Vital Distribution and PIAS UK have announced the launch of a new company, Integral, which they hope will enable independent labels to secure their artists big releases or licensing deals without having to rely on a partnership with a major label - a route an increasing number of indies have taken in recent years in order to reach a mainstream audience.
Integral, to be run by Vital's Labels Director Ian Dutt, will offer strategic marketing support to partner independents, as well as working proactively in the licensing business looking to secure indies the best possible revenues from synchs, compilations, PPL and VPL. The new company's first project will be with Jose Gonzalez, who is signed to independent label Peacefrog. His new single, 'Heartbeats', is released today.
Commenting on the new company, Vital Group MD Pete Thompson told CMU: "It's been apparent now for some time that whilst it is officially "an exciting time for independents" it's also still very hard for new and developing independent labels to fully establish themselves and to be able to compete at the highest level. While Integral may not be an answer to all these problems we hope to be able to offer a solution to a number of them. Marketing is a pretty nebulous business at the best of times but at Vital we are privy to a wide range of different experiences and contacts and if we can use some of these to help develop the Dominos, XLs and Warps of the future then Integral will have fulfilled its role. We want to enable new labels to develop at a realistic pace and if an artist of some significance emerges then we want the label to be able to utilise the functions of Integral to firstly keep the artist and secondly sell as many records as possible."