Music industry moves: Mercury Records signs AJR; LimeWire enters NFT agreement with UMG

RDA signed with mercury records, the recently relaunched Universal Music label via Archives of the Republic. The New York trio of brothers Adam (vocals/bass), Jack (vocals/guitar) and Ryan (guitar/piano/vocals) Met, are currently in the middle of the US leg of their OK Orchestra world tour. The group joins a Mercury roster that includes Post Malone, James Bay, Lord Huron, Jeremy Zucker, Chelsea Cutler and Noah Kahan, among others.

The band said in a statement, “We couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with Mercury Records. From our first meeting with their team, we knew they understood our creative vision and were the right label to take the band to the next level.

+ Lime wire and Universal Music Group have signed a global agreement to bring UMG artists’ digital collectibles to a global audience through LimeWire’s NFT Marketplace.

As part of what is being described as a complete rebranding, LimeWire will begin offering new market-format digital collectibles focused on music, art and entertainment. UMG will provide licenses that will allow LimeWire to partner with UMG artists to launch music-based NFT projects. UMG’s artists, as well as many of its labels (Interscope, Republic, Def Jam, Capitol, Motown and others), will have the opportunity to offer audio recordings, audiovisual content, behind-the-scenes footage and all artwork and images as NFTs in the LimeWire marketplace. and sell them directly to fans and collectors.

“We view this partnership as a true demonstration of the pace at which the music industry is embracing Web3,” said Paul and Julian Zehetmayr, co-CEOs of LimeWire. “We’re excited to open the LimeWire NFT ecosystem to Universal Music Group artists and fans and look forward to seeing the first creative projects hit the market.”

+ GMB promoted Dominique Casimir to Chief Content Officer; the Berlin-based director will also join BMG’s board of directors, responsible for representing the company’s repertoire interests. Casimir, who joined the company in 2008, is currently executive vice president of directory and marketing for the European Union, Asia-Pacific and Latin America and oversees synchronization and corporate responsibility. She will also be in charge of UK repertoire, reporting to UK repertoire and marketing chairman Alistair Norbury. She will continue to report to CEO Hartwig Masuch.

“Dominique is an exceptional musical director,” said Masuch. “She exemplifies so many key attributes of BMG itself, with a rare talent for communicating with artists and songwriters on their own terms and a total commitment to helping them achieve their goals.”

+ Caitlin Haurie joined Position Music as the company’s new Senior Director, Creative Synchronization (Ads and Brands), as announced by Tyler Bacon, President and CEO.

Haurie will report to Emily Weber, Vice President, Head of Synchronization. With the addition of Haurie, Position Music’s sync team grows to 11 full-time employees working solely on music sync and licensing. Prior to joining Position Music, Haurie was Senior Synchronization Manager at MNRK Music Group as well as Senior Synchronization Manager at Downtown Music Holdings.

“I’m very excited and grateful to have such a powerful creative executive like Caitlin join Position Music,” Weber said. “Our sync team has grown over the past two years and Caitlin is an exciting addition to the team.”

+ 4AD promoted Alyssa DeBonis and Sophia room as US and UK label executives, respectively. Based in the New York office of the label’s parent company, Beggars Group, DeBonis joined the label as an intern 10 years ago, left for a licensing and syncing role at Big Deal Music Group and returned. to 4AD in 2018 as West Coast and A&R Manager. Hall joined 4AD in 2013 as a junior product manager.

The label also promoted Will Tompsett global head of marketing and Isa Castro-Cota as Communications Manager in the United States, both based in New York.

+ Outback presents acquired Robomagic Live, joining forces to expand their global tour offerings. “Rob [Hallett, CEO of Robomagic Live] is one of the few music industry legends I’ve met who has a shared vision of building a true artist partnership company where the relationship between promoter and artist is transparent,” said Vaugh Millette, CEO of Outback Presents. “We are thrilled to welcome Rob to the Outback family.”

+ tank media signed a worldwide publishing deal with Roxy Music guitarist and songwriter-producer Phil Manzanera. The deal includes works from Manzanera’s catalog, which also includes songs by Pink Floyd, Tim Finn and Brian Eno, among others, as well as future works.

+ Nettwerk Music Group expanded its global team by integrating Meg Tarquinio as Vice President of Strategy and A&R in New York, Spencer Kelley like A&R in NY/London, Marshal Altman as Vice President A&R in Nashville, Marc Abramowitz as director of A&R in Nashville, Eric Robinson as director of A&R in Los Angeles and Dan Medland in charge of Australian strategy and A&R in Sydney.

Nettwerk co-founder Mark Jowett said, “On behalf of the Nettwerk Partners, I cannot describe how honored we are to work with such a team of music-loving executives. They all have incredible stories where each has demonstrated, in their own unique way, their ability to identify great music and help artists chart paths to success.