Tomorrowland and Universal Music Germany have announced an exclusive global partnership.
The deal will see future Tomorrowland releases and artists, from their newly established label, distributed worldwide through a unique label network within UMG. The label will partner with Virgin Records Germany, with global distribution through Virgin Music Label & Artist Services.
One of the world’s biggest music festivals, Tomorrowland has been held annually in Boom, Belgium since 2005. Over two weekends, more than 400,000 people from 200 countries visit the festival.
Tomorrowland has grown into a global music and lifestyle brand, with its new festival Tomorrowland Winter in the French Alps, its own fashion label TML by Tomorrowland and the radio station One World Radio. While the global pandemic has meant that the Tomorrowland festival was cancelled in 2020 and 2021, the brand has continued to expand its global reach and influence with a series of digital festivals and events during lockdowns.
Tomorrowland will enjoy direct access to a collective pool of UMG’s most successful international label divisions.
The partnership will be led in Berlin by Alexander Neipp, Daniel Schmidt and Magnus Textor (Virgin Records) and Tina Adams (Virgin Music Label & Artist Services). The first release under the new label will be from Never Sleeps, a new project from Afrojack (pictured at Tomorrowland) feat. Chico Rose, with the track You Got The Love available on all platforms worldwide on August 27.
Michiel Beers, CEO and founder of Tomorrowland said, “Creativity is something that can’t be stopped at Tomorrowland. I’m very proud of how resilient our team was to find new ways of bringing Tomorrowland into the reality of the last period. We have taken the extra time to focus on projects that were on our list for a long time and one of them was definitely launching our own Tomorrowland Music label.
“Michel Van Buyten, music manager, Tomorrowland Music will work closely together with artists to help create strong stories around their releases. With the combined forces of our dedicated label team, Tomorrowland’s broader Media House, and the different Virgin Music teams worldwide, our aim is to introduce fans in every corner of the world to the most exciting projects in electronic music.”
Frank Briegmann, chairman & CEO, Universal Music Central Europe & Deutsche Grammophon, said: “Over the past 15 years Tomorrowland has built a reputation as one of the world’s leading festivals and electronic music brands by consistently expanding and evolving their relationship with music fans. Today, Tomorrowland is one of Europe’s most innovative music brands, respected by artists and loved by the millions of people who have attended their events around the world.
“We are delighted to have partnered with them to support the launch of their new label venture and to have created a uniquely flexible model utilizing our expert and proven teams at Virgin Records Germany, Virgin Music Label & Artist Services teams around the world and other flagship UMG labels worldwide to help drive success and create global hits for Tomorrowland. We look forward to a very successful partnership together, and to further enhancing our ability to provide partners, labels and artists with new and innovative ways to achieve global success.”
Magnus Textor, head of A&R, Virgin Records Germany said: “Joining forces with Tomorrowland Music feels like love at first sight. It’s great to see that we share the same passion for electronic music and artists. Everyone who has ever been to Tomorrowland or even just seen one of their event films has experienced their dedication. Therefore, I’m confident the new label is going to be a special place and a great home for artists.”
In recent years, Virgin Records Germany has become the leading electronic label in Germany, whilst achieving significant international success in signing, releasing and marketing dance and electronic artists and hits. Recent worldwide hits include releases from Topic & A7S, Meduza and Twocolors.
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