Stockholm-based music licensing platform Epidemic Sound has partnered with legendary British guitarist, songwriter, and producer Johnny Marr.
Starting this quarter (Q1 2025), Marr will mentor three emerging Epidemic Sound artists, providing guidance on career development, “artistic growth”, and release strategies.
According to Epidemic Sound, Marr, known for his guitar work in The Smiths, Modest Mouse, and The Cribs, numerous collaborations, and a lengthy solo career, will focus on guiding these artists “to diversify their approach, exploring opportunities in sync licensing, collaborations, social media, and commercial releases”.
Added the company: “His versatility as a guitarist, singer-songwriter, producer, and film composer — through collaborations with Hans Zimmer for movies such as Inception and the James Bond film No Time Die, including the title track created with Billie Eilish — makes him an ideal mentor for Epidemic Sound artists navigating the complex modern music ecosystem.”
Founded in 2009, Epidemic Sound provides royalty-free music and sound effects to content creators and brands through a subscription model.
It counts over 50,000 tracks in its library, and claims that its music features in YouTube and TikTok videos with a total of 2.5 billion daily views.
The company said that the partnership with Marr “comes at a critical time for the music industry, with many artists facing challenges such as a struggling grassroots live scene and low remuneration”.
The company’s own remuneration model includes a 50/50 streaming royalty split, fixed fees per track, and a portion of a SEK 30 million (USD $2.7m) Soundtrack Bonus. You can read exactly how the company pays artists in this MBW Explains feature.
Johnny Marr is the latest artist to team up with the platform, following Richie Hawtin’s partnership with the company earlier this year.
Epidemic Sound said that each mentee was selected for “how their unique talent and goals aligned with Marr’s expertise”. The three Epidemic Sound artists selected for this program include:
Rebecca Mardal, a guitarist based in Sweden, who “began mastering her craft” at 11 years old, and who Epidemic Sound said, “has built an impressive career with millions of streams from both her solo projects and collaborations”.
Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen, meanwhile, is a Swedish composer and multi-instrumentalist whose orchestral-cinematic works have been featured globally in commercials, TV shows, documentaries, and trailers. According to Epidemic Sound, his “passion for both black metal and rock guitar showcases his versatile range across moods”.
Marr’s third mentee, Kylie Dailey, is influenced by genres ranging from American folk music to African folk melodies.
“Johnny Marr’s extraordinary career and his ability to continually reinvent himself make him the perfect mentor for our artists,” said John Cleary, Epidemic Sound’s Director of Global Music Recruitment.
“His insights will be invaluable in helping them develop the broad skill set needed to thrive in today’s music industry. We’re thrilled to have him on board and can’t wait to see the impact of this collaboration for our artists.”
“In today’s challenging music environment, it’s crucial for artists to develop a diverse skill set and I’m excited to work with some talented individuals to help them navigate the industry while staying true to their vision.”
Johnny Marr
In a statement issued with the press release, Marr explained: “I’ve always been interested in new talent and try to be of help if I can with emerging artists finding their unique voice.”
He added: “Epidemic Sound is a new kind of music company with its innovative platform opening up ways for emerging musicians to make a living, while distributing their work at scale to today’s online audience of viewers, fans, and listeners.
“In today’s challenging music environment, it’s crucial for artists to develop a diverse skill set and I’m excited to work with some talented individuals to help them navigate the industry while staying true to their vision.”
MBW caught up with Johnny Marr this week to find out more about his partnership with Epidemic Sound. He noted in our interview that the “digital revolution” has significantly impacted artist development over the past 35 years.
Marr also reflected on the evolution of the record industry, contrasting his early career with today’s landscape, and said that he looked forward to learning from the musicians through this partnership.
You can read an abridged version of our conversation in full below:
Why did you want to work with Epidemic Sound?
Epidemic reached out to me about 18 months ago and invited me to get involved. It seemed to me to be initially a cross between idealism and realism. I just went on an instinct that they seemed to have a vision that was, at the heart of it, a benefit to musicians.
I was intrigued, really, is the answer. I liked what I heard in our early discussions. It seemed to be, and is the case, that it’s really centered around mostly [emrging] musicians. So that was appealing to me.
“In the modern [music industry], there are so many challenges for bands, new writers, new singers, composers.”
In the modern [music industry], there are so many challenges for bands, new writers, new singers, composers – and for all kinds of reasons. A lot [of it has] to do with economics, a lot to do with business, and plenty to do with the digital revolution and being heard through the noise. I do understand and have seen, in my own experience, the knock-on effects of all of these challenges.
Is there enough artist development in the record industry globally, and how different is the current landscape, in terms of development, compared to what it was when you were starting out? were you given ample opportunity, and were your peers given ample opportunity to develop?
Culture is playing catch-up with the digital revolution of the last 35 years. There’s no doubt about that. We are living through evolutionary times of massive significance. There’s no doubt about that either.
In centuries to come, we will look back on this period we’re living in now as easily as significant as the Industrial Revolution or many of the other massive evolutionary changes in human history. Now, 35 years into [internet] culture, looking at it optimistically, it’s only in the very early stages.
However, to answer your question, as you quite rightly put it, one of the many facets that we have to catch up with is [artist] development.
So the answer to that [question], is, no, I don’t think that artist development is as up to speed as it ought to be. If you ask most musicians under the age of 35, they’ll tell you the same.
But I look at it with a bit of positivity. I’m hoping it’s just a matter of playing catch up, but [that we] catch up fast. I can’t pretend to know all the answers or all the other layers of complexity of these issues, but I have seen a lot of it firsthand with younger musicians who I’ve been around.
Either in my hometown or working on movies, working in studios, or with bands that have been opening for me, or [bands] I’ve got to see in grassroots venues, which is something I’ve continued to do since I’ve been a professional musician.
What role do grassroots venues play in artist development?
I’ve had friends who run small venues. The Night & Day Café on Oldham Street in Manchester is one of them. Over the last 30 years, it has been vital in artist development, giving artists a space — literally a stage — and an audience.
And it’s a two-way thing, this matter [of artist development] that we’re discussing, because we’re all music fans. As well as these issues affecting musicians, which is hopefully where I can be of some help, it also affects music fans.
There’s too much struggle, and you can break down those reasons to economics, social media, or as I said earlier, just the amount of noise [to cut through]. But take the economics, for example. It’s something as simple as, how young musicians get their equipment to a venue. How do musicians get from A to B? How do musicians get transport? How do musicians pay for fuel? How do venue owners pay the bills?
It all impacts the musicians and music fans. Now, we all know for sure that people don’t mind paying musicians because arenas are full all around the world every week.
Why are grassroots venues struggling to pay the electricity bills? It’s a matter of realization and changing the model. These are things I’m intuitively aware of and have some experience of firsthand because of the young musicians that I’ve encountered.
And I come from a music town, Manchester, which traditionally, since the post-war [period], has been a hotbed of musicians, whether that’s the Buzzcocks Joy Division, New Order, the Smiths to Oasis, Stone Roses, B.C. Camplight, The Orielles..
“In my own case, it took me a few years of what seemed like an interminable time before I got heard and had my first success.”
To answer your [earlier] question, the landscape and the culture are, without a doubt, very different from when I was coming up. It’s never been a shoe-in that [just because] you’re a musician with a talent or something that people want to hear [your music ]and that you automatically gain success.
In my own case, it took me a few years of what seemed like an interminable time before I got heard and had my first success. I tried to be heard, knocking on doors, finding studio time, musicians, rehearsal rooms, and all that. So I’m no stranger to that, and it’s always been the same, but sadly, it looks to me to be even more difficult now.
ED SHEERAN GAVE A SPEECH A couple of weeks ago at the Music Business UK Awards in London, and said that all ‘the legacy artists we know today and love today were developed over time and allowed to explore and fail and build and experiment…’
I think Ed is entirely right there. It’s not all about economics though. Most musicians starting out now, simply want to be heard.
It’s a very altruistic and idealistic impulse. They want their ideas to be shared and, at least, appreciated, identified, and heard.
That’s tremendously important. Communication is a human need, particularly for creative people. And people want to hear what other musicians have got to say.
Hopefully with Epidemic, we can take the first steps to a more successful model for musicians in these times and help them realize their goals in some way.
You’ve been doing this for a long time, and you’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work from a creative and commercial point of view. With that all in mind, and with the proliferation of alternative platforms for the distribution of music and remuneration, what are your short-term and long-term predictions for the traditional record industry?
I realized quite early in my professional career, after I’d signed to Rough Trade Records that it wasn’t entirely the norm to be on a 50/50 split.
I’ve always realized how grateful I am for that. Now, that’s no good if you get 50% of nothing, if your music is so willfully uncommercial, which is the artist’s prerogative, that it doesn’t make anything.
But if you do make some kind of money, I think you can’t really [get] much better than a 50/50 split with a partner.
I’m talking about Factory Records, Rough Trade Records, and some of the other indies back in the day.
And that’s what Epidemic are proposing for their royalty split. I haven’t heard that since the early eighties. So that gave me a good feeling about this project, but it’s really early doors.
But if you ask me what I would project, at the risk of sounding really cliche, it’s the phrase: necessity is the mother of invention. Younger musicians have been forced to adapt for too long because of the way economics work. But platforms are going to have to meet the musicians‘ needs in order to compete.
One way or another, the culture of striving musicians who really [bend] over backward in order to adapt has to come to an end. I know it sounds a little naive, but that’s what my hopes are, that even if it’s nothing to do with altruism and the goodness of business people’s intentions, that just the competitive market means that possibly the fairest [platforms] will be the one that musicians go to.Music Business Worldwide
