Bison Music, a new independent publisher backed by Diplo and run by former Downtown Music Holdings CEO Andrew Bergman, launched on November 11. Its pitch goes against most of the past decade’s publishing deals: sign songwriters early, build their careers and let them keep real ownership.
Bergman is CEO. He is joined by COO Tom Lee, chief creative officer Juba Lee and general manager Jenny Ilibassi. Juba Lee used to run Diplo’s Mad Decent Publishing. Tom Lee founded Catchweight Entertainment and has worked in A&R at Columbia Records, Island Def Jam and Arcade Songs. The company is based in New York and Los Angeles and works with tmwrk, Diplo’s management team.
Why Bison Music matters for publishing
Diplo first put Bison together as a group of writers and producers. The launch roster is Picard Bros., Leclair, MAESIC, Nitti, Kaien Cruz, BomboCat, Akira Evans and Groupthink. Their credits include songs for BTS, Dua Lipa, Bad Bunny and JENNIE. Picard Bros. worked on “Electricity” by Silk City and Dua Lipa, which won the 2019 Grammy for Best Dance Recording.
Bison says it will combine hands-on A&R with funding, worldwide administration and data-driven support. Bergman said a new company’s advantage is that it can move quickly and keep costs low. He added that the best part of the job is still finding a great song from a writer nobody knows yet. Diplo said music needs “an injection of originality.”
The Downtown context
Bergman’s background makes the move stand out. In 2021, Downtown sold its 145,000 owned and co-published copyrights to a Concord affiliate, in a deal reported at more than $300 million. It then stopped owning rights and focused on services. Universal’s Virgin Music Group later bought that services business for $775 million. Impala, the European group representing independent labels, strongly opposed the deal.
Bergman helped take one company out of copyright ownership and into a sale to a major. Now he is going back to the earliest and riskiest part of the business: developing new writers.
What it means for the industry
For investors, Bison is a bet that publishers can still create value by developing new writers, not just by buying established catalogs. For labels and A&R teams, a publisher founded by an artist with a strong network of hitmakers is another way to find emerging writers. The big unknowns are money and scale. The launch announcement gave no details on funding, and the company says more signings will follow in the coming months.
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