Spotify, reporting to chief marketing officer Seth Farbman.
The move is worth noting for a couple reasons: In part because it’s happening as Spotify ramps up for a novel public offering, where it will list shares directly to buyers instead of using traditional Wall Street banks.
And in part because Spotify has always had a lot of different voices leading its PR efforts, with founder and CEO Daniel Ek relying on advice from voices in and outside of the company. Now Jenkins is supposed to sync everything up.
Angela Watts, who has handled comms for Spotify out of its London office for seven years, will report to her; so will Graham James, who has done the same thing out of the company’s New York City office. People familiar with Spotify expect Jenkins, who is moving to New York City after a seven-year stint in Minneapolis for Target, to eventually reorganize her group.
Prior to Target, Jenkins spent four years at Hill & Knowlton; she also ran comms for the federal department of Housing and Urban Development under president George W. Bush and for Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Jenkins will have at least a couple months to get ready before the company has to explain its public offering plan to the public.
While Spotify executives have previously said they might go public in 2017, they now say that won’t happen this year. New target: Q1 of 2018.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
