A lot can change in one year. Last summer, PULSE Music Group, a well-known Los Angeles-based pop music distributor, partnered with Concord to enter the record label world.
Shortly after PULSE Records was founded, the company formed a joint venture with R&B star Brent Faiyaz to develop artists. PULSE Music Group has collaborated with Faiyaz on publishing since 2016, and Faiyaz renewed its global publishing agreement with the company in 2022.
Tommy Richman is PULSE Records’ first signee to Faiyaz and Darren Xu’s ISO Supremacy label. (Hsu is now Tommy Richman’s manager as well).
PULSE Records is led by PULSE Music Group founders and co-CEOs Scott Cutler and Josh Abraham, and PULSE Music Group president Ashley Calhoun.
When Tommy Richman signed with PULSE Records last summer, he was a rising Los Angeles artist just over 296,000 Monthly listeners on Spotify.
Today, he has 46.4 million The platform has more monthly listeners — 9.5 million more than The Beatles (36.9 million) — and his new hit single million baby The song is currently at the top of Spotify’s weekly hot songs global chart for the fourth consecutive week.
Published April 26 by Richman’s million baby It debuted at No. 1 on the Spotify global chart and No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
It also just hit No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 chart and is already No. 1 on the Billboard Streaming Songs chart, the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart, and the Billboard R&B chart.
Oh, and it’s also the most Shazamed song in the US right now.
According to Chartmetric data analyzed by MBW, million baby has flowed 279.2 million Since its release on April 26, it has been played 8.89 million times on Spotify alone (see below). this million baby (video tape) The version also racked up 41.2 million plays on Spotify.
“Now, on average, we 18 million Flow every day [across all platforms] “But we’re also seeing an improvement across his entire discography, so Tommy’s impact as an artist is happening beyond just this incredible single,” said PULSE Music Group founder and co-executive Chief Scott Cutler tells us.
“We gave it our all and had a good plan to keep that momentum going for him.”
Uploaded by Tommy Richman million baby On the evening of April 13, just after he finished recording in the studio, he posted the video on TikTok.
Cutler said the song “just took off,” and the PULSE Records/ISO Supremacy team quickly hatched a plan to release the single on April 26.
“We received the final master on April 23rd, so the whole team was busy setting it up with the DSP, pitching it to their partners, and we had a strong plan. Setting it up on the DSP took approx. 48 hours,” Cutler explained.
“The team discovered that fans were very interested in the bass on the TikTok version, so the team collectively decided to release a VHS version of the single. We had the VHS version on DSP 48 hours before release, and the moment it was released breakthrough.
million dollar baby products This success marks a major milestone for the PULSE Music Group label, which just launched in June 2023 in partnership with Concord. The label is supported by Concord’s existing label services platform and management team and marks a new stage in the existing relationship between the two companies.
Concord and PULSE Music Group formed an exclusive A&R-driven joint venture for the first time in 2020, following Concord Music Publishing’s acquisition of Fujipacific Music’s shares in PULSE Music Group and becoming the majority shareholder of PULSE Music Group. Our sources at the time said the acquisition was worth more than $100 million.
Pulse Music Group Founded in 2008 by songwriters and producers Scott Cutler, Josh Abraham and Anne Preven, its roster of creators and producers is credited with recording over 200 million records music Sales exceed 75 billion music stream.
With 250 active customers, pulse music The group has received over 350 gold and platinum certifications, and the company’s writers currently feature six songs on Beyoncé’s US No. 1 album Cowboy Carter.
Looking ahead, Cutler told us that PULSE Records’ long-term goals “are the same as those of our music publishing company.”
“Whoever is the best in their field, we want to work with. One of them,” he said. “This formula works for us every time. We don’t look at metrics. We just look at talent.
“We are signing people with zero indicators, but we have complete confidence that it will work out. That’s our ethos [and] This has been the case for the past 15 years.
Here, PULSE Music Group founders and co-CEOs Josh Abraham and Scott Cutler discuss PULSE Records, artist development and the breakout success of Tommy Richman Millions of babies.
PULSE Music Group formed a joint venture with Concord in June 2023 to enter the record label field. Now that you have built a successful publishing and management arm, why did you decide to start a record label at that time?
Josh Abraham: I always thought of PULSE as a label, but when I started PULSE, record sales were in trouble because people were downloading music for free. So I thought of approaching this as a music publishing company first.
To do that, I needed to contact Scott Cutler and his writing partner, Anne Preven, who were songwriters at the time and who I thought had the right taste and similar ethics to Start a publishing company.
At the launch of PULSE Records, Concord said it would “double down on its already successful partnership” with PULSE. What is PULSE Records’ place within Concord Label Group today?
Scott Cutler: In 2020, we announced an exclusive joint venture with Concord for music publishing. This A&R driven joint venture funds the continued expansion of our PULSE Music Group and enhances our ability to invest in the brightest talent supported by Concord’s global management platform. We’ve had great success with this joint venture – PULSE and Concord have proven a strong partnership in releasing some of the highest-charting songs in the world.
By June 2023, we decided to launch PULSE Records with Concord. Within our label, our PULSE Records team handles A&R, creative, marketing and digital services, while Concord provides PULSE Records with global footprint, financial resources, management and other label services. We are a true joint venture that leverages the unique strengths of both companies.
Shortly after launching PULSE Records, you signed a joint venture with Brent Faiyaz to develop artists. I know you have a long-standing publishing relationship with Brent, but what makes Brent an attractive artist to partner with a record label for a joint venture?
Scott Cutler: The actual case of Brent Faiyaz JV on the label side was that we both knew we wanted to sign Tommy and with our long-standing relationship having published Brent for the past seven years, it was an easy decision for us to collaborate and do it together. .
How did you discover, meet and sign Tommy Richman?
Josh Abraham: belmesbashi [Creative Director, A&R for PULSE Music Group/PULSE Records] Interested in Tommy and caught our attention within the first month of PULSE Records’ launch. There’s always a scene that gathers around Tommy, so Bell brought in Ashley Calhoun [President, PULSE Music Group] Go to Tommy’s show at the Echo Theater so they can scout him.
“Tommy absolutely blew them away with his performance and stage presence.”
Tommy absolutely wowed them with his performance and stage presence. Ashley and Bel, along with the rest of the PULSE Records staff, believed that everyone in the venue was there to see Tommy because after Tommy left, everyone else left too.
So on this show, Ashley and Belle happen to meet Brent [Faiyaz]and said, “Hey, what are you doing here?” That’s when we realized we all saw the same thing in Tommy, and that’s when we all worked hard and decided to work together to sign him.
Can you talk a little bit about Tommy’s strategy behind the audience growth over the last year?
Scott Cutler: On the one hand, our strategy remains the same – we do what’s best for the artists. We knew Tommy would eventually break through because he was a special talent. We just kept moving forward with his project, one song at a time, one day at a time, until this song million baby become.
“Our strategy has always been the same – we do what’s best for the artists.”
we have launched Sprint EP, we worked on the groundwork with Tommy, and then one day he wanted to come in and play an album for us. He already has a finished album.
And it’s very spectacular. So when he played the album for us, we were all sitting in a room and we just knew we had to move quickly to get ready for it. What do we want to do to establish a record?
We talked about Tommy giving us a few songs that we could put out one by one. One of the songs is million baby.
Million Dollar Baby was a hit in the United States and around the world. How has this song and Tommy as an artist resonated with audiences over the past few weeks?
Josh Abraham: This is a special song and artist. When a song is as big as this, it’s usually music that transcends anything else at the time. Tommy’s time has come. This is Tommy’s voice. It stands out.
Can Tommy’s success on “MILLION DOLLAR BABY” be replicated with other tracks?
Scott Cutler: Yes. Tommy has an album coming out soon. This is huge. Since this song has captured everyone’s attention, we are now better equipped to help our artists.
Can you introduce us to some of the key people currently working at PULSE Records?
Josh Abraham: We hope to amplify Tommy’s artistic talent through a smart and capable project team tailored specifically for Tommy’s success. Ashley Calhoun has been a huge help on the Brent Faiyaz/ISO side, initially signing Brent Faiyaz to our PULSE Music Group pubco in 2016 and then renewing the deal in 2022 and played an important role in the joint venture. PULSE Records’ Tommy Richman team also includes Tizita Makuria on the A&R team, who works with Bel Mesbahi on the promotion.
Sara Ahmed, vice president of marketing for PULSE Records, is in charge of marketing. Nick Barr is running the digital business for Tommy. It was a team effort as it was one of the first, if not the first, to be signed to the label and everyone on the PULSE Records team was working hard to advance Tommy’s career.
Scott Cutler: Having a small but experienced team focused on a carefully curated roster is the best way to truly create breakout moments for artists. That’s our ethos and we think that’s the best way to do it. I think we’ve proven that with Tommy.
[The full PULSE Records team today includes: Tim Glover, President of A&R, PULSE Records; Lauryn Caldwell, SVP/Head of Marketing, PULSE Records; Nick Barr, Senior Vice President, PULSE Records; Tizita Makuria, Vice President of Creative, PULSE Music Group/PULSE Records; Sara Ahmed, Vice President of Marketing, PULSE Records; Bel Mesbahi, Creative Director, A&R, PULSE Music Group/PULSE Records; Jewels Bulger, Sr. Art Director, PULSE Records; Bernard Bennet-Green, Director of Sales and Streaming, PULSE Records and Alana Aquino, Digital Manager, PULSE Records.]
What is the biggest challenge facing record labels today?
Scott Cutler: Patience and the development of an artist. Other labels don’t seem to have the time and patience to develop artists. That’s why I think we’re doing so well and so quickly. We’ve been with Tommy for about a year now and we focus on it every day.
Can you highlight other recent signings to PULSE Records?
Josh Abraham: The roster is taking shape and we’ll let everyone know soon, but we’ve signed some very talented guys and we’re excited about it. When appropriate, we will introduce them.global music business
