Boom and Busta: (L-R) Empire has worked with artists including Busta Rhymes, Cardi B and Little Torment
high school in San Mateo, that’s where Napster started.” To this day, Shami continues to oversee the development of technology at Empire.
“I head up all the engineering,” he says. “I spend a lot of time with my engineering team. We talk every week about new initiatives, new features, new modules that we’re building. So I mastermind it, then they go build it.”
G
hazi Shami is building the Empire brand, too. While it started as a distributor, the company quickly moved into label services and now has a creative and branding agency, as well as an investment arm. “In my mind, I stopped calling it a distribution company from the very beginning,” says Shami. “We’re just a company that creates content, whether that’s music content, video content, marketing or promotion. We’re a media company, we do a lot of different things – we’re diving into film now. “Empire is one large ecosystem, so pick your poison – what is it that you need from us? You need publishing, we got you. You need merchandise, we got you. You need a record deal or just purely distribution, we got you. You want to create short documentaries and films? Cool.” Unlike some companies who just charge fees, Shami confirms that in some cases Empire becomes a rights-holder in a “transparent” arrangement with artists. “You can’t really create any real value in a company if you don’t own some type of rights,” he says.
Shami notes that “our deal structures are all over the place” – an approach that had old hands in the industry aghast at the flexible artist arrangements.
“When I started my company, people told me that doing non-exclusive deals was the dumbest thing I could do,” he adds. “[But] that’s how I acquired all my content.” Empire has ramped up its global expansion and recently appointed Suhel Nafar as VP, strategy & market development, in order to drive growth in West Asia and North Africa.
Shami says the UK is central to the company’s future plans, following the opening of a London office in 2017. Although Covid got in
64 | Music Week Empire building: Ghazi Shami
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PHOTOS: Jessica Chou/Flo Ngala/Jora Frantzis
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