Of course, last night was a big night in America. But it’s also a big night for London.
MBW’s British Music Business Awards took place in Covent Garden last night (November 5), celebrating the best of the British music business.
The evening started with a surprise: the International Executive of the Year Award was presented to Jon Platt Written by his friends, accomplished songwriters and artists, MNEK.
The evening’s International Executive Award recognizes a non-UK company leader who has significantly contributed to the visibility and success of British and Irish music over the past 12 months.
It was voted on by a panel of MBW+ level talent managers who subscribe to Music Business Worldwide, who considered executives in live, label, management, music publishing and more.
As MBW readers know well, Pratt is Sony Music Publishingheadquartered in Los Angeles.
British musicians signed to SMP include a group of groundbreaking and outstanding talents who have been active in the past year, including but not limited to Charli XCX, Myles Smith, Artemas, Beabadoobee, Calvin Harris, Tom Grennan, Central Cee, Hozier, Olivia Dean, Ai De Sheeran and more.
Platt spoke to a packed audience at De Vere’s Grand Connaught Hall, speaking fondly of his global team at Sony Music Publishing and the UK songwriting community, and dishing on hits such as Beyoncé The song-making process. hold up with Jay Z imperial mentality came together.
He also paid tribute to Rob Stringer [Chairman of Sony Music Group and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment]and leaders in the broader music publishing business, including Jody Gerson [Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group]He mentioned that Guy Moot hired him at EMI 30 years ago [Co-Chair and CEO of Warner Chappell Music]who also worked at EMI.
You can read an excerpted version of his full speech below:
Thanks. It takes so much convincing [MNEK] Doing something means a lot to him. Thanks also Tim [Ingham, founder of] Global music business. I’m really grateful.
I say no to almost any award now, but when Tim [Ingham] Call me and tell me this – I’ve never been honored in another country before. It just shows what music is like globally and its impact. I appreciate it, Tim. Thank you so much. I usually thank my family last, but tonight, I wanted to thank them first.
Many of you here are A&Rs, you are administrators, you are part of the music family. Two things are very important in this industry, [one of which] It’s trust. We must trust each other to achieve anything. [The other thing] It’s commitment and sacrifice.
We sacrifice a lot for the talent we work with, being away from family and traveling the world. I didn’t realize how many people I’d met in the UK because it’s been decades, but I’ve met so many people and when I walked in tonight I felt that love. Like a family. But it’s also our family’s sacrifice that allows us to be a part of this family. I just want to thank my wife, Angie, who is here tonight, and my three beautiful sons who are not here.
To emphasize the sacrifice, tonight is my wife’s birthday. When I found out about this, I told Tim [Ingham]”I don’t know if I can do it. It’s my wife’s birthday. I have to ask my wife. She said, ‘Let’s go!’ “So thank you and happy birthday. I love you.”
I was thinking about my history in the UK today, and when we talk about Executive of the Year, all of these amazing songwriters that are mentioned are because I was lucky enough to lead an amazing team at Sony Music Publishing UK, by: David Ventura and Tim Major.
I would like to thank everyone at Sony Music Publishing for their hard work and trust. You are killing it every day and it is both yours and mine. So thank you.
And British songwriters that I’ve worked with over the years. I want to thank someone who was once a hero of mine. I was able to sign Rod Templeton. Rod and I spent many evenings together and I want to thank him and his beautiful wife, Kathy, for believing in me. That was when I was at Warners, and his catalog was still there, and they looked after it very carefully. But it’s a huge honor and it makes me happy to go in and hear all of Quincy Jones’ music. So thank you.
But as a publisher, my musical life is about song, and today I’m thinking about all the music in the UK that I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of.
[MNEK] tell you this story [Beyoncé song] hold up. He was in my office and I was like, okay, he has to go see B.
I said, “Okay, can you run this meeting?” She said, “I’m going out of town. Can we do it when I get back?”
I said, “You have to attend this meeting.”
She said, “So, can you arrive before 10 a.m.?”
We went to her house at 10 o’clock on Saturday morning. Let’s go to her little studio [MNEK] Her music is playing.
and in typical [MNEK] Fashion. “I love that song,” she said. He said, “That’s mine.” He plays another song. Beyoncé said, “Oh, I love that.” [MNEK said] “That’s [also] mine”.
Finally, about 30 minutes later, she asked, “What can I have?” And then she said, “Jon, we should get him to write it down. hold up” [from her album, Lemonade]. We gave him a draft of the song. A week later he sent me back ideas for three poems.
“I kept one of the verses,” she told me. This only shows how talented he is [MNEK is]. Thank you for participating in this project. And then the second song is another Beyoncé song called Run (lose everything).
What I love about Britain is its communities. Everyone plays music for each other. I came here, met with the A&R, and everyone played me music. When I met Ed Howard [Co-President of Atlantic Records UK]One day he played me a song that he wanted to do for Rudimental but it didn’t work out. This is a naughty boy record.
I don’t know why he gave me a copy of that song, but he gave me a copy of that song. I was like, “This song is crazy.”
So I asked Beyoncé to listen to the song, but I told her: “This song is not available. Listen to it. Maybe we can work with the songwriter”.
She emailed me back and said, “This is great. This could be the first song on the album.
So I had this song for her, but Naughty Boy didn’t drop the record. Then I met my friend Green [Aikins, Co-President, RCA UK & Since 93 ]. I said, OK, Green is my guy and he’s going to help me break the record. This is not the case,
It’s a bit of a long story, but in the end, I said, “They’re not going to give up on this song. We’re going to keep him singing.”
So I finally asked her, “Why don’t we just do this song? It’s a great song…”
She wrote the song with him, which went to number one in the UK. So it was a great moment in the UK and that led to us working with these writers, which resulted in this song free on her album [Lemonade] with Carla Marie Williams, [Arrow Benjamin] and Jonny Cofer.
Another big story is a song written in England [co-written by Angela Hunte, Janet Sewell, and UK songwriter Al Shux]. . This is probably my most famous song. This is Jay Z’s Empire mentality. That song was written in England, the original demo, and it was an R&B record.
Teamwork is very important and I am lucky to be part of a great team. Jody Gerson [Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group]who here, actually hired me. If Jody hadn’t hired me in 1995, I wouldn’t be on stage, so, thank you. But there’s Guy Mutter [Co-Chair and CEO of Warner Chappell Music] I also worked with EMI. A very good friend.
But the song also has an unsung hero Empire mentality. The beauty of Britain is its spirit of collaboration.
I didn’t put that session together, I heard the song six months after it was written. The person who wrote this song is one of the most unsung heroes of British A&R, Amber Davis [SVP, Warner Chappell Music UK].
Years later I was lucky enough to work with Amber at Warner Bros. where she signed Stormzy, Skepta, Dave, J Hus. So many people. I’m proud of you. A lot of the things I can do in the UK are because of you, because of Guy [Moot]Tim [Blacksmith] and denny [D of Stellar Songs]Thank you to my team at Warner, and to Guy, you’ve done a great job there and carrying on the tradition and the legacy.
Then I came to Sony Music Group. I got to work with our beautiful leader, Rob Stringer, who cares deeply about artists and songwriters. This is an amazing thing. I just want to congratulate and thank all the British songwriters for everything you’ve done for this industry and everything you’ve done for the world and for letting me be a part of it. Thanks.
And Tim [Ingham]I think what you did is beautiful. You’re honoring the C-suite, the A&R, the management behind the scenes. I think this is awesome.
If I can give you some closing words that I hope are meaningful, I’ve been doing that, you know, next year Jody will be 30 years old. [Gerson] Hire me and if you succeed as a creative in this industry you may be lucky enough to lead a company.
I look at all the people who have succeeded this way – Kevin [Liles]Aaron [Bay-Schuck]and david [Ventura]. [I see] Ruian Publishing House [President of A&R, U.S. for Warner Chappell Music] Here, he’s a guy who trusts me a lot and he’s doing a great job.
When you succeed as a creative and lead a company, the reward is that you don’t have to do anything [the creative work] That’s all.
Someone once asked me: “Do you miss working with writers like MNEK?”. Of course I do.
They said, “Do you miss the A&R process?” I said, “Yes.” They ask, “So, how do you fill that gap?”
I’m lucky enough to be able to fill that void because now I don’t have regular exposure to A&R songwriters, but as a leader I do get to have exposure to the A&R people’s journeys and coach those executives.
I’m a human being, my wife will tell you, [that doesn’t] Celebrate much, if at all. What I’m telling you is, when you’re 30 years old – and I saw Max Luzada sitting there – you realize you don’t really appreciate it [the creative work]because you can’t do that anymore.
But you do get to see these other careers develop and be a part of them, which is very exciting.
What I tell you is, stop and smell the roses every now and then. Then get your ass back to work. Thanks.global music business
