Former AEG President Rob Hallett has unveiled his new multifaceted music business Robomagic. In addition to housing its own touring company and artist financing hub, the company is also offering independent promoters investment opportunities, which it says can help them compete with Live Nation and AEG.
But that’s not all: Hallett (pictured) says he is ready to make a big splash in the world of music publishing – and he’s on the hunt for attractive catalogues for sale.
One strand of the new company, Robomagic Live, will be Hallett’s bread and butter: a live promoter that says it ‘will be a boutique operation working with some of the biggest artists in the world whilst working in parallel helping emerging artists develop their talents’.
Hallet says that the UK-based Robomagic Live will deploy a global network of the best independent promoters with local knowledge to produce worldwide tours.
But another string to Robomagic’s bow threatens to be even more disruptive to the current industry landscape: Robomagic Capital.
“We can be nimble in an industry notoriously encumbered by bureaucracy and, most importantly, deliver an excellent deal.”
Rob Hallett, Robomagic
This will be the financing arm of Hallett’s new venture, with which he plans to help finance independent promoters so that they can “compete with the multinational promoting powerhouses” – ie. AEG and Live Nation.
But that’s not all; marking a very clear intention to compete in the world of BMG, UMPG, Warner/Chappell and Sony/ATV, Hallett says that Robomagic Capital is “looking to acquire and grow publishing catalogues across the board”.
The over-arching idea of Robomagic is to offer artists flexible 360 arrangements that help empower them in both the live and recorded music space. In a release, the company says it is willing to help artists big and small by ‘offering them finance to grow their own businesses – be it to record the album whilst retaining the rights to the music itself, or to start a different business exploiting the brand that they have worked so hard to build over many years’.
Over a four-decade career in music, Hallett has worked with artists such as Duran Duran, Dexys Midnight Runners, Mary J Blige, the Backstreet Boy, Britney Spears, Jay Z, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, The Rolling Stones, Prince, The Who and many more.
He said: “After 35 years in this industry I am excited to finally be at the helm of my own company and be in a position to make a difference. The desire to make the lives of both established and aspiring artistes much fairer and more equitable is at the heart of the company.
“We can be nimble in an industry notoriously encumbered by bureaucracy and, most importantly, deliver an excellent deal.
“Robomagic has been a while brewing as it was important for me to raise the necessary finance to compete with the biggest in the business and provide a real alternative to the current system.”
But what about that name?
It derives from one of Hallet’s favourite books that he first read as a teenager: Breakfast of The Champions by Kurt Vonnegut.
The novel features a washing machine manufacturing company – Robomagic – whose technological ‘brain’ is eventually pinched to guide rocket attacks during World War 2.
In Vonnegut’s world, the company’s famous motto may be a telling one for the newly-entrepreneurial Hallett: ‘Goodbye blue Monday.’Music Business Worldwide
