22 Music Week 05.10.12 PROFILE WIXENMUSIC
“We are administrators and that is what we do. We focus on the administration and get that really well done” BETH WIJAYARATHNA, WIXEN
“When Tom Petty joined the Traveling
Wilburys each guy had different shares of the songs on the same album and you would expect each guy would earn the exact same amount for an equal share of the same song, but it just doesn’t work that way,” says Wixen. “Someone collected more money, someone collected sooner and our whole point is administration isn’t something that is just a cookie cutter. If you spend more time at it, more attention to detail you get different results than if you just throw it into machinery and bulk deliver your songs in a massive file.” Since its US launch Wixen has always operated
on the basis of the client keeping 100% of their copyrights and it acting purely as administrators. The company has no grand illusions of being anything other than that. “If they’re looking for a lot of creative input,
lots of pitches and syncs and stuff then we’re not the right place for them because we’re not a jack of all trades,” says Wijayarathna. “We are administrators and that is what we do. We do recommend other sync agencies, we do recommend if that is specifically what the artists want out of their music and we get approached a lot to do syncs so we do the licencing side of things, but we focus on the administration and get that really well done.” Its non-ownership model is hardly unique now
in a world where there are companies like Kobalt operating on the same lines. But it was very revolutionary when Wixen launched nearly three- and-a-half decades ago. “There’s a big respect for intellectual property
and that’s why the whole thing started and 30 years ago being ahead of our time,” says Asher. “If somebody that has an intellectual property that is theirs, our company very much believes they should control it. It’s not a situation where we want to own somebody else’s work.” While it does not offer advances as others do, a
confidence in what it can provide clients is reflected by it only ever offering one-year-at-a time deals. Wixen says: “We tell people give us a try for a
“In this industry there are a lot of details that get missed. That’s what we do. We go in and look for those details” NAOMI ASHER, WIXEN
differentiating itself by taking out some of its clients from blanket sync licensing deals with the BBC and commercial TV broadcasters. “A few years ago a few of our clients started
ABOVE Happy customers: Wixen’s client retention rate is impressive. The Black Keys (above) did leave for another publisher... but they came back soon after
year and you’ll see how you like it and we have better than 99% retention after that year because they get their foot in the door and they see how different it is to anything they’ve had before and it’s a risk we take, but we’re very satisfied with the results of that risk taking.” Wixen’s wife and company co-owner Sharon
Maroko Wixen says in the few cases where clients have left for another publisher they often ultimately return. “We have some clients maybe they start with us
and then a big multi-national waves a lot of money and when you’re a starving artist that helps,” she says. “It helps pay for equipment, helps pay your rent, keeps the family, so it’s happened where they’ve left us for that big advance, but the minute they get their publishing back they come back to us. The Black Keys is a perfect example of that.”
Another lure from Wixen Music is quarterly
royalty cheques, which includes money for activity from the quarter just gone. “With other publishers it may be two or three
quarters in arrears they’re getting paid on so it’s those little surprises of, ‘Oh, what do you mean you just quoted the quarter and now it’s got the money,’” she says. As an example of how quickly its royalty
ABOVE Wixen’s picks: UK deals have been concluded with the likes of The Rifles, We Are Augustines and Mikill Pane
payments are made revenue for its June 30 statements this year went out on July 7. Another different approach with Wixen to
most other publishers is that in North America it does not use the services of the Harry Fox Agency or the CMRRA (Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency) for mechanical licensing, unless specifically asked to do. And in the UK it is
seeing their songs in some UK TV shows and they decided they wanted to have more control,” says Wixen. “So a few of the clients have gone and put their songs in non-MCPS companies. They are collecting the performance rights directly through PRS. It’s a lot more work actually, but it’s something that gives a lot of our clients more control over where their songs are used and how they are used.” Although a good part of the UK’s office’s
efforts are concerned with looking after the interests here of the US clients, since opening a variety of deals have been struck locally. These include a tie up with ATC Management’s music publishing arm, which has resulted in Wixen acting as administrators for acts including We Are Augustines, The Duke Spirit, The Rifles and Chew Lips. Other UK deals include writer/producer Alex
Morris who has been working with hip hop acts Mikill Pane and Murkage. And at a time of increasing consolidation in the publishing sector with a number of independents having been snapped up in recent years, Wixen UK also has its eye on attracting any of the affected writer-artists wanting a new home for their songs. Wijayarathna suggests such consolidation has
opened up a few opportunities for the company. “Some of the people who signed initially to
some of the independents have not been happy about the buy-out so when their contracts have come to an end they’ve started looking elsewhere,” she adds. “We are working with a few people with perhaps a few others in the pipeline saying, ‘We don’t want to be with a major. This is not what we signed up for.’” That seems to indicate word is quickly
spreading about Wixen in the UK and it might not be long for before its under-the-radar presence fully rises above the surface.
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