MORE THAN “JUST” JASON ALDEAN, REARVIEW TOWN FIRST COUNTRY ALBUM TO A MUSIC REACH #1 IN THE US IN 2018. PUBLISHER. LIL DICKY, ‘FREAKY FRIDAY’ THE WORLD’S NEWEST ITUNES #1 IN 38 TERRITORIES. Q2 2018 INTERNATIONAL RECORD COMPANY. GLOBAL DELIVERY. AND A COMMITMENT TO FAIRNESS, TRANSPARENCY, AND SERVICE YOU WON’T JUST GET ELSEWHERE. A PERFECT CIRCLE, EAT THE ELEPHANT TOP 10 DEBUT IN 8 COUNTRIES. KYLIE MINOGUE, GOLDEN UK #1. MOST SUCCESSFUL ALBUM IN SEVEN YEARS. NOWNOW that’s that’s what what we we call call an an achievement achievement CongratulationsCongratulations to to Peter, Peter, Steve Steve & &the the team team on on 35 35 incredible incredible years years THE In this issue... 12 Willard Ahdritz & Lonny Olinick Kobalt / AWAL OF SHAPE 19 Alison Donald Kobalt / AWAL SUCCESS. 22 Rob Pascoe Virgin EMI 32 Angie Somerside East West SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR 36 Rob Dickins ex-Warner Music FOR A SECOND TIME. 60 Sonia Diwan Sound Advice 70 James Sandom Red Light Management 80 Peter Duckworth, Steve Pritchard etc. Now That’s What I Call Music! 88 Lee Parsons Ditto Music 94 Colin Lester, Craig Kallman etc. Team Craig David 100 Isabel Garvey Abbey Road Studios 104 Alan Edwards Outside Organisation 112 Mark Ralph Producer Congratulations Ed Sheeran on your latest Ivor Novello Awards success and to 122 Abi Leland Leland Music Billy Bragg, Cathy Dennis, Dan Jones and Lionel Richie for your wins. 130 Murray Chalmers MCPR From Martin Bandier, Guy Moot and all your friends at Sony/ATV Music Publishing. 7 EDITOR’S LETTER It’s rarely clever to use a platform like this to Tim Ingham I’m not alone. Some of the industry’s leading prattle on about a subject over which you have power players aren’t happy about the continued zero authority. Then again, Piers Morgan has prevalence of ‘urban’ in music’s corporate made a good living off doing just that – and his dictionary. I’m told that Warner/Chappell’s jowly brand of provocation is inescapable right global Chairman and CEO, Jon Platt, dislikes it now. So this is me risking a certain degree of – and has been vocal about why he wants to see public oafishness, and cautiously giving it a go. it eradicated from the record business lexicon on Here are some things to know about me: I am a number of occasions. a white man who grew up in Bury St. Edmunds, Over in Blighty, we have our own set of senior which may well be the least street-sounding executives questioning ‘urban’ and its usage. locale in the entire Northern Hemisphere. DJ Semtex, 1Xtra presenter, Spotify podcaster, As much as the fearsome reputation of the hip-hop authority and – in the business world – Nowton Estate struck terror into our teenage Sony’s rap talisman, tells me: “I despise the word hearts (apocryphal tales of savage post-school ‘urban’. I know artists that do hip-hop, grime, or beatings; speed sold behind bins), this was a far UK rap. I don’t know anyone that does ‘urban’ cry from true inner-city pressure. music. ‘Urban’ is a lazy, inaccurate generalisation In my head, I was a Scarface sniffin’ cocaine. of several culturally rich art forms.” In reality, I was a provincial nerdlinger sniffin’ a You’ll find a few of his harsh words echoed in rural pollen count. “It’s a word this issue of MBUK. SLÁINTE But here are some other things to know about Newly-promoted Virgin EMI GM Rob Pascoe me: I’m fascinated by the power of words, and which, every tells us: “I [was] always happy to be known as a I’ve become intimate with a few of them. I’m promotions guy, because, to my core, that’s what naturally and professionally enthralled by how time I come to I am. What I didn’t want was to be ‘urban’. I people choose words to do subtle harm, or write it, hate that word. I had it in my title for a while subtle good – or, more curiously, choose words and I hated it, because there’s no such thing as to do subtle good, and end up doing harm. makes me ‘urban’... at what point can we get you to give up Let’s get it out of the way, then. Here’s a word and just describe Drake’s God’s Plan as a massive which, every time I’m about to write it in an hesitate.” pop record rather than ‘urban’?” article about this beautiful business, makes me When he says ‘you’, he means us. All of us. hesitate: urban. Finally, Sonia Diwan – lawyer to some of I should first make an already apparent fact British hip-hop’s finest emerging talents – says: crystal clear: some of the most talented music “[This music is now] pop, popular, music as execs on either side of the Atlantic have had far as I’m concerned. Labelling it ‘urban’ is a this word in their job title at some point – from complete misnomer; why is it ‘urban’ music, Wendy Goldstein (Republic) to Alex Boateng exactly? Because it’s non-white?” ON RECEIVING (Island), Joie Manda (Interscope), Tuma Basa Sensibly, I’m not going to go Full Piers and (YouTube) and Nicole Wyskoarko (IGA). take the final word here. I’m going to leave it to Yet I have some personal, semantic reservations UK rap pioneer, and very smart cookie, Akala, THE IVORS INSPIRATION AWARD about it – about its obvious substitutional who – in 2010’s Find No Enemy – picked apart intentions, its inherent ‘otherness’ and the way the deep-rooted contradictions in the term. FROM EVERYONE AT it linguistically ghettoises the biggest and most “We can call it ‘urban’ – to me, that’s cool. But if exciting music on the planet today. urban means street, that includes jazz too.” UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING Contact: [email protected] © Music Business Worldwide Ltd Advertise: [email protected] 27 Old Gloucester Street, London, WC1N 3AX Subscribe: MusicBizStore.com 1 WELCOME Contributors ACH DHILLON JANE DYBALL CLIFF FLUET CHRIS FRAZER SMITH JACKIE HYDE RHIAN JONES Achal Dhillon is the Managing Director Jane Dyball is the CEO of the MPA Cliff Fluet is a partner within Lewis Silkin’s Chris Frazer Smith is an award-winning Jackie Hyde has worked closely with Rhian Jones is one of the UK’s most of Killing Moon – a record label, artist Group of Companies – including the likes Creators, Makers and Innovators Division photographer who, in this issue, shoots every superstar artist at Sony Music respected and well-known music industry management company, live concert of MCPS, PMLL and the MPA itself. She and founded its media practice. He producer Mark Ralph. A former Lucie Entertainment for nearly 40 years – and journalists. In addition to writing for promoter and influential music blog. He’s previously ran business affairs outside of previously worked at Warner Music and International Photographer of The Year, literally every one seems to have a nice Music Business UK, Rhian is the London also a board member for the Association the US and Canada for Warner/Chappell, Capital Radio plc. He is also Managing his commercial clients have included: word to say about her. Officially VP correspondent at Hits Daily Double, Of Independent Music (AIM). In working closely with artists/writers such Director at Eleven, an advisory firm HSBC, Ian McEwan, Bayer, Sebastian of Artist & Company Relations at and a Contributing Editor for Music this issue, Ach writes about the music as Radiohead. In this issue, she makes the working with incumbents and Faulks, Jo Nesbo, American Airlines, Shell, Sony Music UK, she won the Women Business Worldwide. In this issue, she industry’s mental health crisis, and the case why networks are so important during insurgents in digital media and leading Toyota, Grayson Perry, Ford, Mercedes, In Music Award for Outstanding interviews music supervisor Abi Leland in treatment of its artists. one’s career. companies in the AI space. Cathay Pacific and Microsoft. Achievement in 2014. addition to Kobalt’s Alison Donald. IAIN MCNAY STEVE REDMOND DAVE ROBERTS PETER ROBINSON ADRIAN SYKES SIMON WILLIAMS Iain McNay is the founder of Cherry Red Steve Redmond is the Berlin-based SVP Dave Roberts is the Associate Publisher Peter Robinson has been a music journalist Adrian Sykes is a widely-respected UK Simon Williams is the founder of Fierce Records - the British independent label of Global Corporate Communications of Music Business Worldwide and Music for over 20 years, and keeps a keen eye music industry veteran, having made key Panda Records – the British label which which is this year celebrating its 40th for BMG. A former Editor of trade paper Business UK. Before joining MBW in on industry goings-on. Robinson has contributions to the history of Island signed and released early records from anniversay. Cherry Red has worked with Music Week, Redmond is also a long-time 2017, Roberts was the publisher of written for the likes of The Guardian, and MCA over the past four decades. artists including Coldplay, Keane, Ash the likes of Everything But The Girl, consultant to the UK’s Entertainment Music Week from 2011, where he led The Times, TIME, Noisey, i-D, Smash He is also a successful entrepreneur and many more. Williams, a former NME The Dead Kennedys and many more Retailers Association, which represents its transformation. In this issue, Dave Hits, Q Magazine, Time Out, Attitude, and manager, having founded Decisive journalist, writes in this issue about how down the years, while forging a stellar everyone from Spotify to Amazon, Google interviews the likes of Rob Dickins, Rob Notion and The Telegraph, and runs his Management – which looked after Emeli the current lack of interest in guitar bands reputation as one of the world’s finest and the majority of physical music retailers Pascoe, Angie Somerside, Isabel Garvey own must-read online publication over on Sandé before, and throughout, her multi- from the major labels is giving birth a new catalogue reissue companies.