One Liners: Björk, Bombay Bicycle Club, Warner Music, more

DEALS

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Round Hill Music has acquired Canadian music company Linus Entertainment, bringing with it a catalogue of over 3000 songs and 20,000 master recordings. “This investment includes some of the most celebrated music and performers to come out of Canada and supports our strategy of investing in and supporting the growth of iconic music,” says Round Hill CEO Josh Gruss. “The opportunity Linus Entertainment presented to us was truly a one off and we are very excited to have these incredible Canadian artists included in the Round Hill stable”.

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Pulse Recordings and Brent Faiyaz’s new ISO Supremacy label have formed an artist development partnership, signing Tommy Richman. Faiyaz already works with Pulse’s music publishing company as an artist and Richman is opening for him on his current tour. “In launching my new label ISO Supremacy and partnering with Pulse Records, we’ve created this platform to give artists like Tommy Richman a creative home with the ability to scale global impact and a team that is accessible who keeps creativity at the forefront”, says Faiyaz. “We’re going to continue to make history”.

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Reservoir and PopArabia have jointly acquired the recordings and publishing catalogues of Egyptian music company RE Media and Egyptian rap duo El Sawareekh. “We look forward to the companies’ support as we continue to show the world what we can do”, say El Sawareekh.

LABELS & PUBLISHERS

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Warner Music Canada and Warner Music India have jointly launched new record label 91 North, with aims to support artists of South Asian heritage. Its first signings are Canada-based Punjabi stars Karan Aujla and Jonita Gandhi. “Punjabi and South Asian music already competes worldwide, and I’m THRILLED to collaborate with emerging talents, showcasing and amplifying what they have to offer”, says producer Ikwinder ‘Ikky’ Singh, who has been named Creative Director of the new label. “This is no experiment; it’s the future”.

RELEASES

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Bombay Bicycle Club have released new single ‘I Want To Be Your Only Pet’. “I was just playing around with guitar sounds at soundcheck and started playing this riff”, says frontman Jack Steadman. “Jamie [MacColl, guitar] must have heard something in it because he got out his phone and started recording. For the next few months he would constantly text me to ask ‘have you written a song around that riff yet?’ So finally I did to stop him harassing me. To me it sounds like if ‘Abbey Road’ era Beatles had a love child with ‘Rated R’ era Queens Of The Stone Age”.

AWARDS

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Björk has been announced as the winner of the publicly voted Best Live Performer prize at this year’s AIM Independent Music Awards. “We are proud to be able to honour the diversity and talent across the UK’s independent labels, artists, entrepreneurs and champions and it’s fantastic to see continued public recognition of Björk’s trailblazing live shows”, says AIM CEO Silvia Montello. The ceremony will take place at the Roundhouse in London on 26 Sep.