Highly successful, wholly-owned independent record label, Beyond Music, a division of the Left Bank Organization, has entered into a distribution deal with the industry’s leading distribution company, Universal Music & Video Distribution (UMVD), it was jointly announced by Alan Kovac, Chairman and CEO, Beyond Music and Jim Urie, President, UMVD.
Beyond Music’s first release through UMVD will be music’s first female’s of rock – the Go-Go’s highly anticipated, all-new studio album in seventeen years, titled God Bless the Go-Go’s which will be released on May 15, 2001. “Unforgiven,” the band’s first single released to radio is seeing a tremendous amount of success at many cities across the country, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Dallas, Boston, Washington DC, Phoenix, San Diego, Minneapolis, Cleveland and Portland, to name a few. Other releases scheduled later this year include: Better Than Ezra, Karyn White, Colony, and Yoli. Also expected by the Fall of this year is a new studio album by Blondie.
The distribution agreement, effective May 1, 2001, gives UMVD sales and distribution rights within the United States for all of Beyond Music’s upcoming releases and catalogs.
Jim Urie commented, “We are excited to be partnering with such a strong force in the record industry. Beyond Music’s artist roster proves that they are an elite label and have continued success revitalizing the careers of many artists while rolling out powerful marketing campaigns on newly signed artists. Allen and his team at Beyond are pros, and we at UMVD are looking forward to our new business relationship. The Go Go’s album is going to be huge. What a great start!”
Launched in 1998 by entertainment industry veterans Allen Kovac and Jeff Sydney, Beyond Music is home to artists such as super-group Lucy Pearl, Blondie, Veruca Salt, the Go-Go’s, Jill Sobule among others. In addition, Beyond Music is elated to announce the recent signing of Better Than Ezra and original, new artists Colony, Yoli and James Michael.
“Two and a half years ago, Beyond Music re-introduced the world to Blondie. With this partnership, Beyond Music continues to prove to the industry that independent labels thrive. We market the band and give them a home. We take pride in the fact that we spend time with our artists and develop them patiently,” exclaims Allen Kovac, Chairman and CEO of Beyond Music. In addition, Mr. Kovac says, ” Jim Urie has built a marketing company through UMVD that will help us empower our artists to reach their audience as effectively as possible.” Continuing, Jeff Sydney, President and COO of Beyond Music adds, “We are excited to be working with Jim Urie and the UMVD organization. We know they will enable us to optimize our continuing growth as a label while understanding our needs as a major-indie player in the business.”
