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Madness sign deal with Power Amp Music
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 16 December 2008
Madness have signed a deal with Power Amp Music to enable the self-release of a new album, ‘The Liberty of Norton Folgate’, via the band’s own label Lucky 7 Records. The new long player will be released next year, which is also the group’s thirtieth anniversary.
Power Amp Music launched earlier this year to help established artists and their managers raise funding to self-release albums (using something called Enterprise Initiative Scheme (EIS) investments).
Power Amp also provide services traditionally handled by an artist’s label, including recording services, marketing and promotion, sales and distribution. They also look to work with artists in other domains such as touring, merchandising, sponsorship and publishing. As I remember it, key to the whole operation is that artists retain full ownership of any recordings.
Explaining the way his company works, Power Amp’s Tom Bywater told CMU: “The music industry landscape has shifted dramatically in recent times and artists have been empowered by this shift”.
“We recognise that established artists are now demanding more innovative and efficient financing solutions and we have built a robust, flexible and cost-effective platform to provide such solutions. When Power Amp Music invests in an artist, the artist retains control of their rights and enjoys total transparency on their finances. We offer a genuine win-win opportunity for our artists and our investors alike.”
Confirming their deal with Power Amp, Madness co-manager Garry Blackburn of Anglo Management added: “Power Amp Music offers a band like Madness a new platform from which to operate in the contemporary music industry. Their flexible and visionary business model has enabled Lucky 7 Records to build a bespoke team around the band and has helped us retain a clear overview of all marketing and promotional activity”.
He continued: “Through this agreement the band feel they have much more control over their commercial activities than they have ever had before and stand to receive a much fairer share of the revenue they generate. Madness has signed this deal because Power Amp has consistently sought an alignment of interests between the band and the company. Tom Bywater has created an amazing opportunity to build a new music company around the bands interests, and the timing couldn’t be better”.
Elsewhere in Madness news, the band have signed a long term deal with Union Square Music regarding to release and marketing of their back catalogue. This will include physical and digital re-releases to coincide with the aforementioned thirtieth anniversary.
Peter Stack, MD of Union Square Music, told CMU: “USM are thrilled to be representing the Madness catalogue. Madness are one of the most successful UK chart acts of all time. They are an iconic band, a national treasure, and outstanding live performers. The Madness team are a great bunch, and we look forward to a creative, imaginative, successful and fun partnership”.
