I remember around this time last year, writing the wrap up of Horus Music’s 2020 and thinking wow what a strange year we’ve had with the global pandemic. This year, as we have all adjusted to the new ‘normal’ we’ve seen innovative companies pivot their business to become digital and continue to support music on a global scale. Here at Horus Music, we’ve fortunately had another stellar year.
This year we launched in Brazil, a brand-new territory for us and welcomed David McLoughlin an industry veteran with almost 30 years’ experience in the Brazilian Music Industry. David has worked with many of the local record labels and publishers and headed the national export office for many years.
We also launched new pages specifically for our clients based in Africa and India.
David McLoughlin wasn’t the only hire we made this year; we hired a total of 8 new employees – that’s more than 1 every 2 months!
On the topic of Horus Music’s distribution system, if you haven’t logged in recently you’ll notice a change as we’ve switched My Client Zone into two new apps; My Music Distribution Zone and My Music Account Zone.
Despite the challenges of local and international travel, we’ve still been immersed in the music industry and were asked to speak and participate at several different online and in person panel discussions and events. Discover our top picks below:
Midem Africa
- Abisoye Obayan (Head of Horus Music Nigeria) hosted a panel entitled: Nigeria, a growing market not to be missed – Which you can still watch here.
- Abisoye Obayan (Head of Horus Music Nigeria) was also asked by our clients Hit Lab to join their panel on How AI is shaking Up the Music Industry. You can watch that here.
- Abisoye – was also invited to take part in their Meet the Artist and Label Services networking event.
Midem Latin America
- Our newly appointed Head of Brazil – David McLoughlin – hosted a panel on: How to Break in Brazil through Music Services – presented by Horus Music. This can be watched here.
- Right after that Panel Nina Condron (Director of Horus) and David McLoughlin were available for a Q and A.
- Nina Condron (Director) participated in the Meet the Artist and Label Services networking event.
Liverpool Sound City
- We attended our first in person event for over a year at the Liverpool Sound City conference and Deborah Smith from our sister company Anara Publishing hosted the panel: “How to get the best out of your music distributor relationship.” Featuring our partners Deezer, our head of artist and label services Matthew Newton, Regent Street Records and Nowhere Talent.
- We hosted a panel at the digital edition of Liverpool Sound City about the Nigerian Market: ‘The music market boom in Nigeria and everything you need to know’.
- We selected some of our most promising artists EleniC and Mauvey to showcase at the Digital Edition of Liverpool Sound City.
Reeperbahn Digital Edition
- Nina Condron (Horus Director) was invited to take part in the Reeperbahn Digital Beijing edition – meeting with local companies from Beijing and across China including new DSPs who we hope to be partnering with in the near future.
- Nina Condron (Horus Director) and Deborah Smith (Director of Anara) were invited to take part in the Reeperbahn Digital Nashville edition – meeting with local companies from Nashville the home of US Songwriting.
- Nina Condron (Horus Director) attended the Pan Africa session meeting with new companies from across Africa as Horus plans to open new offices in this territory in the coming years.
We’ve all seen first-hand how hard it is to juggle financial instability and follow your dreams simultaneously as an independent musician, especially during a global pandemic.
In August of 2021 we launched a brand-new service providing advances for with a minimum of 10,000 monthly listeners spread across digital services providers to work with us on our artist and label services account. Artists can unlock an advance of up to eight times their annual streaming income, whilst ensuring they retain 100% ownership of masters and publishing. With advances available for both new and existing clients, you can find out if you are eligible here.
We’ve since helped many artists such as Nigerian singer, Songwriter and Rapper Otega, who said the benefit of receiving an artist advance “has been of great support” to his life as an “independent superstar”, having used his advance for upcoming music videos directly funded through Horus Music Nigeria. Otega’s latest album Proclivity is trending across DSP’s including Apple Music, Audiomack and Boomplay.
We also helped UK based band Fuzzy Sun with an advance. The band used their advance for marketing their latest release and have since celebrated a hattrick of success when it comes to playlisting with Horus Music’s free artist and label service playlist pitching. Fuzzy Sun’s most recent release ‘Morning Light’ was pitched across our six-week global playlisting package, securing top placements on Spotify’s Editorial playlists Hot New Bands, Counter, Transistor, The Listening Post, and Melomania. Apple Music Editorial playlist Untitled. Boomplay’s Editorial playlists New Pop Songs, Boomfresh Hits, and many more additional independent playlists.
We’ve had a great year with our playlisting campaigns this year, here’s some of our highlights for 2021 campaigns:
Global
Amanda’s Action Club
Time To Shine, a positivity song produced during lockdown, reached No 1 in the iTunes Children’s Chart. ‘Time To Shine’ was written and performed by The Beautiful South‘s Alison Wheeler, Bryan Edery and Matt Constantine during lockdown to spread hope and positivity in the most troubling of times. The track also features Amanda Frolich, of Amanda’s Action Club , a prominent children’s health and wellbeing campaigner.
Tabitha Jade
Tabitha JadeTabitha Jade’s single History was pitched as a global playlisting campaign, securing top placements on QQ Music’s Editorial playlist Weekly Express in Europe and America, Boomplay’s Editorial playlists Afrobeats Now, Afrobeats & U and MusicTime’s Editorial playlist New Music. Spotify’s independent playlists also picked the track up for Break-Thru and Balcony Music and many further independent playlists achieving well over 92,000 streams since its release in July on Spotify.
Nigeria
Godillac’s single ‘Life of the Party secured placements on Apple Music’s Best New Songs and was added as a feature to the homepage of Music Time’s within the New Release and New Albums sections. Godillac also landed editorial support from Boomplay’s Afro Vibe, Hot Bangers playlists.
Fabian Okike, professionally known as Singah, released his much-anticipated debut Album ‘The Moon and Back’. He co-produced the album with assistance from music producers Goldswarm, Xtofa, Daihard and Shuga Vybz.
Spotify picked up a number of tracks from the album and added them to nine editorial playlists, also making him the cover star of their ‘Gwarn’ playlist. This is a massive achievement for a debut release, with Singah also receiving direct support on Spotify’s official Nigeria Instagram account.
India
Tarun Balani AKA Seasonal Affect Beats single ‘To Bend Or Break’ featuring Luka was added to Spotify’s Fresh Find’s India playlist.
Nigavithran‘s single ‘Brand New’ ft. Slim KD ‘Lyrical Crime’ secured placements on Apple Music’s Editorial playlists INDIEpendent India – Tamil, INDIEpendent India – Tamil Pop, and INDIEpendent India – Tamil Hip Hop. An immediate result of pitching direct to our DSP partners.
We also saw many artists working with us on our additional marketing packages including UK Digital Radio and our online Digital PR packages.
Through our UK Radio Campaign, Leicester based EAGA Gospel Choir’s latest EP “Hear my voice: we need to love again’ landed rotation on BBC Radio 2’s Good Morning Sunday, one of the UK’s most popular stations.
If you’re looking to be part of Horus Music’s 2022 successes, why not sign up now and receive your festive discount? Only available until 31st December 2021, check out our socials to grab your discount code now!
Thanks so much for choosing Horus Music as your music and video distribution and label services company, it’s a pleasure to work with so many talented and hardworking artists and we look forward to continuing our work with you throughout 2022 and beyond.
