13 minute read
Dominique Casimir
Mabel Slowthai
company.’ And I said: ‘Actually, I’m not really sure why the world needs another major music company.’ That got him going! He looked and me and said: ‘I will tell you why…’ And that was followed by Hartwig in full inspiration mode: What he wanted, why he thought artists and songwriters deserve it, and the type of people he wanted around him to make it happen.
Since May 2022, you’ve been Chief Content Officer of BMG, overseeing all repertoire operations outside North America. Which markets around the world are you most excited by from a business perspective? Mexico, and Latam more generally, stand out. We announced we would launch BMG Mexico earlier [in 2022], we’re in the process of getting it up-and-running and it is already so much fun. There’s tremendous growth, of course, in LatAm [territories] with many of them growing by more than 30% per year for three years in a row at this point. Streaming and digitalization of the LatAm markets is generally very advanced. But on the other hand, other parts of the industry - the live business, brands, merch, the sync business – all have room to become much more relevant, and I think we as BMG will really make a difference to that.
You mention live: BMG has made significant strides into live in its home market in these past few years, especially with your majority acquisition of Undercover, and more recently with your two-year residency of the Berlin theatre where you’ve seen success with the Ku’Damm 56 musical. Germany is a good country for us to test things. It’s the fourth biggest music market in the world, and in some years it’s the third [overtaking the UK].
What we’re trying here with Bertelsmann, is to ask: Can we extend what we do in rights management in music to the live business? Because from a marketing and promotion and storytelling perspective that idea makes a lot of sense. We’re very good at that in [music rights]. And then another thing we’re very good at is financial transparency, and I think there’s a need for that in the live world. And we found a company [in Undercover] just like us. The first meeting I had with [Undercover founder Michael Schacke], he said: ‘We are about fairness and 100% transparency. Our artists can come and audit us anytime.’
One big annoying needle in every artist’s foot in live is the
George Ezra
consumer data. There’s a huge amount of valuable fan data created in the process of selling tickets, but it’s often difficult for artists and managers to access that information. We are trying to crack that open with some artists, and get the fullest picture possible of their fanbase, so we can really optimize their income streams.
Our involvement in live concert promotion is the opposite of a ‘360’ deal structure: We offer live promotion and agency services on an opt-in basis to our [recorded music and publishing] artists. We hope those artists do opt-in, because we think we’re offering a lot of added value. But it’s their choice and if it doesn’t suit them that’s fine.
One of the biggest stories in the music industry in 2022 has been the revival of Kate Bush’s
Running Up That Hill via a Stranger Things sync over the summer. What was your take on that, and how even though it’s a ‘catalog’ record, it exploded like a new streaming hit amongst millions of teenagers who were hearing it for the first time? It’s a beautiful dynamic, and it’s not about ‘catalogue’ or ‘frontline’. Kate Bush is an icon and an iconic brand. The question for this new generation of consumers, and those in the music business working to maximize this moment’s potential is: What’s the core of the brand? Why why did she have such a cultural impact? What’s the essence of this artist’s appeal? I translate that to what we’re doing with Tina Turner [whose music interests BMG acquired in 2021]. What is the essence of why people feel so strongly and so connected to Tina Turner? We’re talking about a premium brand here, and a brand that comes with very strong emotional attributes attached to it. Obviously, it’s about the music, but it’s about more than the music.
So, again, that’s the question: Why was an artist so culturally impactful in the first place? Once you can answer that, you go from there.
This interview originally appeared on Music Business Worldwide in October 2022.
Lucas Keller: Why I’m doubling our investment in the UK music industry, just when people say it’s losing global power
You’ve all heard the arguments. The UK remains the world’s third biggest music market, but its homegrown artists are finding it increasingly difficult to make it huge on the global stage. That’s all because of streaming, and a superstar artist community getting ever-more international.
Despite the likes of Harry Styles, Ed Sheeran and Adele topping worldwide charts of late, the numbers don’t lie: According to Billboard/Luminate stats analysed by the BPI, UK artists claimed just 7.6% of all streams in the US in 2021 (by the top 3,000 artists in the market). Back in 2016, that number stood at 8.4%. And don’t forget – 2021 was an ‘Adele’ year, with the trend-curbing megastar’s long-awaited album release, 30.
There are, though, some positive signs for British stars: UK artists claimed 12.1% of all global streams in 2021 (of the top 1,000 artists worldwide), according to Billboard/Luminate. That put the UK in a solid No.2 spot behind the US (with 59% of all streams) and comfortably ahead of Canada (5.4%). What’s more, PRS For Music – which represents British songwriters globally – saw a 22.4% rise in collected revenues in 2021 (on a constant currency basis), suggesting that British creativity remains a lucrative force in a changing world.
Lucas Keller is founder of Milk & Honey, one of the USA’s biggest songwriter and producer management companies, which has also expanded into artist management, sports, Web3 and more in recent years. Additionally, Keller’s company (co-partnered by L.A-based executive Nic Warner) brags that it’s struck music publishing catalog sale deals cumulatively worth over $150 million in the past two calendar years. Headquartered in L.A, the firm also runs offices in Nashville, New York, Dallas, London, and Sydney.
Milk & Honey set up its UK office in 2020, run by Brit exec Ant Hippsley. It’s enjoyed a spate of successes with UK talent since, including involvement on No.1
albums and/or Top 5 singles from the likes of Ed Sheeran (via David Hodges), Dua Lipa and George Ezra (via Stuart Price), Sam Fender (via Rich Costey), Celeste (via Jamie Hartman), Meduza/ Dermot Kennedy (via Gez O’Connell), Billen Ted/The Wellerman, and James Arthur (via Andrew Jackson).
Globally, Milk & Honey’s clients have written and/or produced hits for superstars including Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Doja Cat, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, the Jonas Brothers, Calvin Harris and The Chainsmokers, amongst many others.
Here, Lucas Keller explains why he’s doubling investment in his UK business in 2022, and why he has an unshakeable belief in the continued global power of British creatives. Take it away, Lucas...
The last thing we wanted when we set up Milk & Honey in London two years ago was to have Ant Hippsley be told, ‘Oh, you’re that guy that runs that little office for that big L.A company.’ That didn’t work for me.
It needed to be the case that our British business, with its UK bank account, was successful independent of our L.A business. The road to achieving that has really opened my eyes to the uniqueness of British talent, and the amazing impact it continues to have around the world.
Some people these days are down on the UK, especially UK A&R, because of the declining streaming market share of British artists globally. And I get it: If I was a major record company Chairman, I would also be pondering what percentage of my global A&R budget the UK should be getting versus, for example, LatAm, South Korea, or Sub-Saharan Africa.
UK executives might be sick of hearing the (rapidly-becoming) old adage that, these days, global hit songs and viral moments can come from anywhere. But from Milk & Honey’s perspective, that’s just as true of the UK as it is anywhere else in the world. It’s not a threat to British talent – it’s an opportunity!
Investing to create a transatlantic system to nurture and break that talent is now a crucially important strategy for my company. But history suggests it’s a sensible bet. Look at what’s
Milk & Honey’s Stuart Price has worked on recent global smashes for Dua Lipa, including Levitating
weighing in the UK’s favor: An amazing pedigree and track record of British songwriter, producer and artist talent, decade after decade.
From Milk & Honey’s perspective, where the runway for modern British talent falls down is when artists, songwriters and producers don’t get a fair opportunity to shine in the US – the world’s biggest music market by some distance.
In almost every case of us signing British songwriters, they want to know if we can provide them with resources and opportunities in Los Angeles or Nashville, because they recognize 72 that, like it or... well, don’t like it, the US market has become the center of the global music streaming business in 2022.
We make sure we provide that two-way street. And guess what? Once that channel is opened up, British talent absolutely kills it. Opening our London office also afforded an amazing opportunity for our US talent: direct access into the British music market. Simply, our UK office has become air traffic control for US clients who want hits with British artists.
When you zoom out and look at it properly, an inordinate number of the world’s best writers, and its most successful copyrights, are British. Those songs don’t have to be as big as Dua Lipa’s Levitating (the most streamed song in the US in 2021). I’m talking about records that are evergreens, huge crossovers, that didn’t necessarily make a giant splash in the States when they were first released.
New songs go up, then they come back down – but in the streaming age it’s where they flatten out for the long-tail that really matters. The evidence shows that a bizarrely large proportion of the greatest, most timeless copyrights in the world, still being streamed millions of times a week, come from the UK. (Kate Bush, anyone?)
Look at James Arthur’s Say You Won’t Let Go (2016), which was co-written by Milk & Honey friends and clients, Neil Ormandy and Steven Solomon. That song peaked outside the Top 10 of the US charts, but it still makes a ton of money, and is a genuine crossover, because it was built to last.
Allow me one more plug: Jamie Hartman. Here’s a British guy who upped sticks to Nashville to hone his craft and further become one of the most successful songwriters in the world, before moving back to Los Angeles and London. He’s been behind an insane volume of international hits these past few years, for everyone from Celeste (A Little Love, Stop This Flame) to Lewis Capaldi (Hold Me While You Wait), Calvin Harris & Rag N Bone Man (Giant) and countless others. He deservedly won Songwriter Of The Year at the Ivor Novellos in 2021.
These artists all want to work with Jamie because they know he’s going to bring an immense amount of talent and know-how to their work – but he’ll also bring a different perspective, and a different cultural background, from the American writers they might have picked otherwise.
I don’t want to make trite suggestions that writing enduring hit songs is ‘in the blood’ of British writers. I don’t believe that. But I do agree that mainstream British culture is tuned in to (and reverential of) music – from a genuinely diverse set of musicians – to an uncommon degree. And that appreciation of music in all its forms is being pumped into Brits’ eyes and ears from an early age. It shows.
So, Milk & Honey’s British office is doing great, it’s nicely profitable, and we’re working with some ludicrously talented people. We’re making sure those people then get in front of the right people in L.A and Nashville.
Plus, we’re making sure that US writers – David Hodges being a perfect example – can travel and work in the other direction, and get proper service from us in London, because the UK industry is an important place for clients to craft global hits. For the same reason that so many of our writers have chosen to spend time in Nashville (working with Milk & Honey South) to tap into the local culture and songwriting community, many of our clients want to experience a similar energy by spending time in London. just a bandwidth issue; based on how the money flows, a pubco’s L.A office is often not incentivized to help out UK-signed writers, and vice-versa. As a company with 30 employees globally, we believe we are the largest staffper-writer producer management company, but we are also nimble enough to deliver on what we promise. Additionally, the revenue on a hit that comes from anywhere for Milk & Honey matters. And it matters for the whole company, not just one local office.
As for UK artists going global?
This article came about because Tim at Music Business Worldwide keeps telling me British execs are concerned about the numbers; that the market share of global streams from British artists has been dwindling of late versus the ‘glory years’ of British music.
I’m here to tell you, that’s just not the pattern I see in our world. British songwriters and producers in particular keep laying down hit after hit, in multiple markets, and we’re hugely appreciative to work with them. We’re doubling investment in the UK because we want to work with even more of them.
As a management company, when you service brilliant British talent properly, when you make the calls – and call in the favors – in L.A and other US markets to get UK writers and producers their shot, more often than not you find success.
One of the big issues for songwriters today is the quantity of employees at the major music publishers, and their expectations of their point person there. It’s not Be patient. It seems obvious to me that there will be more artists with the level of worldwide success of Adele, Sam Smith, Harry Styles and Ed Sheeran coming soon enough.
The UK has brilliantly exported great artists like this decade after decade. (I’m not distracted by the glut of dance hits and electronic music focus coming from the UK right now – because we love those artists and records too! I told you: ‘Hits come from anywhere’ in 2022!) It seems inevitable to me that British artists will be a huge part of the streaming superstar story in the years ahead.
We want to be a lynchpin in telling British songwriters’ stories and putting them on the global stage. The UK industry might have lost a bit of confidence in the past few years. But I’ll guarantee you this: its brightest talent has never lost the ability to create a global smash.
