Checked Label Services | WJO announces international expansion
Local independently owned and operated country music labels, Checked Label Services | WJO Australia, are expanding into America and Canada in July.
What started as a distribution label in the back room of a record store now handles physical, global digital, global publishing & licensing, and global rights management – all in-house.
Now, the two-year-old Checked Label Services has expanded its physical distribution offering to the US and Canada, kicking things off with APRA Award winner Aleyce Simmonds. Simmonds’ More Than Meets The Eye will be released in the two territories in July on CD and vinyl, and the Aleyce Simmonds “Collector’s Edition” will be released as a 2CD set.
The expansion follows the company’s worldwide administrative publishing agreement with Kobalt Music Publishing in April 2016.
Co-owner Will Osland said: “The physical format is still 34% of the global music market and it is important to us that our artists are a part of that. Expanding our physical distribution reach utilising American and Canadian top tier distributors as well as key Australian exporters enables us to have a global reach with all key bricks and mortar retailers and global online brands such as Amazon, all at competitive wholesale and retail prices.
“It will also give us the opportunity to represent Australian major label artists in a territory they are not signed in so that their product isn’t overpriced with a wholesale value upwards of $23.00, in a retail market of under $15.00, which is currently what is occurring unfortunately.”
According to the official press release, Checked Label Services | WJO are now responsible for over 25,000 individual works from the Pop, Country, K-Pop and Christian markets across digital, publishing and neighbouring rights.
This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.