ARTIST AND LABEL SERVICES

Digital tools offering a credible alternative to traditional labels

Midem’s mission to offer insights into the global music industry’s future continues this year at its first-ever Artist & Label Services-dedicated forum. Juliana Koranteng reports

Spotify’s Jennifer Masset Horus’ Matt Newton SoundCloud’s Eliah Seton

ARTIST & Label Services (A&L Services) are a new generation of businesses offering digital tools that empower DIY music-content creators to self-release recordings while retaining financial and creative independence. In contrast to the exclusive — some would say “restrictive” — contracts signed by artists with traditional record labels, A&L Services enable creators to retain and control their music’s copyright. But as each artist cannot do everything required in the complex business, A&L Services provide artists-first expertise. This includes helping to market their releases, reach fans directly, analyse data, organise tours, administer publishing rights and even offer financial advances. All this is possible for independent artists thanks to developments in high-speed internet, social media, streaming platforms, smartphones and related digital tools. It is a flexible model that allows each creator to pick and mix what he or she needs. “We recognise that every project is unique and SoundCloud seeks to provide a solution that is customised, at scale, to match the unique needs of the artists we work with across the globe,” says Midem 2021 keynoter Eliah Seton, president of SoundCloud, the world’s largest open audio platform. SoundCloud is famous for being home to 330 million-plus tracks by self-release artists, including those by global hitmakers — including Billie Eilish. It has now added to its core offering A&L Services to bedroom artists, hobbyists and other aspiring independent creators who want to take their potential careers a step further. “The immediate benefit is that it allows us to strengthen our relationship with artists and prove to them that, by making SoundCloud their home, they have access to services and tools that are driving more meaningful commercial opportunities,” Seton adds. Reports by MIDiA Research indicate direct-release artists contributed $1.2bn to the 2020 global recorded-music revenues, a 34.1% increase from 2019. During Midem Digital 2020, Fred Davis, a partner at Raine Group, a US merchant bank and music-industry investor, said his company forecasts that DIY acts and ventures will generate more than $2bn in the near future. The legacy major labels, including Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, are investing in A&L Services. Spotify For Artists, the service provided by the world’s largest paid-for streaming-music platform to give DIY creators more control over the marketing of their releases, aims to roll out localised versions in 25 languages this year, says Jennifer Masset, Spotify’s global head of indies, commercial partnerships.

She adds: “We are actively looking to enable creators to live off their work.” UK-based Horus Music is an independent A&L Services company growing internationally, having recently expanded into India, Nigeria and Brazil. It works with Western artists, for example Norwegian rapper Big Daddy Karsten and UK indie rock band Fuzzy Sun, to gain followings on African streaming platforms including Boomplay Music. And vice-versa. “We have been able to create multiple territory-focused/specialised services for our Asian, African and South American clients on top of our global and more Western Europe/North American-focused services,” Horus’ label services executive Matt Newton says. US A&L Services venture TuneCore partners self-release artists who could then be “upstreamed” to sign with its France-based parent company, which owns established record labels including Nuclear Blast and Naïve. The flexibility provided by their digital infrastructure is attracting more users to A&L Services, as demonstrated by the planned launch of France-headquartered Bridger in early 2022. Instead of focusing on recording artists, Bridger is aiming at the global independent songwriters, who have criticised traditional collecting societies for failing to access their royalties more efficiently. “We complement the traditional model of signing up with only one collective management organisation. Songwriters have a choice, which is fairly new in Europe, where monopolies are still the overwhelming rule,” Bridger’s founder/managing director, Jocelyn Seills, says. “We also want to bring collective rights management to those songwriters that are currently out of it and therefore do not monetise their lyrics and compositions at all.” n

Jennifer Masset: “We are actively looking to enable creators to live off their work”

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