CV America unveils new publishing services model

13 March 2014 - Press release

- Empowers indie labels to move into publishing
- Announces first internal publishing signings including M83 co-founder’s current outfit Team Ghost, Mary Epworth, Postiljonen, and The Balconies
- Launches outsourced A&R network

CV America, which has been quietly setting up its own publishing operation as part of the Cooking Vinyl group, is forging ahead with a new publishing services model.

The drop in record sales has presented an opportunity for independent labels to offer a more complete range of services to their clients, but for some areas, such as publishing, this requires specialist know-how. This has led CV America to launch a new model that empowers independent labels to diversify their business in this area.

The premise enables labels to continue to handle A&R, whilst CV America drives the operational side, with the extent of this support fully flexible in line with the label’s own strengths. The first of these alliances is with Cascine, a burgeoning indie label from musical hotspot Greenpoint in Brooklyn, whose modern pop roster includes Chad Valley, Erika Spring, Jensen Sportag, Keep Shelly in Athens, Kisses, and Yumi Zouma.

Jeff Bratton, owner and founder of Cascine, commented on the new venture: “We're excited to partner with CV America in launching a publishing division for the label. By leveraging CV's expertise in the space and Cascine's relationships with artists, I'm confident the relationship will be both fun and fruitful.”

Furthermore, CV America has announced its first run of internal publishing signings scoring worldwide deals with British singer/songwriter Mary Epworth and Scandinavian sunshine-pop group Postiljonen, who it has already procured three sync deals for in Fox’s ‘The Following’, HBO’s ‘Looking’, and an Oakley Internet commercial. Also signing for the world are US electro-pop act The Frail and Belgian cosmic house duo Mugwump, whilst Coalition-signed Canadian three-piece The Balconies have joined for multiple territories, and French electronic musicians Team Ghost, led by M83 co-founder Nicolas Fromageau, for North America only.

CV America has also recently launched an outsourced A&R network. Working internationally, these representatives – including Dan Koplowitz (founder of Friendly Fire Recordings - Oh No Ono, Asobi Seksu, The Phenomenal Handclap Band, and The Concretes) in California and the UK’s Rich Thane (founder of influential online music magazine The Line Of Best Fit and independent record label Best Fit Recordings) – serve to extend CV America’s reach by bringing potential publishing clients to its attention.

CV America’s CEO Erik Gilbert said of the developments: “These are exactly the sorts of deals that we envisaged being able to make when we formed CV America, and we’re very pleased to have secured such a strong roster of songwriters. Having a US publishing division has opened up a lot of exciting opportunities for the CV Group – not least our new label partnerships and A&R network – which we are continuing to explore.”

Mary Epworth added: "I'm very happy to be joining the Cooking Vinyl US family, and working with Erik has been really exciting. It's great to know I'll have a team working on my behalf across the pond, and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next."

Since its launch in 2012, CV America has been the one-stop umbrella organisation for all CV Group activities within the US, providing strategic services and administering the Group’s publishing operations in the territory.