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Yesterday, we brought you the news that a new chapter of Warner Music Group’s distribution and label services expansion had begun.
As you can read here, WMG has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire independent music platform Revelator – which specialises in digital music distribution, rights management, royalty accounting, and real-time analytics.
Upon making the announcement, WMG CEO Robert Kyncl declared: “The combination of Revelator’s leading-edge technology and array of premier services with our global infrastructure will turbocharge our joint mission to support more labels and artists around the world. I’m very pleased to welcome the Revelator team to the WMG family.”
Today, however, the independent music community is having its say.
IMPALA – which represents over 6000 independent music companies in Europe – has issued a statement in response saying that deals such as this are “bad news for artists, fans, and Europe’s diversity as a whole.”
According to Revelator, they currently “support hundreds of clients with cloud-based tools that streamline operations and financial reporting for artists, labels, and distributors.”
Its acquisition by a major, IMPALA claims, will leave artists in a position they never expected to find themselves in.
“At the same time, the trend continues whereby labels and artists who made a conscious choice to go with an independent partner, now find themselves with a major and the independent ecosystem loses another chunk of its infrastructure.”
This builds on the debates raised following a war of words between Virgin Music and the independent music organisations, including IMPALA and AIM, opposing Virgin Music Group’s acquisition of Downtown.
You can read the full statement below:
“It is testament to the innovation in the independent sector that Revelator has been bought by Warner. As we have consistently said, all independent businesses need good exit options. Big players are important in all markets, and we hope that this will see more competition among the majors. At the same time, the trend continues whereby labels and artists who made a conscious choice to go with an independent partner, now find themselves with a major and the independent ecosystem loses another chunk of its infrastructure. That’s bad news for artists, fans, and Europe’s diversity as a whole.
Independent owned distribution plays a key role in the overall ecosystem which needs to be strengthened as Dan Fowler set out in his recent report, ‘Powering an Independent and Culturally Diverse European Music Ecosystem’. That report sets out the business case for growing the independent sector and has key recommendations which we are working on, including finance options, and streaming reform and we look to the EU and national regulators to take a strategic approach to culture. A strong market with great independent owned options for all the amazing artists and labels in the sector is essential and a serious rethink is much needed about how we achieve that.
With the right conditions in place this is an opportunity for the independent sector and also for Europe. That involves finance mechanisms to operate and grow, shoring up of all income sources, proper functioning markets which promote diversity and human creativity, industry collaboration and support from decision makers across the board about the strategic importance of diversity.”
Subject to customary conditions, the Warner Music Group/Revelator deal is expected to close next quarter.
We’ll bring you more on this story as it develops.
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