www.musicweek.com
28.11.14 Music Week 21
emerging artists are keen to use the label services routes to market,” say Absolute Marketing & Distribution’s managing director Henry Semmence and digital director Adam Cardew. “As well as having success with established artists as wide-ranging as Deep Purple, Lisa Stansfield and Blue, we are also having great results with equally wide-ranging new artists from Krept & Konan to Ward Thomas.” Managing director of Kobalt Label Services
and AWAL, Vincent Clery-Melin agrees that established acts have traditionally been the first to seek out an artist services deal. He points out that they have experience in the industry (“sometimes more than many executives at record labels!”) as well as that all important established fanbase. “Sometimes they’ve been burned by the major label system, or are coming out of a negative experience there,” he suggests.
“The first royalty statement normally gives managers a heart attack because they see all the costs! But if the campaign has been run well then they can recoup quickly” MARTIN GOLDSCHMIDT, COOKING VINYL
“However this is changing. We see more and
more artists of different genres and at different stages in their careers seeing the pitfalls of the traditional label model and taking more control of their own destiny. Sometimes it’s by necessity: if the deals offered by traditional labels aren’t attractive to them, they discover they can take more of the route to market themselves successfully. “Sometimes it’s by choice: artists like Snakehips
realise they can build themselves up to the point where they are a daytime Radio 1 act on their own with a partner like us before they decide whether they want a major label deal – and can then negotiate such deals on their terms. Artists like Todd Terje and Nicolas Jaar who we work with have made the choice to work with us and turned down many offers from traditional labels to be able to run their own businesses. I think it won’t be long before a significant breakthrough global act emerges out of an artist services situation and outside of the major label system.” From the point of view of those at major
labels that also offer artist services alongside their traditional contracts, however, the two models don’t have to be placed in such conflict. Michael Roe acts as joint managing director of
Caroline International alongside Jim Chancellor. The company is part of Universal Music Group, but Roe says that Caroline sits “completely outside the corporate world” with “complete independence”. “Both traditional label and artist service relationships are viable and sit side by side with each other,” he argues. “Just because the nature of the deal is different it doesn’t mean that there’s ever any less commitment. Caroline is owned by a traditional record company and I’ve seen and witnessed that UMG is an organisation that thrives on entrepreneurship.” As far as the artist services model becoming increasingly viable for new acts is concerned, Jim Chancellor says in no uncertain terms that, while the route to market is great for established artists, Caroline’s ambition “is absolutely to break new
Carl Barat And The Jackals (Cooking Vinyl)
Ali Campbell (Cooking Vinyl)
[PIAS] ARTIST & LABEL SERVICES: ‘DOING IT TOGETHER, NOT DIY’
[PIAS] is one of only a handful of companies within the sector to be in a unique position of having its services division, [PIAS] Artist & Label Services, housed alongside its own label, Play It Again Sam, as well as having its associated label group [PIAS] Cooperative. From a [PIAS]
Artist & Label Services perspective, the focus is on its label clients and the artists those labels work with. “First and foremost
we look to support the wide range of labels we work with and aim to complement and enhance what they do,” says [PIAS] Artist & Label Services managing director, Adrian Pope. “Depending upon what’s required, we provide a home that offers strategic planning, marketing
and promotion solutions, media buying, production and manufacturing, dedicated YouTube services, catalogue strategies and, most importantly, execute a cohesive and successful physical and digital sales strategy – and all of this can be implemented through [PIAS] on a truly global basis.” “The breadth and depth of our service has been developed over many years and it’s real – it’s about a wealth of experience and proven expertise on the ground across multiple markets.” In the event an artist doesn’t work with one of the labels
[PIAS] already has a relationship with, [PIAS] Artist & Label Services is able to provide them with access to its full range of solutions. “Rather than it being DIY, [PIAS] provides various
ways of doing it together. I’m not sure the perception of ‘self-release’ is a fair reflection of what happens in reality. Lots of projects might be considered ‘self-releases’ but the successful ones are those that have significant resources around the artist. We work best when there is a solid team behind the artist that has a clear vision about what they want to achieve and have the resource to work collaboratively with us and our teams.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
