To Commemorate A Decade Of Success,
Engine Company Records Announces Its Re-Launch And Expansion As ECR Music Group
“In recent years Engine Company Records, an independent label in New York founded by Blake Morgan, has had success with contemporary artists . . . (this) might seem a risky venture. But the music is terrific, and the performances compelling…”
-Anthony Thomasinni, New York Times
Following an extraordinary decade of chart-topping albums, touring, national press, television, film, and radio, Engine Company Records CEO and founder Blake Morgan is proud to announce the expansion and re-launch of the company under its new banner – ECR Music Group.
ECR Music group will continue to uphold its core artist-driven ideals, while broadening its business reach as a robust umbrella company. It is a company where the unimaginable is simply the norm: where success is measured as much by the high note as it is by the bottom line.
Born from humble beginnings in a one-room makeshift recording studio and office, ECR Music Group has become one of the world’s leading independent music companies with its vibrant roster of celebrated stars, emerging artists, and broad array of distinguished record labels. Artists on the roster include David Cloyd, James McCartney, Janita, Lesley Gore, Melissa Giges and ECR founder Blake Morgan himself. The company’s label roster includes Big Pop, Curb Cut, Dylanna/MPL, Evergreene, Hook & Ladder, MaybeNot, Somme, and Starfish Music.
This re-launch, re-branding, and expansion are the next exciting steps in this esteemed company’s inspiring evolution, and coincides with the tenth anniversary of the label’s birth.
ECR Music Group consists of an interconnected set of businesses and distinct resources, each aimed at helping its artists and labels realize long-term creative and commercial success. Uniquely, the company achieves these goals while operating under an elemental principle, unprecedented in the music world: All ECR artists and labels own one-hundred percent of their master recordings.
Originally launched on Morgan’s laptop computer in 2002, the company has since flourished with this central ideal at its core-even through a time of dramatic industry transition-and grown to become the globally distributed family of artists and labels it is today.
Label visionary Blake Morgan is a highly-regarded recording artist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist whose studio chops, smart lyrics, and gift for the melodic twist have earned him a loyal critical and commercial following. After signing a seven-record deal in 1997 with Phil Ramone’s N2K (Sony/RED) label, resulting in the well-receivedAnger’s Candy, Morgan became disillusioned with the rigid, corporate side of the music industry. Even though he’d garnered rave reviews and was the label’s most successful artist, he courageously looked for-and discovered-a loophole that would allow him to extricate himself from his contract without too much bloodshed.
The move would prove to be serendipitous. Instead of chasing a dream that had become a nightmare for him, Morgan began to envision his own indie label that would be built around his innovative ideals. “I went to all the artists and bands I was already producing and recording, and said I was starting a label. A label where the artists would run the asylum, and own their own recordings. And with all the energy saved from all that nightmare-chasing, we’ve made and released record after record-profitably and artistically-and we’ve never had to ask permission to do it,” Morgan states proudly.
ECR is a company that works in partnership with its artists. A company whose labels work in partnership with each other. A company that evokes the early days of the classic record companies: where many artists appear as guests or as backing musicians on each others’ albums, often crossing style and genre to do so. This is a company whose staff members are, in many cases, its artists-including the CEO.
ECR Music Group will formally launch on October 4th at the elegantly hip Morrison Hotel Gallery on Prince Street in New York City, with a red carpet event. “Anyone involved in what we’re doing here will tell you how radically we’ve grown,” says Morgan. “We began in one room with barely any catalog, and now we’re a globally distributed family of artists and labels. I wouldn’t trade our future for anybody’s.”
For interviews, Jpegs and more information please contact:
Please Visit www.ecrmusicgroup.com
* ECR’s interconnected set of businesses and resources include a recording facility, a full-service recorded music business, worldwide physical and digital distribution, promotion, publishing and licensing, artist development, merchandising, and more.
* Artist roster includes: Blake Morgan, David Cloyd, James McCartney, Janita, Lesley Gore, Melissa Giges and 20th Century Duos.
* Income models for each release vary, but each employ a combination of revenue streams: physical sales, downloads, streaming (Spotify, Pandora, etc…), publishing and licensing, television, film, merchandise, and more.
* ECR releases have been featured on over 200 radio stations in the U.S.A., coast to coast.
* ECR releases have been featured in over 100 newspapers and magazines around the world.
* ECR releases have been featured on over 100 television programs.
* To date, twenty-three of the label’s twenty-seven releases are “in the black” for both their respective artists, and for the label.
* The four that aren’t simply haven’t been out for long enough to be in the black yet.
* ECR releases have topped sales charts at the three largest retailers of music in the world: iTunes, Amazon, and eMusic.
* ECR’s music is sold at over 100 global retailers in over 150 countries around the world.
* All ECR artists and labels own one-hundred percent of their master recordings.
* Many of ECR’s artists work as staff members for the company.
* Engine Company Records was founded in 2002 in a one-room makeshift recording studio and office and launched on Blake Morgan’s laptop computer. The company is now a globally distributed family of artists and labels.
* Blake Morgan has either produced, recorded, and/or mastered every ECR release since the company’s inception.
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