QUICK HITS: Sound Diplomacy, Record Union, One Media iP, One Fiinix Live, Warner-Chappell
Sound Diplomacy, the respected consultancy delivering economic growth through music, have expanded their North American division with the appointment of Kate Durio as its first CEO of North America.
Durio will lead work in North America and the Caribbean, to expand upon Sound Diplomacy’s growth in the market, which includes working with over 25 cities, regions and organizations, from New York City’s Mayor’s Office of Music and Entertainment (MOME) to the City of Huntsville, Alabama, Orlando, Fort Worth, St Louis and Indianapolis Chamber.
• Indie music distributor Record Union is launching Unlimited which “lets independent artists and labels set their creativity free” and release unlimited music for a fixed monthly fee starting at $4.99 per month.
“During the beta testing period for Unlimited, we saw that artists released 25 percent more music compared with artists that release with our Pay-Per-Release plan,” said RU.
• One Media iP Group Plc (AIM: OMIP), the digital music rights acquirer, publisher and distributor has acquired the licensor’s share of the royalties to the 21 Vision catalog of rights which contains over 2,000 rare music concerts and live recordings performed by over 70 artists who, “since the digital era began, have a renewed popularity as they are rediscovered by growing global audiences”. Such performers include Glenn Millar, The Andrews Sisters, The Ink Spots, Vera Lynn, Count Basie, Flanagan & Allen and Cole Porter, music reminiscent of the Dads Army generation (over 60+) whose age group now form 29% of digital streaming consumers according to Statista.
• Warner Chappell Music signed a worldwide publishing agreement with up-and-coming rapper CJ. The 23-year-old artist has seen success with his first RIAA platinum-certified single “Whoopty,” which hit the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time this week and also landed him at No. 10 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Songwriters chart.
In January, CJ signed a record deal with Warner Chappell’s sister company, Warner Records.
• One Fiinix Live , the UK indie live music agency launched at the end of last year by Jon Ollier whose clients include Ed Sheeran, Anne-Marie, Lauv, 2Cellos and JC Stewart and more has added Jess Kinn who joins the company from streaming specialists LIVENow and was previously an agent at Paradigm.
