Los Angeles-based electronic producer Jauz partnered with global distribution company OneRPM to relaunch his six-year-old label, Bite This. Together, the two teams are planning label takeovers, pop-up events and compilations as they bring genre-spanning sounds by rising artists to the release calendar. The partnership with OneRPM — whose client list also includes artists like Chance Peña, Yelawolf, A$AP Twelvyy and Alejo — will provide projects from emerging Bite This acts like Albert Breaker and Edison Cole with label services that would normally be rare to have at an artist-run imprint. – Katie Bain
U.K.-based ATC Management, whose clients include Bring Me the Horizon and Bullet for My Valentine, signed a new cooperation agreement with Chinese independent music company Modern Sky. Through the deal, the two companies will leverage their resources across management, live representation, merchandising, marketing and digital to drive artists’ careers in their respective markets.
AWAL partnered with L.A.-based networking and mentoring program Creative Futures Collective to launch the AWAL Futures program, which will focus on launching the careers of artists and supporting creatives from underrepresented communities. The artists selected into the program will receive an EP release from AWAL (including an EP release event at Soho Warehouse in July) as well as mentorship from AWAL executives. Creatives from the Creative Futures Collective community will assist with marketing assets including music videos, photos and other artwork. Selected artists for the inaugural program are Brooklyn-based project BITTERS featuring British frontwoman Claudia Mills; Columbus, Ohio-based Ghanian-American singer-songwriter NanaBCool; and Chicago rapper/producer Jay Wood.
Two French collecting societies, the SCPP (for sound recording producers) and ADAMI (for music and audiovisual artists), signed a partnership agreement to pool their respective databases and distribution tools for private copying remuneration and equitable remuneration. A study is currently underway to draw up the operational implementation of the pact, which includes a clause under which the two companies may decide to merge within a joint subsidiary being created under the deal. The creation of the subsidiary will be submitted for approval at each company’s upcoming general shareholders meetings. “Both companies jointly acknowledged that the situation in France creates inefficiencies that are detrimental to all rights holders and weakens their ability to negotiate their rights,” according to a press release. “This is because there are 7 related rights collective management organizations in France, whereas in most European countries there is only one.”
U.K. physical distributor Proper Distribution signed a deal with U.S.-based Firebird Music Holdings to service Firebird’s partner labels, artist management agencies and other creative businesses. Proper will spearhead physical sales and distribution for Firebird’s frontline and catalog releases across the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and Europe (via Proper’s partner Bertus) for select signed and self-releasing artists on Firebird’s partner rosters. Firebird partners will be granted access to Proper’s facilities and resources, specialist knowledge of local record retailers and marketing and sales teams in agreed-upon territories. Self-releasing artists under Firebird will enjoy a streamlined process to release music on physical formats. The deal will encompass releases by Slash, Chase Rice, The WAEVE, Moonchild Sanelly, Whiskey Myers, Danielle Bradbery and Rainbow Kitten Surprise, among others.
Keywords Studios, an international provider of technology-enabled solutions to the gaming and entertainment industries, partnered with Reactional Music, a music personalization engine that allows music and audio to be generated live in video games. Under the deal, Keywords will offer help facilitate the integration of Reactional into game development projects on behalf of its clients. “Collaborating with [Keywords’] teams and studios provides an incredible opportunity to scale Reactional,” said Reactional Music president David Knox in a statement. “We believe that Keywords’ implementation teams can also enable Reactional to extend its generative music and creator tools in innovative ways beyond the core gaming space.”
Producer Eli Brown (Drake, Giveon, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Chris Brown) signed an exclusive deal with Warner Music Canada through which he will develop and sign Canadian artists to the label via his imprint, Loophole Records.
Code.org, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools, particularly for students from underrepresented groups, partnered with Amazon to launch Music Lab, a platform through which K-12 students can learn to code through interactive music composition featuring hit songs by artists including Tinashe, The Chainsmokers, Rosa Linn and Aloe Blacc. Through an educational partnership with Amazon, each artist contributed tracks and samples for use in the platform. Over the past six months, Code.org has tested Music Lab with thousands of students and teachers.
The European Music Managers Alliance (EMMA) announced a new partnership with AI-driven msuic funding platform beatBread, which uses billions of data points to forecast an artist’s earnings potential in order to offer advances on existing catalog as well as new and unreleased music. Artists then repay their advances as a percentage of their revenue over a period of time that artists can set. The partnership will kick off with an exclusive online workshop for EMMA members on July 2 that will focus on funding and business building.
.MUSIC, a top-level domain name designed for the global music community, partnered with global identity verification provider Shutfi Pro. Through the deal, Shufti Pro will authenticate the digital identity of the music community to create a “trusted ecosystem of verified artists, creators, industry professionals, organizations, businesses, and brands” under the .MUSIC domain.
Mastercard Midnight Theatre, a 150-seat venue in Manhattan, selected Oak View Group (OVG) to manage its operations. OVG plans to debut a new restaurant concept at the venue, an investment of Dolphin Entertainment, this spring.
U.K. taxi app FREENOW announced a third year of financial support for Music Venue Trust (MVT). Under the arrangement, FREENOW customers can opt in via the company’s app to round up the cost of their fares and donate to MVT, which supports grassroots music venues across the United Kingdom. Donations will be collected for every trip completed and sent to MVT, which will use the funds to operate its emergency response service — one MVT claims has saved “hundreds” of venues from closure since being established in 2017.