When I recently texted George Monger, CEO of Connect Music Group, about getting an update on his company, he sent a string of messages about his new head of A&R (artists and repertoire) and client relations, Askia Fountain.
You can hardly blame Monger for his excitement, as Fountain brings an array of experiences from his time in the music industry. 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 Media, the label of rapper Nas. Fountain’s credits range from work with the late Nipsey Hustle to Celine Dion.
Scoring Fountain is the latest victory for Connect Music Group, the local music monetization startup that distributes songs globally and ensures artists, writers, and producers receive compensation and recognition for their work.
“As the music consumption world evolves at a breakneck pace, independent creators are not always compensated,” Monger told me in July 2021. “So, what we decided to do, for those writers and producers, is make sure we put some aggressive collection methodology around it.”
Monger founded the startup in August 2020, after a career that had largely revolved, in some way or another, around music.
As a teenager, he represented his brother, Kendrick Jacocks, a classical opera singer. From 2012 to 2016, he was VP and executive director of the Consortium MMT (Memphis Music Town). Monger was the director of Made in Memphis Entertainment from 2017 to 2020. And, in the intermission between those two positions, he was COO of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.
His latest effort is perhaps his largest in scope. Already, Connect Music Group has more than 200 label clients, acts as a sub-distributor for three other music distribution companies, and, as Monger said, is “substantially complete with our financing round [of $600,000] and likely oversubscribed.” It’s also on pace to reach $1 million in revenue for its first full year — without deploying any investor capital.
“It’s a passion for me,” Monger said. “People say music and business are the antithesis of each other. I think they’re the perfect solution to economic growth. … The business of music is recognizing that music is an asset class.”
But how, exactly, is Monger monetizing songs for his clients, as they’re played on streaming services?
Typically, when someone signs up for a streaming service, they pay that company a monthly fee.
Spotify Premium, for example, costs $9.99 a month. But, that’s just the cost to the user. Each time a song is streamed on one of those platforms, a microtransaction occurs, ranging from around .001 cent to .005 cent per stream.
Those microtransactions add up, and this money trickles down from the streaming services to distributors, record labels, artists, producers, and songwriters.
The problem, Monger explained, is that artists, producers, and songwriters often don’t receive the full compensation they’re entitled to.
To remedy this, Connect Music Group staffers will go through a client’s agreement with a label to see what their share of a record is. They then license the rights to the client’s share of that record, and, on their behalf, fingerprint or tag the song — protecting copyright — and collect the money they’re owed.
Monetization, however, is just a portion of what Connect Music Group does. It also seeks to propel clients’ work into the spotlight, increasing the value of their songs. Millions of songs are uploaded to streaming services monthly, and standing out in a crowded field can be difficult.
“If you’re really talented,” Monger said, “how do you matter?”
For clients, it helps that Connect Music Group is an editorial partner with major streaming companies like Apple, Spotify, Pandora, and Amazon and works with them to give artists more exposure.
Monger, however, isn’t constantly barraging streaming services with suggestions.
“We don’t deliver 100K songs. … We’re only going to deliver 75 to 80 records, and we’re only going to pitch a handful of those,” he said. “When they get an email from us, or when we have our biweekly phone calls with their creative teams, we’re pretty clear about the quality of what we’re delivering.”
George Monger is one of three honorees highlighted in MBJ's 2021 Emerging Entrepreneurs Awards. In conjunction with the University of Memphis and Epicenter, MBJ’s editorial team selected three startups and their leaders for the award. The companies must be under three years in age, based in Memphis, and have demonstrated financial performance and excellence in areas of innovation and technology.
