In October, George Monger flew to Great Britain with Askia Fountain and had his first English breakfast. But his primary purpose on the trip wasn’t to sample the cuisine. Monger and Fountain are the leaders of Connect Music, the local music distribution startup — and they were putting the finishing touches on a deal that would expand their business’ reach on a major scale.
“It’s us looking at things from a global perspective,” Fountain said. “We want to be able to work with a lot of artists all over the world and be able to support them.”
Connect has acquired MTX Music, a music distribution business based in the London area that will ultimately become MTX-Connect. Fountain, Connect’s head of music, will be its managing director, and look to grow the business, which has three employees and a catalog of hundreds of artists that it represents.
Fountain won’t, however, have to build it from the ground up.
“They've already been in business,” he said. “They already drive revenue in their market. So, it's an attractive thing for us to be able to acquire a company like that, and then scale our company.”
But why would a young, Memphis-based music distribution business that focuses on hip-hop and R&B choose to purchase an organization in England, instead of one closer to home?
Opportunities overseas
The U.K. has a wider variety of music than you might initially think. The home of Shakespeare is also the home of a significant number of Afrobeat, hip-hop, and R&B artists; and while they historically haven't been a major focus for MTX, they present a big opportunity going forward — an opportunity Fountain has known of for a long time.
From 2014 to 2015, he was an A&R consultant with Atlantic Records; from 2018 to 2019, he was VP of A&R for Mass Appeal, the label of rapper Nas. His credits range from working with the late Nipsey Hussle to Celine Dion. Over the years, he’s traveled to England for various projects, and seen, firsthand, the country’s vibrant and diverse music scene, which plays host to artists from a variety of other countries.
“The U.K. is a huge hub for Africans, and a bunch of different cultures from the Middle East and all over go there,” Fountain said. “I look at it like being the nucleus, and it's the closest thing to being in America, to me, on that side.”
Many of these artists who have planted roots in England are also doing quite well; the music is very popular overseas. For example, Fountain was looking at an artist the other week who’s drawing about five million monthly listeners in the U.K.
Many of these musicians, however, have to confront the same reality faced by a lot of Black artists in the U.S. — their success isn't necessarily resulting in higher earnings and more respect. But Fountain believes Connect can help change this, while providing them with more support.
“Now that we're in a position to create a hub for independent urban artists,” he said, “I felt that we could expand it and do the same thing over there.”
A strengthening connection
MTX’s clients are now set to be promoted in both the U.K. and the U.S., and be buoyed by Connect’s resources, which have grown significantly since the company’s inception in August 2020.
Connect distributes songs globally, and ensures its artists, writers, and producers receive compensation and recognition for their work. It has over 200 label clients, acts as a sub-distributor for five other music distribution companies, and owns a 31,000-square-foot Downtown headquarters less than half a mile away from both FedExForum and the National Civil Rights Museum.
The last time MBJ reported its earnings, it had exceeded $1 million in revenue, and since then, that number has at least doubled.
Over the summer, it also secured a partnership with the local alternative investment management firm Preserver Partners, which has committed a $10 million credit facility to the company. And these are funds that go directly to Connect’s clients. It provides them with the infrastructure, team, and resources they’d normally receive from a label, and helps to scale their releases for maximum exposure.
With the acquisition complete, MTX’s artists will have access to this credit facility too — and the more success they have, the more Connect advances its mission.
In a way, Monger, Connect's CEO, wants the startup to be like FedEx, a company with Memphis roots but a global reach. The ultimate destination of most FedEx packages isn't the Bluff City. Yet many of them pass through here. They're handled here. It's a stop on their journey. In that same vein, a lot of Connect's artists aren't in Memphis. But they're supported from here. They're promoted from here. And they're welcome here.
“We want to globally be able to work with a lot of artists all over the world and be able to support them properly," Fountain said. "At the end of the day, I feel like we're a representation company."
