Milk & Honey Launches Label With Songwriter-Friendly Royalty Model: ‘Bring Us Your Songs’

Milk & Honey Music + Sports has added a grounds label, Milk & Honey Records, to its portfolio.

The caller Los Angeles-based statement volition absorption connected popular and creation euphony but differs from astir grounds companies successful that it volition wage royalty points — arsenic precocious arsenic treble digits — to songwriters who lend songs to projects.

“Bring america your songs that you mightiness person sent to different statement wherever you wouldn’t beryllium fixed points. You don’t request to beryllium a Milk & Honey songwriter oregon artist; we privation to beryllium successful concern with you” said Milk & Honey’s president/founder Lucas Keller successful a statement. The royalty volition travel retired of Milk & Honey’s gross share.

Keller declined to sanction archetypal signings to the label, which volition beryllium physically and digitally distributed by The Orchard, but told Billboard, “We person a batch of releases coming and we’ve chosen to not play favorites with immoderate artists. [It’s] expected to beryllium a assortment of clients, non-clients and volition beryllium fractional popular and fractional electronic. Grammy winning/multi-platinum artists included, not conscionable caller artists.”

 “We unrecorded successful a satellite wherever the moving songwriter has a hard clip deciding what to walk their clip on, determination are truthful galore artists, and a statement exemplary that doesn’t enactment making the writer arsenic affluent arsenic the creator oregon the company,” Keller, who has appeared connected multiple Billboard powerfulness lists, continued. “The mode songs are fractured present — with 16 writers and 7 producers — it is astir financially intolerable to beryllium a songwriter. Major companies who people galore writers connected deed songs are conscionable arsenic palmy arsenic always, but successful cardinal markets similar Los Angeles and Nashville, determination are little songwriters than ever that marque a existent living. At Milk & Honey, we’ve ever been focused connected making this into a large concern for each songwriter and producer,” added Keller.

Industry vet Dana Shayegan, who has had stints astatine iHeartRadio, Studio71US and the Collective, arsenic good arsenic co-founded Monk Music, volition tally the caller entity. “I’ve received countless resumes from large statement A&Rs who I didn’t judge could participate the caller satellite gracefully. I wanted idiosyncratic who understands integer and knows however to spell heavy into the net to some root and probe records and interruption them, and to beryllium scrappy – Dana is that feline and I americium excited to person him arsenic portion of the adjacent section of Milk & Honey,” Keller said.  

“Lucas, Milk & Honey, and I are each wired the aforesaid way. We combat for artists similar they’re our family, we emotion and respect the past of the euphony business, but we cognize that tomorrow’s concern volition ne'er look the aforesaid arsenic yesterday’s,” said Shayegan. “In that spirit, we’re launching a statement that honors due old-school A&R portion besides embracing information and caller exertion to enactment steps up successful creator advocacy and present fans the euphony they want, however and wherever they privation it.”

Milk & Honey’s unit numbers astir 60 and includes a 15-person originative squad and a 15-person physics creation euphony squad that volition beryllium tapping into helping with the label, arsenic good arsenic  synch, media and content, selling and A&R administrative staffers.

While paying songwriters royalties beyond what they gain from mechanical and show royalties is rare, it is not unheard of. Over the past fewer years, four indie labels – Justin Tranter’s Facet Records, The Other Songs, Nvak Collective and Good Boy Records — pledged to wage songwriters points connected each master, mostly ranging betwixt 3 and 4 percent, perchance beneath the complaint Milk & Honey is pledging.

Additionally, successful an effort to further assistance songwriters, this summer, the U.K.’s Ivors Academy secured an statement from the large labels successful the U.K. to wage songwriters a per diem positive expenses.

Milk & Honey manages much than 70 songwriters and producers crossed its 5 planetary offices, liable for galore of this year’s apical hits, including Y2K (Doja Cat’s “Jealous Type”), Mags Duvall (Alex Warren’s “Ordinary”), Jenna Andrews and Stephen Kirk ( KPop Demon Hunters), David Hodges (Ed She...