Sulinna Ong, Spotify‘s global head of editorial & curation for music, is departing the company to join U2‘s management team, the band confirmed on Tuesday. She joins as a management partner alongside Irving and Jeffrey Azoff.
“What’s struck us about Sulinna is the flair, finesse, and clarity she brings to both the art and the audience,” U2’s Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. said in a statement. “She understands what we’ve built and where we want to take it. We’re delighted to have her as a Management Partner alongside Irving and Jeffrey.”
Ong comes to U2 after seven years at Spotify, serving as global head of editorial since 2021. In a statement, Ong called her time at the streaming service “a significant part of my career and I leave the team there with enormous respect for what we have built.”
“U2 are one of the most important bands in the world, artistically and culturally, and have used their platform with purpose across every chapter of their career,” Ong said. “The opportunity to work alongside them, and alongside Irving and Jeffrey, who have shaped what modern artist management is, was one I couldn’t pass up. We have ambitious plans for what’s next, and I’m ready to get to work.”
U2 is one of the most successful bands in music history both in record sales and live music gross. The group has won 22 Grammy awards, and most recently, they served as the first-ever band to play at the Sphere in Las Vegas, playing a 40-show residency at the high tech venue in commemoration of the band’s 1991 album Achtung Baby.
“The band made the right call,” Irving Azoff said in a statement of Ong’s appointment. “Sulinna is one of the best executives in music, with a career built on judgement, taste, and an instinct for where culture is now and where it’s going. Jeffrey and I are proud to have her alongside us.”
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