Despite what you may have heard from a few doomsayers, there is one trend of late in the perpetually evolving music industry, which I think is good for art, commerce, musicians, and fans: bands starting record labels. Trent Reznor did it, Radiohead’s manager has a digital label, Kings of Leon are down, and now Snow Patrol have started a publishing company.
“As a band we know how difficult it can be to get a break in this business,” Snow Patrol drummer Jonny Quinn told California Chronicle. We get given CDs by new artists and writers all the time and have talked about how we could help the best of them move up. Forming a publishing company seemed the obvious way to go.”
When it comes to publishing, Snow Patrol know their stuff. They made a killing a few years back by licensing “Chasing Cars” to Grey’s Anatomy and have been on top of the publishing/licensing side of the industry ever since.
And to those who say the band won’t be directly involved in their music business venture, meet the A&R team of Polar Music: drummer Jonny Quinn, guitarist Nathan Connolly, and frontman Gary Lightbody.