Later today Universal Music will be at Midem to launch a new multi-territory venture called Apollo, which will aim to establish an infrastructure through which to run pan-European 'single release' campaigns - ie an infrastructure to promote stand alone big hits, such as those one off clubbing tracks that don't tend to sell as part of an album package.
The venture has been set up by former Mercury Records VP Matt Jagger and Universal Music UK New Media Director Rob Wells and is based on the rebirth of the single in the digital age. Jagger told CMU: "We believe that with the advent of digital music platforms music will increasingly be sold track-by-track and we want to take advantage of that."
Wells adds: "Creating a label like Apollo makes sense as the digital platforms and dance music are both essentially single-track businesses. We firmly believe the hottest dance tracks can sell a million units across all platforms - physical, download, ringtones and video".
Apollo will involve three of Universal's European divisions on the physical side (Island UK, Universal France and Universal Germany), while the digital side will use the group's existing digital services model. The new label will launch with the release of that previously reported DJ Meck rework of Leo Sayer's 1977 disco track 'Thunder In My Heart Again'.