Jason Rackham is the Managing Director of [PIAS] UK.
Rackham was promoted to the position of MD in April 2016, following a spell as Managing Director of PIAS Cooperative, [PIAS]’s associated labels arm.
At [PIAS], Jason Rackham reports to Edwin Schroter, [PIAS] Group Managing Director.
Rackham oversees the operation of three London-based divisions at [PIAS]: [PIAS] Artist & Label Services, [PIAS] Cooperative and [PIAS]’s in-house record label, Play It Again Sam.
Across the first two of those divisions, [PIAS] and Rackham work with labels such as Domino, Ninja Tune, Secretly Canadian, Transgressive, Mute, and Bella Union.
Jason Rackham: Music industry career
Jason Rackham’s professional path in the music industry has seen him work at various companies across the record business.
He started his career in music working in record stores and DJ’ing, while publishing a fanzine about independent music called That’s All I Know Right Now.
After this, Rackham worked for EMI, Sony Music, V2, and Co-operative Music.
Co-operative Music was acquired by [PIAS] in 2013 from Universal Music Group, as part of an EC-sanctioned divestment, following Universal’s agreed acquisition of EMI Music.
“If a track starts to go at [PIAS], we can quickly turn our global attention to it and ensure we’re getting behind it at the right time in each market.”
Jason Rackham, [PIAS]
The purchase price wasn’t confirmed, but was believed to be in the region of £500,000.
In Q1 2018, Jason Rackham told Music Business UK magazine of [PIAS]’s streaming strategy: “We have local relationships in every key established and emerging territory, and you really see the power of that when it comes to helping break tracks by the likes of [Australian artist] Flume at Spotify in a co-ordinated way.
“It’s not like [PIAS] has a worldwide priority list of artists, and if your name’s not near the top, you don’t get the attention, which we all know is a regular criticism of majors. If a track starts to go here, we can quickly turn our global attention to it and ensure we’re getting behind it at the right time in each market.”
Jason Rackham, #LoveRecordStores, and Love Record Stores Day
In addition to his role as [PIAS] UK Managing Director, in 2020 Jason Rackham played an instrumental role in the launch of #LoveRecordStores.
A social media-fuelled campaign, #LoveRecordStores encouraged music fans to buy online direct from independent record outlets in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rackham created and led #LoveRecordStores, working closely with individuals such as Jeff Barrett (Heavenly Recordings), Rupert Morrison (Drift Record Shop), Andy Saunders (Velocity Communications), Tony Crean (Fleet River Music), and [PIAS]’s Art Director, Annelise Keestra.
On June 20, 2020, #LoveRecordStores launched a special one-day event, Love Record Stores Day, which saw participation from 130 record shops.
“The #LoveRecordStores campaign was born out of the Covid-19 pandemic and has grown into an incredibly positive movement that the independent sector has driven – the labels, the distributors, the artists and of course the record stores themselves.”
Jason Rackham, [PIAS]
The event generated over £1 million of revenue for the independent music retailer community.
In December 2020, Jason Rackham and #LoveRecordStores won an Outstanding Contribution award from European trade body IMPALA.
Collecting the award, Rackham said: “The campaign was born out of the Covid-19 pandemic and has grown into an incredibly positive movement that the independent sector has driven – the labels, the distributors, the artists and of course the record stores themselves.
“These stores are beacons of hope in turbulent times – we must cherish and protect them.”Music Business Worldwide