US independent label and label services business Empire has announced the launch of a publishing division, to be overseen by Al McLean and Vinny Kumar.
"Over the past few years, our development team has worked tirelessly to build a proprietary system to bring transparency and accountability to the publishing industry – and to first and foremost protect artists rights", says Empire CEO Ghazi Shami. "With our new technology in place and Al 'Butta' McLean and Vinny Kumar at the helm, we are now ready to shake up the music publishing business".
McLean adds: "Music is magic and what Empire has accomplished over the last ten years for the culture has been magical. I'm grateful for this opportunity to help lead Empire into the realm of publishing and publishing administration".
Meanwhile, Kumar comments: "Over the past few years, Empire has become one of the leading independent labels and distributors by focusing on empowering artists. We are looking forward to expanding the brand into the world of publishing and supporting our writers in the same way".
McLean joins the company from Kobalt, where he was VP Creative. Kumar moves over from Empire's distribution division to become VP Legal & Business Affairs of Empire Publishing.