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Warner announces launch of Elektra Music Group

By | Published on Tuesday 19 June 2018

Mike Easterlin and Gregg Nadel, Elektra

Warner Music has announced plans to launch a new label group in the US employing its Elektra brand. The Elektra Label Group will open for business in October. Among the labels under the new umbrella will be Elektra, Fueled By Ramen, Roadrunner, Low Country Sound and Black Cement Records.

The group will launch with 60 staff, largely pulled in from those existing labels, although with some new hires too. It will be jointly headed up by Mike Easterlin – currently President of Fueled By Ramen and Roadrunner – and Elektra president Gregg Nadel. They will report to Atlantic Records Group CEO Craig Kallman and COO Julie Greenwald.

“Elektra Music Group will be 100% dedicated to developing the careers of authentic artists and helping them realise their visions”, say Easterlin and Nadel in a joint statement. “The company will embody the same independent spirit that is at the root of each of our core labels. Elektra, Fueled By Ramen, Roadrunner, Low Country Sound and Black Cement were all founded by entrepreneurs who did it for the love of the music and a belief in their artists, and that philosophy will remain the driving force behind everything we do”.

Liking the look of a joint statement, Greenwald and Kallman add: “The birth of Elektra Music Group is all about creating opportunity for artists. It opens up a new door to bring more game-changing talent into the WMG family, while giving them the personal attention that is our hallmark”.

Willing to share his statement with no man, woman or beast, the overall CEO of the WMG’s recordings division, your main man Max Lousada, yelps: “Our whole approach is to create environments that give artists and entrepreneurs the freedom and support to pioneer the future of music”.

Good stuff. He further yelps: “From the outset, Elektra Music Group will be a dynamic community of credible artists and distinctive label cultures. Gregg and Mike are a dream leadership team, able to combine adventurous A&R, bespoke artist development, and full-force global marketing. It feels great to be bringing back the iconic Elektra brand as a major, stand-alone company for the first time in fifteen years”.

Originally founded in 1950, Elektra was absorbed into Warner’s Atlantic division in 2004. It was revived as an Atlantic imprint in 2009 and has been run by Nadel since 2015.



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