Heatwave has formed a joint venture publishing agreement with Kobalt.
The emerging market music specialist was launched this year by former managing director of Syco Music, Tyler Brown, and Harold Serero, former senior A&R executive at Ultra Music Publishing.
The new agreement will see the two companies teaming up to discover and nurture new artists, songwriters and producers from around the world.
Headquartered in London, Heatwave describes itself as “a borderless label focused on connecting the dots for music worldwide”. It unveiled its recording division in September after partnering with Too Lost, a US-based music and technology company that works with independent music rights holders.
Heatwave Records has already made signings with Nigerian artists Fido and Kvng Vinci, alongside Ivory Coast’s Dopelym. A recent signing is DJ Lalo & Jotta from Ecuador, whose track Robanda has become a viral hit across South America and is currently top 70 on the global Shazam chart.
The publishing joint venture with Kobalt Music includes the signing of Dave Nunes, who has worked with Sarz, Asake, Skrillex, Gunna, Ayra Starr, Sevdaliza, Ty Dolla $ign, Mahalia, Fireboy DML and others.
Co-publishing agreements are also in place for Active by Travis Scott and Asake, Go Pato by Pato Banton and Hausapiano feat. Zerrydl, which is currently Top 5 in Nigeria.
In addition, Tyler Brown, co-founder of Heatwave, has announced an extension of an existing agreement with Kobalt Music for his own company Funfair Publishing. This follows the success of the company’s first signing James Essien, who co-wrote Rockstar by Lisa which has over 600 million streams across DSPs.
Essien has previously had releases with Tyla, Mahalia, Tom Grennan, Clean Bandit and James Blunt and has upcoming releases with Joji and H.E.R.
Our mission is to discover, develop and have the biggest hits in the world with the next generation of global superstar artists, songwriters and producer
Tyler Brown
Tyler Brown said: “Harold and I are excited to be working with Kenny and the Kobalt team on this new venture. We’ve been impressed by their presence and success globally so it felt like the perfect home for Heatwave Publishing. We’ve got off to an incredibly fast start and we want to keep that momentum going. Our mission is to discover, develop and have the biggest hits in the world with the next generation of global superstar artists, songwriters and producers. The extension of the Funfair Publishing agreement with Kobalt was a natural progression following their amazing help and support to date."
Kenny McGoff, head Of creative UK & GSA at Kobalt Music, said: “It's been an absolute joy working with Tyler and Funfair. His energy and taste are to be both admired and respected as is his knack of finding hidden gems! Now with Harold alongside him and the newly formed Heatwave I can only imagine what they are going to do next. It's really exciting to be part of and I am glad we at Kobalt are along for the ride.”
PHOTO: (L-R) Zach Bingham Thaker (A&R Scout- Kobalt Music), Darryl Parkinson (Senior A&R Manager - Kobalt Music), Harold Serero (Co-Founder -Heatwave) Tyler Brown (Co-Founder - Heatwave) , Kenny McGoff (Head of Creative UK & GSA- Kobalt Music), Emma Tivnen (Senior A&R Manager - Kobalt Music)
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