• Can you tell us about your career path?

I work at Universal in the digital strategy team, and more specifically in the proprietary audience team. Capturing audiences has become a major issue in the music industry with the explosion of information channels linked to social networks and streaming. There are two main parts to my job: playlist curation, which is very similar to the work of a radio programmer, but adapted to the new ways of discovering music via streaming. The second part of my job involves developing my own media. 

Before that, I worked at Apple on editorial assignments as well. I did two fixed-term contracts there, one at Apple Books and one at Apple Music as a curator. Apart from that, I also made a documentary mini-series on music in three African cities: Nairobi, Cape Town and Abidjan.

• What do you like about your current job? What are your main tasks?

What I like about my current role is being at the forefront of new trends: you have to be constantly on the lookout for new artists, new musical genres and new ways of discovering and consuming music. Whether in artistic terms or in terms of the ways in which music is discovered and consumed, music is evolving at breakneck speed, and that requires you to be highly responsive in order to seize the opportunities created by these changes.  

At the same time, my job is rooted in a very old-fashioned reality, and even though consumer trends are constantly evolving, the mission remains the same: to help people discover music. Not to mention that the catalogue has become a priority - access to over 70 million tracks in your pocket and the resurgence phenomena we're seeing on TikTok, for example, make the catalogue more important than ever before. 

In short, I'm in a job that's been around for a very long time, but which is constantly adapting and renewing itself.

• Why did you move from Apple to Universal?

Working at Universal gives me a better understanding of the value chain and a better grasp of the wide range of issues facing artists. I get to meet artists more often too, which is always interesting!

• What prompted you to join the Chair and what did you get out of it? What is your best memory of the Chair?

I didn't necessarily find myself in the classic ESSEC courses. The Chair was a place where I found interesting courses, a Chairwoman who was very generous in terms of sharing knowledge and networking, and a very diverse group of people, which was great. I also met fellow students who were as passionate as I was, and the class was very open-minded. 

The chair's trip to California was by far the best memory, as we met so many key players, including Universal, which confirmed my desire to work there in the future.

The research paper was also an enriching experience, providing a common thread of learning throughout the year.

• Do you work with people from the Chair?

At the moment, no, but to get my first job at Apple, I was recommended by an alumnus of the chair, Francois Yazbeck.

• What advice would you give to students in the Chair or those interested?

You must not hesitate to build yourself differently from others. ESSEC is a good school for long-term career strategy, but you also have to dare to go outside the box, to do things for yourself without thinking about your CV. You always want to do well, but you have to be able to try different things despite feeling that you don't have a specialised profile.  

Similarly, don't hesitate to ask questions and stick to your guns, while using the ESSEC tools to structure your career. Work should always be fun, especially when you've been lucky enough to work with brilliant people throughout your career.

• What question would you have liked to have been asked?

Don't forget to have fun. The decisions that sometimes seem the least rational are ultimately the ones that serve us best, so we need to trust ourselves and take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Chair: a place that is caring, intelligent and full of curiosity.