Harvest Entertainment adds Placebo to music-acts roster
Harvest Entertainment, a start-up company which partners musicians with brands, has signed up Placebo.
It is also understood to be close to agreeing deals with an alcohol brand and a food brand.
Placebo, which recently split with record company EMI, is joined by pop group McFly, previously with Universal Music, and Madness, the eighties band which has recently reunited.
Launched at the end of the year, Harvest is majority owned by Upfront Promotions and Ric Salmon, a former vice-president of Warner Music International, while Naked Communications is a minority stakeholder in the company.
Harvest positions itself as a service company that partners musicians with brands. Once it finds a brand to fund the activity of an artist, it functions similarly to a traditional record label, taking charge of everything from accounting to promotions. However, the significant difference is that the artists are able to retain ownership of their copyright.
Harvest will aim to strike deals similar to the one-year music partnership made between Groove Armada and Bacardi-Martini, in March this year, after the dance duo parted ways with Sony BMG’s Jive Records label.
Groove Armada will release a four-track EP funded by Bacardi. The tie-up was brokered by Bacardi’s agency, Euro RSCG KLP, and as part of the deal Groove Armada will perform at Bacardi-branded events, feature in Bacardi advertising and be expected to produce a song for a Bacardi TV commercial.
