New Moguls

Recently highly acclaimed producer Salaam Remi agreed to a deal with Sony Music to house his new label imprint Louder Than Life. Back in November Sony Music named Remi Executive VP of A&R at Sony. Remi is the latest in a string of songwriters/producer who have stepped from out the studio to recruit new talent.

Naturally nowadays labels are turning to the talent to find the next best thing. The growth of business in the music industry (especially hip–hop/r&b) has made it a must for artist to think beyond being signed as an act only. When artist obtain a certain level of success it is common to see them develop his or her own brand or music imprint. This new generation of artist has grown to see the vets before them be music moguls as well as iconic music stars. Stars such as Master P, Jay- Z, and Sean “Diddy” Combs were able to develop artist underneath them, all the while creating the music you never went without hearing on the radio.

Fast forward to now: in January of 2012, superstar singer/songwriter Ne-Yo was named senior VP of A&R at Motown Records. He also agreed to partner with Motown to house his own label imprint Compound Entertainment.

In November of 2012, singer/songwriter The Dream was named executive VP of A&R at Def Jam Records. The Dream also partnered with Def Jam to house his label imprint Radio Killa.

Now Salaam Remi has been the latest to be partnered as his own label head as well as VP for talent development along the whole Sony family of music. Remi has worked extensively with Amy Winehouse, along with Nas, and as of recent Miguel.

Now that the labels have entrusted these artist to build their rosters of talent will these previously successful singer/songwriters be good evaluators of talent? Time will tell, but one thing can’t be denied: This is the generation of the music mogul.