LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) — Faction Entertainment, the technology-driven management services company founded by INgrooves Music Group Founder and former CEO, Robb McDaniels has officially launched. Faction launches with momentum, with six founding management partners, led by Kevin Zinger and Ivory Daniel from Regime Management (Everlast, Dilated Peoples, Madchild, Common Kings).
Faction is the first scalable management services company and will deliver a combination of proprietary technology, centralized infrastructure and services and collaborative culture seen as missing in the music and entertainment industries. Every manager at Faction will also participate in a large equity pool designated just for them, further aligning the collective interests of all involved. Joining Mr. Zinger and Mr. Daniel as launch Management Partners are Kino Childrey (The Initiative Group), Paul Stepanek (Paul Stepanek Management), Marc Friedenberg (MJF Management), Brian Ross (Elliptic Artist Management) and Anna Axster (Axster Bingham Co.). Additional management partners will be joining in the coming months.
"Artist managers, and talent managers more broadly, are the CEOs for their creative clients but have been lacking the tools and collaborative culture to operate effectively," commented Robb McDaniels. "Faction is the first management company to provide managers with a suite of technology tools, services and partners to help them operate their businesses more efficiently and transparently, and all for a fraction of the cost of doing it on their own or joining a larger management company and giving away up to 50% of their income. The fact that our management partners will also own a substantial equity stake in Faction is just icing on the cake."
Faction is developing a proprietary communication and information exchange for managers that will enable them to manage their myriad of artist partners and relationships in a much more fluid and automated environment. Managers will be able to create their own "factions" and invite key business partners like labels, publishers, business managers, attorneys, tour managers, booking agents and publicists to all collaborate and share business critical information on the platform. This technology will be released to Faction managers in Q2 2016. Faction will also be providing a suite of centralized services to its management partners, including: digital marketing and social media, tour marketing, business operations, accounting, HR and a ground breaking idea incubator to help managers and artists develop and commercialize new brands and products.
"I know so many managers who have been feeling like there had to be a better way to build a more collaborative, forward-thinking management company that could help all of us evolve with the new realities of today's music business," commented Mr. Zinger. "Faction is the first business model we have seen that combines technology, services and ownership together to create a culture and platform that can actually make a difference in our daily lives," added Mr. Daniel.
Faction's management partners work with some of today's acts including, Ryan Bingham, Jamestown Revival, Dilated Peoples, Royce Da 5'9", Sick Puppies, Everlast, Blackalicious, Trevor Hall, Slaughterhouse, Madchild, The Common Kings and Poncho Sanchez. Faction also has an expanding list of preferred partner commercial arrangements with some of the best technology and music companies in the world, including: atVenu, CO5 Music, Songspace, KillLynx, Spin Move Network, DistroKid and Westlake Recording Studios.
Faction charges managers a share of their commissions for the services it provides. Faction has raised its initial capital from a group of investors, including various music industry executives, Manatt Venture Fund and TechInvest, an offshore technology focused investment company with representative offices in Dubai and San Francisco. Faction is based in Los Angeles and has plans to open offices in New York and London later in 2016.
Mr. McDaniels established INgrooves in 2002 as a digitally-focused global music distributor. Under his leadership, INgrooves grew to digitally distribute all of the music in North American from Universal Music Group beginning in 2010, the company acquired Fontana Distribution and developed a global artist services division in 2012. Mr. McDaniels was named to Billboard's "40 under 40 – Power Players on the Rise" list for 2 consecutive years, was named one of Digital Media Wire's "25 Executives to Watch in Digital Media," and has been a keynote speaker at a number of high profile industry events, including Music.biz.
