LONDON (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Nettwerk Music Group and Mama Group PLC have teamed up with Courtyard Management's Brian Message to launch a new artist investment venture, Polyphonic.
Polyphonic will look for opportunities to invest directly into artist-driven business as an alternative to the more traditional system that is largely supported by label investment.
"It has been apparent for some time that there is a real barrier to artist development – and that is a lack of available investment capital." said Mama Group Co-CEO Adam Driscoll.
Founded with an initial financial commitment of more than $20 million for its first year of operation (and with significant additional capital available thereafter), Polyphonic will seek to partner with artists and their business managers to provide the capital to enable them to operate their own businesses, retain their own copyrights and take a share of any profits that are generated.
"Polyphonic, an investment vehicle driven by alignment of interest rather than tax structuring or the maximising of any one particular revenue stream, is an important funding option for artists. More and more artists are directly engaging with their fans in a way that enhances that unique relationship and enables the artist to have much more say in the way in which their business is built." said ATC's Brian Message.
"This investment will not just apply to the artists that we manage, but also to artists that excite us who are not necessarily part of our management structure. The contract that we have structured brings more business and creative freedom to artists and managers than has ever been offered before." Message added.
Message, who manages Radiohead among other acts, is a partner in Courtyard and a principle shareholder in ATC, which already invests in more than 20 artists in partnership with Nettwerk, including the Boxer Rebellion, Faithless, Hadouken, Kate Nash, Master Shortie and the Rifles. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
