After graduating from college, Esposito moved to
Washington, D.C. to pursue a career in journalism. Instead, he found a job as a clerk at a record store He quickly worked his way up to manager, and in a few years, he was managing multiple record stores on the East Coast. This ultimately led to a position as a buyer in the
Macy's TV department and eventually a role with the sales and operation staff at
Mitsubishi. His experience there led him to a job with
PolyGram, where he held various executive roles (including senior vice president of PolyMedia) until 1997. In 1998, he became the founding general manager and executive vice president at
The Island Def Jam Music Group. In that role, he oversaw acts like
Jay-Z,
DMX,
Bon Jovi, and
Ja Rule. In October 2002, he was named the president of WEA, Corp.—the sales and marketing arm of the
Warner Music Group. In that role, he also oversaw the Independent Label Group and the Alternative Distribution Alliance. He was later promoted to president and CEO of WEA, Corp. In September 2009, he was named the first president and CEO of the newly formed Warner Music Nashville (WMN), a label group for Warner's
country music acts At the time, Blake Shelton was considered to be the label group's "only serious hitmaker". Within five years, however, Esposito had helped increase WMN's market share from 3.4% to 8.6%. He was also credited with jump starting the careers of Shelton,
Hunter Hayes, Brett Eldredge, and
Cole Swindell during that time. In January 2015, Esposito was named the president of the
Country Music Association (CMA) and was named chairman of the CMA board later that year. In 2016, Esposito was promoted to chairman and CEO of Warner Music Nashville. In 2018, he signed artist
Kenny Chesney to WMN. In 2019, Esposito signed Gabby Barrett whose first single, "
I Hope," was eventually certified quadruple platinum. In November 2019, Esposito extended his contract to remain chairman and CEO of WMN for several more years. That month, the WMN acts Blake Shelton,
Ashley McBryde, and Dan + Shay were nominated for
Grammy Awards, Over the course of his time at WMN, Esposito has routinely appeared on the
Billboard Power 100 list, including most recently in 2020. ==References==