big interview KIM FRANKIEWICZ
‘MY MOTTO IS QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY’
After calling off its proposed sale a year ago, Imagem has quietly re-established itself as a major player in independent publishing with some key signings. Managing director Kim Frankiewicz tells Music Week that the company’s now ready to make some real noise…
PUBLISHING ■ BY MARK SUTHERLAND
K
im Frankiewicz is a publisher on a hot streak.
After joining independent publisher Imagem Music from Universal Music Publishing in 2012, the managing director of Imagem Music UK and worldwide head of A&R re-signed Daft Punk, and the robots – along with Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers – subsequently delivered one of the world’s biggest hits in Get Lucky. She also sealed the signing of Mark Ronson, who came up with last year’s biggest single, Uptown Funk (albeit with multiple other songwriters). “I was in a board meeting the other day saying, Don’t expect the third one!” she laughs. “If I give you one for next year, I’m a bloody genius…”
The thing is, you wouldn’t bet against it. Throughout her career, Frankiewicz has made a success of everything she’s turned her hand to and, unusually for a publisher, she has turned her hand to most things. In her native Australia, she began as an artist manager with MMA Management, before becoming MD of their publishing arm and then running indie label RooArt Records before the move to Universal.
It’s publishing, however, that seems to be her natural environment. Imagem is the self- styled ‘quiet one’ in a noisy indie publisher sector that also includes the likes of BMG and Kobalt, even if Frankiewicz herself is refreshingly plain-speaking. She does most of that plain-speaking (still in an Australian accent by the way, despite being based here since 2000) behind closed doors, however: today is only her second major interview since joining Imagem from the majors. The first, coincidentally, was also with your correspondent.
Since we last spoke, Frankiewicz has had a full agenda. Charged with bringing Imagem’s pop division up to the level of its giant classical (Boosey & Hawkes) and Broadway (Rodgers & Hammerstein) siblings, she beefed up the roster with signings ranging from Pink Floyd to Cathy Dennis, only for the company’s owners – Dutch pension fund
JANUARY 18 10 MUSIC Week
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