AWAL’s UK MD Matt Riley has advised Music Week that the corporate is carving its personal path within the music business.
AWAL, which was acquired by Sony in 2022, triumphed within the Label/Artist Providers class on the Music Week Awards, following a bumper yr that noticed success for the likes of Tom Misch, Little Simz, Jungle and extra.
“We’re feeling fairly joyful, it’s good!” Riley advised Music Week. “We’ve been doing this for some time and it’s the primary time to get this recognition.”
In our interview Riley, who has been with AWAL for a decade and is a part of the UK management crew underneath COO Paul Hitchman alongside SVPs Sam Potts and Vic Wants, advised that AWAL does issues otherwise from the competitors.
Responding to the query of peer-voted success bringing additional weight or respect to the corporate’s identify he stated: “We’re not right here for that. We work actually arduous every single day, we’re actually pleased with what we’re doing and the artists we work with.”
“As a result of the artists retain their rights and we’re backing them to be the most effective they are often there isn’t a cynicism and in the end the artwork they provide you with is unimaginable and we’re very proud to work on that,” he added. “What different folks suppose is as much as them actually. We’re simply constructing issues our personal means by doing the identical issues every single day.”
Riley additionally mirrored on a golden interval for AWAL, which noticed the enterprise rating 5 BRIT nominations in 2024.
“We work very arduous, our artists have had an unimaginable yr and we put out information that matter to folks,” he said. “We’re so pleased with long run AWAL artists like Tom Misch and Little Simz who’ve been on an actual journey within the final yr, and artists like Djo, Jungle, CMAT… There are such a lot of. With the BRIT nominations we had this yr, we’ve not likely been in that place earlier than. Each day there’s one thing new occurring at AWAL, it’s a very thrilling place to be.”
Riley additionally commented on life underneath Sony, making the purpose that the day-to-day working of the enterprise has not modified.
“We didn’t know what to anticipate nevertheless it’s been unimaginable,” stated Riley. “I believe Sony has simply backed us and empowered us to do what we’d been doing earlier than. They introduced us in due to what we’d been doing they usually haven’t messed with us, they’ve actually empowered us. With Lonny [Olinick] our CEO main the ship in America and with Paul Hitchman and the crew in London, it’s been [great]… Nothing has modified aside from having a very assured firm behind us.”
As a result of the artists retain their rights and we’re backing them to be the most effective they are often there isn’t a cynicism
Matt Riley, AWAL
Riley’s feedback echo these made by COO Paul Hitchman in an interview with Music Week in April.
“We undoubtedly have a really distinct tradition at AWAL and a part of that has been how we’ve grown our management crew, we haven’t actually introduced outdoors folks in to run the enterprise,” Hitchman stated. “Lonny has been the CEO for eight years and I’ve been right here since Kobalt first acquired AWAL again in 2012. And for those who take a look at the UK crew, Matt Riley [MD] has been on the firm for 10 years and has grown as an government by that point. He was joined final yr by Sam Potts and Vic Wants, who each have main label backgrounds however joined the AWAL mission. Rising the management crew from inside has enabled us to retain that tradition and implies that anybody who joins the AWAL crew buys into the AWAL mission.”
Hitchman stated that the Sony acquisition has solidified AWAL’s reference to its artists.
“I believe being a part of Sony has given artists – and perhaps managers, extra so – the boldness that there’s nothing they’ll’t obtain with AWAL as a result of there’s no useful resource or experience that we will’t faucet into,” he defined. “The place perhaps traditionally some artists would have gone on to signal a significant deal, we’re now seeing artists stay – so if something, it’s strengthened our proposition. They keep that very same degree of artistic and industrial management, so there’s been no draw back from an artist perspective, however undoubtedly an upside.”
When it comes to how the broader enterprise perceives AWAL, Hitchman stated he believes its identification is stronger than ever.
“So far as the business sees us, I believe we’ve at all times been recognized for locating and growing artists which may be just a little bit extra different in whichever style they’re in,” he stated. “However we’ve helped these left-of-centre artists obtain world success. With Laufey and Lovejoy, for instance, you possibly can see the subsequent era of artists coming by behind Little Simz, Bruno Main and Tom Misch.”
Subscribers can learn the total interview with Hitchman on-line right here.
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