The Era of Creative and Economic Freedom.
PLATOON — Mission Possible.
As 2017 comes to close, I get to reflect on an amazing year of start-up magic - the year of Platoon. We have had the honour to work with some of the world’s most amazing new artists; Billie Eilish, Eyal Gever, Gabrielle Aplin, Greg Williams, Jacob Banks, Jorja Smith, Maleek Berry, Mr Eazi, Raleigh Ritchie, Rex Orange County, Stefflon Don, Suli Breaks, YEBBA… to name a few.
Some of the many, many highlights have been Afrobeats star Mr Eazi selling out the RoundHouse, YEBBA finally emerging to the world with the beautiful, Evergreen, Eyal Gever sculpting the first art sculpture in space and of course, the magnificent Jorja Smith winning the 2018 BRITs Critics’ Choice award.
Putting things into context, I’ve been in music all of my life. Student, music therapist and musician in the 70’s; producer, tour manager, entrepreneur and artist manager in the 80’s and 90’s with a most incredible 6 years working with Paul Simon and Graceland. In 1996, I saw a need and launched AWAL -Artists Without A Label, providing a platform for great talent to get their music distributed independently. We were very early disruptors.
In 2001, I met Steve Jobs and started an adventure unimaginable at the time advising and consulting in all things music. In 2003 iTunes launched in the USA, a year later in UK, France and Germany and then of course the rest of the world. Always given the opportunity to push boundaries, I got to work on amazing projects like the 30-day iTunes Apple Music festival from 2007–2016, and help launch ground-breaking global initiatives.
In 2012 AWAL sold to Kobalt and the original artist-first vision and learnings continued to evolve as I really listened to more and more artists, creatives, fans and managers. A conversation with Saul Klein instigated the spark to launch Platoon in 2016. At that time too I had the opportunity of meeting Jorja Smith and her manager after hearing her song ‘Blue Lights’ on Soundcloud. Once you meet a truly great artist like Jorja you are inspired and elevated to trust the fearless creative process.
We put an amazing team together and in a very short time a community developed that attracted, in addition to the creatives mentioned above, all of the artists we’re excited about on this playlist. A few artists have signed with major labels which we fully support. We set out on a path of learning and understanding the DNA of artists, managers, creatives and what they truly need. Feedback is that Platoon feels like “family” and a community built on trust.
The work speaks for itself. Stories have been told. Platoon has had no press, no media, no website. In fact this is the very first foray into telling the story. Watch this space….
Interested in joining the family? We’re hiring.
— —
Follow us:
Twitter: @weareplatoon
Instagram: @weareplatoon
Medium: #PlatoonStories
