Artist management companies ie:music and This Is Music have announced a new partnership which will see the former take a stake in the latter. ie:music are perhaps best known for managing Robbie Williams, but also manage Sia, Craig Armstrong, Passenger, Archive and The Asteroids Galaxy Tour. This Is Music, founded and run by Oli Isaacs, manage Simian Mobile Disco, James Ford, A-Trak, FrankMusik, Little Boots, Findlay Brown and The Black Ghosts. The official statement confirming the partnership said the two firms will "work closely together to exploit new commercial models for artistes that are both fair and transparent".
Confirming the deal, ie:music co-chief Tim Clark told CMU: "Anyone lucky enough to have been at the Coachella Festival in California, as I was this weekend, and seen the brilliant set by Simian Mobile Disco, will understand just why David Enthoven and myself are so excited to be part of Oli Isaacs' enterprise. He has, in a very short space of time, built a remarkable roster of awesomely talented artistes and is managing and promoting them with consummate skill. Oli and his team at This Is Music are part of a new generation of young and innovative managers at the forefront of challenging the accepted conventions of the music industry".
Isaacs added: "I have known Tim and David at ie:music for a number of years and have always been slightly in awe of what they have achieved as artiste managers and how they have gone about achieving it. They have a huge wealth of experience to draw upon and ie:music is ideally positioned to tackle the challenges currently being thrown up by the modern music industry. This is Music can only benefit through this new joint venture and we are delighted to have this opportunity to work alongside one of most visionary companies in the business".