Coast Modern (pictured) has released multiple albums via +1 Records. Photo Credit: Timothynorris
Exceleration Music has officially announced a strategic partnership with +1 Records, including an investment in the New York- and LA-based record label’s catalog.
Three-year-old Exceleration Music, which acquired Bloodshot Records in 2021 and bought the catalog of Heroic Music Group last year, unveiled its latest play via a formal release today. For background, the indie-focused music investor Exceleration counts as partners former Merlin CEO Charles Caldas, longtime Concord exec John Burk, and former ADA higher-up Amy Dietz, to name some.
Meanwhile, +1 Records (which in 2019 unveiled an Empire distribution deal) arrived on the scene in 2008 and has signed acts including Anna of the North, Geordie Kieffer, and Japan, Man. Though the companies haven’t publicly revealed the precise financials and details of their agreement, Exceleration said that it will support +1 artists’ forthcoming releases with “resources and operational support.”
2023 projects from Rejjie Snow, Nate Husser, Lo Village, and Anna Shoemaker are set to be “the first releases powered by the new partnership,” Exceleration and +1 communicated. And as initially mentioned, Exceleration has likewise “made an investment in +1’s catalog.”
Predictably, the entities’ formal release doesn’t identify the precise size of this investment and stops short of describing the overarching deal as an acquisition. But on the executive side, while +1 co-founder and CEO Jonny Kaps will continue to lead his company, fellow co-founder Nat Hays Boas “has exited to pursue other opportunities,” the involved parties disclosed.
Finally, in terms of +1’s post-transaction executive roster, Josh Swade, the label’s third and final co-founder, is mentioned only in passing in Exceleration’s release. However, Swade’s LinkedIn profile still listed him as a +1 partner at the time of this writing.
Also at the time of this writing, Nat Hays Boas hadn’t commented on his departure or the Exceleration pact on Instagram. Kaps, for his part, touted the Exceleration tie-up in a statement (“we will be an even greater resource for independent artists”), and Amy Dietz emphasized her ambitious vision for +1 moving forward.
“Jonny and the +1 team have built a vibrant and impactful label by focusing on artist development and being agile and innovative,” the former Ingrooves exec Dietz said in part. “From my first meeting with Jonny it was clear his passion, vision, and artist-first ethos, completely aligned with our mission at Exceleration Music.
“I know that by combining the talented +1 team, with the expertise and resources of the growing and talented Exceleration team, we will together take +1 and its artists into a bright future,” finished Dietz.