Connect Music co-founder Askia Fountain, who’s signed on as MD of MTX Music. Photo Credit: Connect Music
Connect Music, a self-described “US music monetization company that provides distribution and publishing administration services,” has officially kicked off an international expansion initiative with the acquisition of London’s MTX Music.
Two-year-old Connect Music just recently reached out to DMN with word of the buyout, the financial terms of which haven’t been publicly revealed. Connect currently works with north of 200 stateside labels and artists, Boosie Badazz and DreamDoll among them, according to higher-ups.
And MTX Music, for its part, was founded in 2018 by Mike Mills and former Universal Music and Sony Music exec Mike Bartlett. The company provides distribution and/or marketing services to the likes of Judith Owen, Lost Society, Jonathan Antoine, Ashton Jones, and Calum Foad, to name some.
Now, Connect co-founder Askia Fountain has signed on as MD of MTX and is set to focus “its services on the UK’s hip-hop and R&B community.” (Bartlett, on the other hand, is poised to continue running his Motion Agency, which provides “international communications for music” and “will maintain a strategic partnership” with MTX.)
Fountain is also expected to expand MTX’s marketing and A&R teams during “the coming months,” Connect indicated, and an announcement about the post-buyout company’s initial signings will arrive “soon.”
On this front, Connect Music likewise disclosed that it had afforded MTX “access to its $10 million credit facility to support the development of emerging UK talent.” Backed by Memphis’s Preserver Partners, said credit facility launched over the summer and is designed to empower “independent artists – in particular Black creators – through access to capital while maintaining ownership of their copyrights,” per Connect.
Addressing the MTX Music purchase in a statement, Connect Music president and CEO George Monger emphasized the deal’s significance with regard to his company’s overarching global-buildout plans.
“This is a landmark moment for Connect Music, this is a piece of our wider strategy to expand our global operations,” Monger said in part. “We invested early in infrastructure and immediately MTX clients will see high royalties and through our ‘Connected Business’ strategy we will see nearly immediate, stronger bottom line performance from the operations.”
And in a statement of his own, Bartlett added: “It’s been incredibly rewarding to grow MTX Music over the past four years, and the company is about to enter an exciting new era. Connect’s independent ethos and their commitment to supporting artists make them a perfect fit to take MTX forward. I look forward to watching the company and its artists go from strength to strength.”