New Signings & Team-Ups: March 15

Image: Fortunes ink deal with Niche

Sony/ATV extends deal with Lorde collaborator Joel Little

Sony/ATV Music Publishing extended its worldwide deal with Grammy-winning New Zealand songwriter and producer Joel Little, the man who produced and co-wrote numbers on Lorde’s multi-million-selling debut album Pure Heroine. The deal covers his contributions to the Lorde records, as well as his writes for The Broods, Ellie Goulding and Sam Smith, and future compositions. He also produced Australian-based Jarryd James.

Sony/ATV co-President, US, Rick Krim called Little “not only an immensely talented songwriter and producer in his own right, but knows exactly how to get the best out of anyone he collaborates with. Although he has achieved so much already, we are looking forward to even greater success with him in the future.”

The publisher’s SVP and Head of West Coast A&R Jennifer Knoepfle expanded: “It has been a pleasure to work with Joel over the last few years. He has an amazing ability to connect with artists and has proven himself invaluable to their development. From Lorde to Broods to Jarryd James, his desire to delve in and get his hands dirty is an attribute that makes him special. We are so happy to continue to build this relationship in the coming years.”

Niche Agency adds Fortunes to roster

Niche agency has added Melbourne R’N’B duo Fortunes to its artist roster. The act was formed by producer Barnaby Matthews and vocalist Conor McCabe – both originally from New Zealand – and quickly made a name for themselves for live show that also encapsulated hip hop and soul. They released an EP Jacket recently, selling out the launch night.

Sony hooks England’s Eurovision entry

Sony Music Entertainment UK has signed the UK’s Eurovision Song Contest 2016 entry, Joe And Jake. Joe Woolford and Jake Shakeshaft will perform the song You’re Not Alone at the contest at Stockholm in mid-May. The duo met last year when they auditioned separately for The Voice and went on to be mentored by Rita Ora and Will.i.am.

Two more adds at Kobalt

Kobalt has signed a worldwide administration deal with music producer Adam Anders (Glee, The Passion, Rock Of Ages) and vocalist, writer and television personality, Nikki Anders. The deal covers the Anders’ existing catalogues

(Little Fireball Music and Adam Anders Music) and all new works. Kobalt will also administer all new writers signed by the Anders via their new Deep Well Publishing which they set up with Capitol Music Group imprint Deep Well Records.

Embassy Music, A&R Dept, in world deal

Sydney firms Embassy Music Publishing and The A&R Department entered a global sub-publishing deal. The Rob Scott-founded Embassy is part of the Music Sales Group, whose Managing Director Jane English says, “an important first signing for Embassy here in Australia” citing The A&R Department’s track record in finding and developing new talent.

The A&R Department has been globally expanding of late, and sees the new partnership as “perfect timing for where we are at as a company,” according to founder Matt O’ Connor. “Embassy works with its Music Sales affiliates in territories around the world, which will give us the opportunity to broaden our reach internationally whilst we jointly develop our artists locally.”

Nova Entertainment has Good Friday on its mind

Nova Entertainment has partnered with Melbourne charity, the 85^th Good Friday Appeal. Its two Melbourne stations Nova 100 and smoothfm 91.5 will provide on-air support and active involvement in key fundraising activities for the Royal Children’s Hospital. On March 25, Nova 100’s Chrissie, Sam & Browny breakfast show hold an outside broadcast from the hospital. The team’s Jonathan Brown, Sam Pang and anchor Deano will join the Run for the Kids on March 20 and are encouraging listeners to join them. Nova 100 will broadcast the official Run for the Kids Playlist, 100 minutes of commercial free hits and messages of motivation from athletes and celebrities from 7.30am on Nova 100.

smoothfm 91.5’s More Music Breakfast Show run a two week promotion to highlight their listeners’ fundraising events and efforts. smoothfm’s announcers will attend the Good Friday Appeal’s Kids Day Out, the station will run hourly news bulletins highlighting the tally throughout the day and smoothfm will run special programs, featuring a number of high profile personalities, on the day.

smoothfm 91.5 and Nova 100 will also be part of the free Kids Day Out, presented by the City of Melbourne, on Friday March 25 from 10am.

Roc Nation moves further into Latin market

Jay-Z’s management company Roc Nation expands further into the Latin market, with a worldwide management deal with Puerto Rican star Yandel. It covers every aspect of the act’s career, including sponsorship. Yandel was part of

Wisin & Yandel, the top-selling reggaeton duo of all time. After their split in 2013, he signed to Sony Latin, and his first two albums debuted at #1 on the Billboard Latin charts.

PledgeMusic ups the ante on fan engagement

London-based PledgeMusic, which markets and delivers recordings on behalf of artists to their super-fans, has made two acquisitions to expand its services. The buy-outs – of Nashville–based NoiseTrade which connects fans and labels by exchanging free music for data and Austin-based Set.fm which allows acts to record their live performances and sell it immediately – will give it a total of 3 million highly active music superfans directly engaging with artists.

Artists using the platform include Rob Zombie, KT Tunstall, BB King, Interpol, Lindsey Stirling, The Libertines, Erasure, Rufus Wainwright, The Flaming Lips, Cheap Trick, 311, Def Leppard and Gary Numan.

BankSA sponsors Festival Centre initiative

BankSA is the principal sponsor of an Adelaide Festival Centre initiative. The venue is bringing back its Something For Saturday, aimed at entertaining children aged 2 to 10 years old. Over 19 weeks, from April 23 to August 27, it will stage 20 shows to inspire them to become interested in the performing arts. The program draws 15,000 children and their families participate in the program each year.

The 2016 program covers physical theatre, slapstick humour, puppetry, live music, storytelling, ballet, 80’s dance, jazz, flamenco, pop, rock, symphony orchestra, science, juggling, comedy, cabaret, literature, theatre, physical story-telling, singalongs and rhyme.

Run The Jewel’s El-P heads to management powerhouse

Brooklyn rapper/producer El-P (Jaime Maline), who makes up Run The Jewels with Killer Mike, is busting some business moves. He and his long time manager Amaechi Uzoigwe (who also co-manages RTJ) are moving to Ian Montone’s company Monotone Inc. It is home to Jack White, Danger Mouse, the reunited LCD Soundsystem, Vampire Weekend, Jamie Foxx, Foster The People and The Shins.

He’s still part of Run The Jewels, which teased new music from their album RTJ3 last December, but still has no release date.