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 (https://www.gramophone.co.uk/content/news/signum-records-has-been-bought-by-pias?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawSoeABleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe_CfajJYIsaN-TEcXq0EMBmKQo_ApeHGIBogjGfIfSafRa9Q0Ja6wsdZ2omg_aem_7fRpVrYv9sNr244Nz_sEGw#Echobox=1782215805)
4c
PIAS (https://www.pias.com/) 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 (https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/people/edwin-schroter/):
QuoteSpeaking 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.