Signum Records purchased by PIAS

[4candles]

Members may have noted the above news, which I picked up from Gramophone yesterday. I have no knowledge of PIAS, so do we feel if this bodes well or otherwise?

• Signum Records bought by PIAS

4c

[Ilja]

PIAS have been mainly active in niche popular music markets, and while Signum is something of an outlier in their portfolio I don't immediately see this as bad news per se.

From Musicbusinessworldwide.com:

Speaking to MBW in 2015, [PIAS CEO] Schroter called for the independent sector to seize its 'craft beer' moment, saying: "At a time when the music industry seems focused on appealing to a lowest common denominator, mass-market audience I sense a real opportunity for us, the independent music sector, to highlight our many qualities and our uniqueness.

From what I'm reading, this is a company at least committed to creating new material instead of (as Universal mostly does nowadays) exploiting a treasure trove of IP through perennial recycling. From what I hear from people inside the industry, their marketing is pretty decent, which is often where smaller labels fall short.

[4candles]

Thanks for that, Ilja - that's an encouraging update.