Merlin has appointed Charlie Lexton as its next CEO, effective Jan. 1, the indie licensing organization announced Wednesday (Nov. 12). Lexton will succeed Jeremy Sirota, who announced his exit in May after serving in the role since 2020.

Lexton has worked for Merlin since its 2007 founding and has served as the organization’s COO since April 2020. He has played a key role in a number of important developments at the agency — from negotiating licensing deals with streamers and social media platforms to forming a recently announced partnership with AI audio company ElevenLabs, through which Merlin members can opt in to train ElevenLabs’ AI music model. He was also involved in Merlin’s 2012 settlement of a copyright infringement lawsuit against LimeWire, the transfer of parts of Parlophone L

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