Warner Music Group may now bring over 500 jobs to Music City as part of the label’s planned relocation of its accounting operations and rights administration departments to Nashville. When first announced last month, the deal proposed bringing 175 jobs to Davidson County, but newly-released details about Metro’s end of the proposed deal would bring that number to over 500.
The city is proposing paying Warner Music $500 per new job for seven years, according to a resolution up for consideration at Tuesday’s upcoming Metro Council meeting. The Metro incentives will be worth $87,500 per year at the 175-job level, and $250,000 at the 500-job level. The company, which already has around 100 employees in Nashville, will initially bring up to 175 employees in financial, legal and administrative roles to work out of a new office space at Nashville City Center.
The new Warner office, which is expected to open in mid-2017, is expected to expand over time to more than 500 employees, but if the company does not surpass 500 new jobs by the end of 2020, the incentive deal with Metro will be terminated. The agreement with Metro also requires that, in order to qualify for the incentive, the Warner jobs pay more than the most recent average wage in the area according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The most recent mean hourly wage for all occupations posted by the federal bureau in the metro area was $21.49.
Warner Music Nashville’s office will remain in its current location.
“As we all know, Nashville is not only home to the best artists and songwriters in the world, but it has a vibrant and growing economy,” Warner Music Nashville Chairman and CEO John Esposito said in last month’s release about the move. “The top talent in the world can be found here, our company already has a strong presence in the community, and the city and state have been tremendous at helping us establish our new location downtown.”
