Record Labels
Example Signs With BMG: Exclusive
Example (real name Elliot Gleave) and his family is now based in Australia, where he struck the recording agreement with the domestic affiliate of BMG. “I never thought I’d sign another record deal,” he says in a statement. “I’d had so many experiences over the years—many good but also many negative—that I was looking forward to being independent for the foreseeable.” After meeting Heath Johns, BMG managing director Australia & New Zealand, and the label’s team in Sydney, “I was blown away with their ethos and their ambition,” Example recounts. “I have been given a fair deal that puts me and my team in the driving seat albeit with an incredible world class team at our disposal”. Ahead of the BMG deal, Example joined the management roster for boutique Brisbane, Australia-based mus...
Warner Music Nabs Kristin Burke From Universal to Run Canadian Label
Burke, who is currently executive vp and general manager at Universal Music Canada, where she has worked for more than 20 years, will report to Simon Robson, president, international, recorded music at Warner Music Group. She will succeed Steve Kane, who has served as president since 2004, and was inducted into the Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame in 2015. (Kane did not respond to a request for comment.) “Kristen has a great reputation across the industry, combining great strategic insight with an instinctive empathy for artists,” Robson said in a statement. Kane, in his own statement, said he knows the company’s “future is in safe hands,” adding that he plans to focus more energy on social justice issues and music. (Kane notoriously has shopped for vinyl every weekend si...
Longtime Warner Music Central Europe CEO Bernd Dopp Is Stepping Down
Dopp is a five-decade veteran of WMG and the company’s longest-serving CEO in Europe. After working in retail, he joined Warner Music in 1984 as a label manager before working his way up to managing director of WEA Records a decade later. When WEA merged with Warner Classics and other entities to form Warner Music Germany in 2001, he was put in charge. In 2004, Warner Music International created a new European structure, grouping the major’s operations in Germany, Switzerland and Austria (GSA) into what would eventually be known as Warner Music Central Europe. As CEO from the very start, Dopp guided WMCE through the music industry’s oft-bumpy transition into digital and, more recently, through a once-in-a-generation pandemic. Through it all, he has delivered hits in his t...
How It All Started: Dance Music’s Most Influential Labels Reflect On Their First-Ever Release
Dance music wasn’t always this popular. In fact, the sights and sounds we now associate with the genre were once considered taboo. They were the emblems of a counterculture forced to blossom not out in the open, but in the safe confines of arcane nightclubs and warehouse raves. So how did electronic music break through the glass ceiling? Before the songs of Above & Beyond, Roger Sanchez, Armin van Buuren, and other legendary producers rattled the world’s biggest festival stages, they were auditory ugly ducklings on a quest to reach their full potential. The music always had the potential to fly, but without the help of the gutsy independent record labels willing to back it, its wings would forever remain clipped. And after all these years, those indies have proven...
Music Companies Delay Return to Office, Mandating Vaccines
Moore adds that the highly-global nature of the Spotify workforce — the company boasts 50 offices across 25 countries — made instituting a blanket vaccine mandate even more challenging. “In some countries, in some regions, it would actually be illegal to do so,” says Moore, “and so we’re just sort of taking the stance that people will make good decisions.” Notably, local ordinances in major urban centers could force companies’ hands. Earlier this month, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that a proof of vaccination will be required to enter indoor restaurants, gyms and performance venues in the city starting on Aug. 16 — though the order does not yet apply to offices. Last Tuesday, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted to look...
Maffio Launches ‘Alkatraks Music’ Record Label with New Artist Calacote: ‘This Is For the Culture’ (Exclusive)
It all begins with Calacote (real name: Luca Newton), a 22-year-old ambitious singer-songwriter who was born in North Carolina and is of Dominican and French descent. He describes his leap of faith as the ultimate “cinematic hustle move.” He began exploring music about two years ago but never thought he could pursue a career in it. He discovered his talent and passion for composing music in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and took his shot. He packed up his stuff, left Canada, where he was in grad school, moved first to New York, and later to Miami. After a few months of living in Miami, in December to be exact, he decided to direct message Maffio on Instagram. Twenty minutes later Maffio replied, they met up, and the rest is history. On Aug. 20, Calacote will be dropping his de...
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ARTBAT Launch New Record Label, UPPERGROUND [Exclusive]
Almost six years to the day since their 2015 debut, Ukrainian duo ARTBAT have officially announced the launch of their own record label, UPPERGROUND. Designed as a platform for artists of all renown, they hope the new banner will become a home for cutting-edge, emotive techno and trance music. ARTBAT tells EDM.com they also hope the imprint will better define their own music in the electronic landscape. Classifying themselves as neither underground nor mainstream, they are simply interested in producing music that is artfully arranged and sonically compelling. Perfectly embodying this ethos is “Flame,” the latest single from ARTBAT and the inaugural UPPERGROUND release. Cover art for “Flame,” a song by ARTBAT and the inaugural release on their new UPPERGROUND ...
Executive Turntable: Dick Clark Productions Taps New VP; PULSE Promotes Creative Director
Annie Aberle has been elevated to the role of senior creative director at PULSE Music Group, where she previously served as director of A&R. She’ll work with the publishing company’s A&R team and its roster of songwriters and producers. Aberle brings a packed resume to her new role, having worked with clients like Tyler Johnson, who most recently co-wrote & produced Harry Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar” and co-wrote “Adore You,” ALDAE, who co-wrote five songs on Justin Bieber’s album Justice and SG Lewis, who has collaborated with artists like Dua Lipa, Nile Rodgers, Khalid, Robyn, Clairo and Lucky Daye. “I’m eternally thankful to Ashley, Scott and Josh for the opportunity they have given me, and for everything they’ve done to help me grow and be successful since I joined PULS...
Two Sony Music Execs Exit Amid Workplace Culture Probe
The pair leave some two months after the launch of an independent investigation into the Sydney-based company’s workplace culture, a development broken by The Sydney Morning Herald’s Nathanael Cooper. As previously reported, Sony Music veteran Denis Handlin left in June, after more than 51 years with the company, and 36 years the helm of the domestic business. “It is time for a change in leadership,” wrote Sony Music Entertainment CEO Rob Stringer in a memo to staff at the time. “And I will be making further announcements in terms of the new direction of our business in Australia and New Zealand in due course.” It remains unclear who is guiding the company at present, or how Sony Music is progressing with the recruitment process for a new leader. A spokesperson declined to comment further....
Still Unbroken: The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Marks 50 Years of an Improbable Album
This week marks 50 years since the band recorded the 38-track set in six focused days at Nashville’s Woodland Sound Studios. Originally released on three vinyl discs in the fall of 1972, it never spawned any actual hit singles, though it did peak at No. 4 on Billboard‘s Top Country Albums chart. People heard about it through word-of-mouth, Dirt Band concerts and significant critical attention, given in great part because it was a grand experiment that managed to cross multiple gaps — generational, cultural, stylistic and geographical — in an era when America was divided by urban violence and the Vietnam War. “I have close friends that said, ‘You kind of helped bridge that gap between my dad and me; we would put this record on, have something in common,R...
Pershing Square Acquires 7.1% of Universal Music Group at Bargain Valuation
Pershing Square Holdings fulfilled its plans on Tuesday (Aug. 10) to acquire a stake in Universal Music Group ahead of Vivendi’s spin off on Sept. 21. The high-profile hedge fund led by Bill Ackman paid about $21.78 per share and $2.8 billion in total for 7.1% of UMG’s equity. The deal values UMG at 33 billion euros ($38.7 billion). PSH and its affiliates have the right to acquire another 2.9% of UMG’s ordinary shares by Sept. 9. Tuesday’s announcement came three weeks after Pershing Square’s special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Pershing Square Tontine Holdings, dropped its plans to buy a 10% stake in UMG in a complicated deal at a 35 billion euros ($41 billion) valuation. After PSTH investors lost interest, driving down the share price, and the Securities and Exchange Commission ob...
Major Labels Hit Charter Communications With Second Copyright Suit
“Charter has insisted on doing nothing — despite receiving thousands of notices that detailed the illegal activity of its subscribers, despite its clear legal obligation to address the widespread, illegal downloading of copyrighted works on its Internet services, and despite being sued previously by Plaintiffs for similar conduct,” the complaint maintains. The new lawsuit says the labels continued to “monitor and detect infringement” occurring on Charter’s network during the current claim period and sent over 150,000 additional notices identifying the illegal download, copying and distribution of their copyrighted music through BitTorrent and other digital file-sharing services. The notices allegedly flagged the unique IP addresses of what the labels claim are “tens of thousands” of ...
