Luude Signs Global Deal With Concord Music Publishing ANZ

Christian Benson, the Australian DJ and producer who, as Luude, has been flying up the international charts this year, signs with Concord Music Publishing ANZ.

The indie publishing business, formerly Native Tongue, will represent Luude on an exclusive global basis.

Based on the Gold Coast, Luude took the elevator to the penthouse this year with his drum ‘n’ bass cover of Men At Work’s “Down Under.”

The tune, which features Colin Hay on vocals, peaked at No. 5 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, and No. 10 on the ARIA Chart.

Released by Sweat It Out and distributed by ADA, the single put Luude in the ARIA Awards conversation, with nominations for the Michael Gudinski breaking artist, best dance / electronic release, best video, and song of the year.

His follow-up, “Big City Life” with Mattafix, went to No. 8 on the U.K. chart in July.

Powered by those two hit songs, Luude’s streams have topped 200 million streams, his music has soundtracked more than 240,000 TikTok videos, and the artist played the biggest festivals in the U.K. and Europe this past summer, including at Tomorrowland, Creamfields, Reading and Leeds.

“I have been tracking Christian as a producer for the last couple of years and have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of watching his career reach new heights this year,” comments Matt Tanner, Concord Music Publishing ANZ.

“We’re really excited to be working with Christian and his team”.

Luude’s new deal covers all future works and was led by Matt Tanner (VP of A&R) out of Concord Music Publishing’s new Australian office, alongside senior director of A&R Harri Davies and executive VP worldwide A&R, Kim Frankiewicz, both from Concord’s U.K. office.

The pact is one of the highest-profile signings for Concord Music Publishing ANZ, created by Concord’s recent acquisition of Native Tongue, the Gough family business.

“We’ve had a good long-standing relationship with the local Native Tongue team in Australia, as the Luude project grew globally over the last 12 months – having a global network that we had direct points of contact with became an important facet of what we looked for in a publisher,” adds Luude manager Gabe Bravo, of Cloak Entertainment.”

When Concord acquired Native Tongue in August “and we started to build relationships with the wider global team, it became apparent that this was the right deal to make”.

Luude is set to hit the studio as his months-long tour comes to an end. His next single is a collaboration with Issey Cross and features Moby.

Benson is also one half of the electronic music act Choomba, which hosts a dance music radio show on Triple J and struck a recording deal with EMI Music in 2021.