Former President/CEO of MNRK Music Group Chris Taylor officially opened the doors to his next venture, Hall of Fame Artists, which currently manages artists with plans to expand into recording, publishing and multimedia.
The Hall of Fame roster of around 30 acts includes buzzing UK soul and funk legends Cymande, who are enjoying a resurgence in popularity, Canadian lo-fi rapper and flow sensation Powfu, who has 8, 2 million monthly listeners on Spotify. jazz pianist and composer, Kiefer, electro pop star, Lights and stand-up comic Brittany Brave.
Taylor, who resigned from Blackstone-owned MNRK last summer and took the management division with him, technically opened the Hall of Fame in July, but says he chose not to make it public. Five months later, he said Bulletin board It has team members based in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Vancouver and the UK. They include music and comedy industry veteran Keith Hagan, a long-time publicist and marketing strategist for acts such as Kenny Rogers, Paul McCartney, TOTO and Paul Weller. tour and Merchandise Expert Sarah Osgoode (Tragically Hip, Arkells, Lights); radio promotion exec, Polo Brewster (Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Tory Lanez); and marketing team members Kultar “KC” Chohan and Kate Stronczer.
“There's never been a better time to be an independent operator in the music business,” says Taylor. “We provide a full range of services that customers can take full advantage of. Everyone talks about how easy it is to do it all yourself, and I think there's a lot of truth to that. But there are so many tools now to manage and experience with them is crucial, and I think it's very difficult for artists to do it all by themselves.”
Taylor compares navigating the music industry to negotiating tax regulations. You can master them, but they're constantly changing,” he says. In the music business you can dominate TikTok, Instagram, Spotify, Apple and all the other platforms out there, but they are constantly changing. How does an artist stay on top of that? I don't think they do without a team.
The label is in the process of signing its first artists in the recording and publishing departments. Expect many more exciting updates from the company as the road to the Hall of Fame is built.
While at MNRK, Taylor's team worked with The Lumineers, Pitbull, Chromeo, Zakk Wylde and the estate of Chuck Berry. Originally called Entertainment One (eOne), the company was acquired for $4 billion, and in 2021, Taylor led the sale of the eOne/Hasbro Music division — which he ran — to Blackstone for $385 million. Before working with these companies, before MNRK, he was the music lawyer DrakeKavtranada, Avril LavigneThree Days Grace, Sum 41 and Nelly Furtado.
Taylor says the Hall of Fame is in the process of signing its first two artists to its recorded music and publishing divisions. “For now we're ready to make this brick by brick,” he says. “Then we plan to scale up quickly.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/chris-taylor-hall-fame-artists-management-mnrk-cymande-powfu/
