Content area
Full Text
Diversity is the key for Pinnacle as it continues its policy of aggressively seeking new business. Paul Gorman reports
Retaining its position as the UK's biggest indie distributor, Pinnacle enters the crucial autumn phase having already racked up a series of single and album chart-toppers this year, boosted by a stream of hits from the associated Zomba/Jive Group.
"It's been a good year - we've had an excellent run-up to the busiest period, and a lot of the companies we handle are now looking to capitalise on that," says managing director Tony Powell.
"As well as the huge successes we've scored with our other labels, the Jive deal has really begun to kick in. There was always a pretty good relationship between us, but now we have overcome the minor teething problems you'd associate with a merger of that magnitude. When you get the top independent distributor and the top indie label together it's a recipe for success."
Now the company is seeking to maintain momentum with a release schedule which Powell says reflects that diversity across the 100-plus labels it represents, from Jive's R&B superstar R Kelly and new pop hopes Steps to China's folk-punk veterans the Levellers, Survival's Celtic roots act Capercaille and Jennifer Paige, Edel's new US diva who was expected to enter the Top 10 UK singles chart this week.
"There are no priorities here: each company gets the same amount of attention," Powell claims. "We can't operate by clearing the decks for one particular label. The market is forever changing, so Jive is as important to us as, say, a small dance company or the BBC."
Those indies helping boost Pinnacle's market share so far this year include veteran US rap label Profile, which achieved one of the biggest-selling and most-licensed tracks of the year with It's Like That by Run DMC Vs Jason Nevins, which has sold 1.1m copies since release this spring. Meanwhile Mushroom Records delivered Garbage's number one album Version 2.0 but fared less well with Peter Andre.
Powell also points to the re-recruitment of Chrysalis Group's Echo Records, which was originally handled by Pinnacle in the early Nineties and this year produced Sir George Martin's...