- Former Essential Head of Finance to head operation

- Staff bring over 50 years of combined experience

- First new client is R&S Records

27th November 2014, London:-  Cooking Vinyl Group has launched a new co-owned business venture – the Music Royalty Co (MRC).

Set up to help labels and publishers cope with the exponential growth in data associated with music streaming, MRC’s USP is the team’s accountancy nous.  This enables it to look beyond just auditing to understand whether the data received in the first place is correct – a valuable insight given the number of accounting errors originating earlier in the supply chain.

Utilising world-leading professional royalty accounting software Counterpoint, MRC also offers audits, US mechanicals, PPL registrations, and CWR files for copyright society registrations, alongside a full accountancy offering.

MRC has also invested significantly in its IT systems to ensure fast processing times and complete security around sensitive client data, including protected backups. Likewise, the company’s online portal enables clients to securely upload data and files directly to its servers.

Based out of offices in London Bridge from January, MRC is managed by co-owner Ray Bush, who has been Head of Finance for Essential Music & Marketing for the last four years. The MRC team also consists of former Cooking Vinyl staff Tegan Sims (Head of Royalties) and Sam Difford (Office Manager), and Gerri Geraghty who is joining the company as Consultant.  Together with Bush they boast over 50 years experience in the music industry and have produced over 40,000 statements between them. Cooking Vinyl MD Martin Goldschmidt and Essential MD Mike Chadwick serve as Directors.

As well as delivering royalty services to Cooking Vinyl Records, Essential Music & Marketing, Cooking Vinyl Publishing, CV America and Cooking Vinyl Australia, MRC will work with external clients such as R&S Records.

Replacing Bush as Essential’s Head of Finance will be Joe Gilbert who currently works as Management Accountant for Cooking Vinyl.

Ray Bush said of the new venture: “The explosion in data analysis caused by streaming means there’s never been a more important time for companies to get their royalty processes straight. We believe that there’s a real gap in the market for a company like MRC, which truly understands how those work, and we’re excited to show people what we can do.”

About Cooking Vinyl

Established in 1986, Cooking Vinyl has developed a reputation as one of Europe’s prime artist-focused independent labels, inspiring an enviable loyalty among its artist roster. It is also in the vanguard of music companies offering innovative services-only deals that claim no stake in artists’ copyrights.

Cooking Vinyl takes full responsibility for the management of a project whether working via a traditional royalty-based deal or in a label services capacity. Adding more than just marketing muscle, Cooking Vinyl devises and implements worldwide sales, marketing and distribution plans for its artists, working alongside booking agents and artist managers.

Artists signed to Cooking Vinyl include Embrace, Röyksopp, James, Amanda Palmer, The Prodigy, Marilyn Manson and Billy Bragg. Such is the loyalty and affection among artists for the label that the likes of Frank Black have returned close to 20 times to record fresh collections with them. The Prodigy’s Invaders Must Die was Europe’s biggest selling independent album in 2009.

Cooking Vinyl Records is a member of the CV Group of companies, which include Essential Music & Marketing, CV America, Cooking Vinyl Australia, Cooking Vinyl Group France, Cooking Vinyl Group Germany, Cooking Vinyl Publishing and Cooking Vinyl Property.

http://cookingvinyl.com/