Celebrated British independent label group Infectious Music has been acquired by BMG for a pricetag understood to be around £6 million.
The Infectious roster includes artists such as alt-J – whose second album This Is All Yours is released on September 22 – Vance Joy, The Temper Trap, These New Puritans, Drenge, Superfood, RY X, The Acid and Local Natives.
Also joining the BMG Chrysalis UK HQ are as the respected Infectious team headed by chairman and founder Korda Marshall.
The Infectious team will report to BMG Chrysalis UK Executive Vice President Alexi Cory-Smith, and operate alongside BMG’s successful Artist Services operation.
Alexi Cory-Smith said, “Infectious has proven itself to be one of the UK’s most successful and artist-friendly independent labels with an outstanding roster. I look forward to working with Korda and the Infectious team to deliver an exceptional service for artists.”
Korda Marshall said, “BMG’s fresh approach to the music business and its understanding of the structural changes faced by the industry make it the obvious choice to partner with. After 33 years in music, my ambition for this business is undiminished and all of us at Infectious are looking forward to working with the BMG team.
“BMG shares many of our essential values, and offers access to a level of scale, infrastructure and financial support that will help take the label to the next level. I would like to express my appreciation to my business partner Michael Watt for his unstinting support and wisdom over the past five years, to Pat Carr and the entire Infectious team and to all of our artists.”
Acquisitive company BMG, which formed in 2008, has built a catalogue of nearly 2m copyrights including over 300,000 recordings by artists such as The Kinks, Depeche Mode, Jean Michel-Jarre, Black Sabbath and Goldfrapp.
Its recent acquisitions have included Sanctuary Records (£40m), Mute Records (£7m) and Skint/Loaded Records (undisclosed), adding to a publishing catalogue of well in excess of a million copyrights.
BMG releases new recordings under its Artist Services model which allows artists to retain control of their copyrights, gives them full oversight of budgets and the lion’s share of revenues.
Infectious Music was originally founded in 1993 and built its name with a roster alternative artists such as Ash, Garbage, Pop Will Eat Itself, Cable, Muse, and Funeral for Friend.
Korda Marshall relaunched the label in January 2009 with backing from his business partner Michael Watt – co-owner of Ronnie Scott’s Jazz club – and enjoyed almost immediate success The Temper Trap, whose debut album Conditions has since sold over 1.2m copies worldwide.
alt-J’s debut album An Awesome Wave was released in May 2012 and went on to win both the Mercury Music Prize and an Ivor Novello Award. It has now sold over one million copies and has been streamed more than 270 million times on Spotify.
Alexi Cory-Smith said, “As we build our recordings business, we are demonstrating that we can deliver for artists right across the world in widely different genres and at different stages of their careers. We now look forward to putting our international infrastructure to work for the Infectious roster.”Music Business Worldwide
