IDOL Inks Two North American Deals, Appoints US Label Manager
Expands agreement with New York’s Le Plan Recordings to service full roster, Caravan Palace album out Friday
Signs new North Carolina label, Old Soul Music
Appoints US Label Manager to support growing North American repertoire
Independent digital distributor and A&L services company, IDOL has strengthened its North American division by striking new deals with Le Plan Recordings and Old Soul Music, as well as hiring a US Label & Project Manager.
IDOL has expanded its agreement with New York-based Le Plan Recordings to provide worldwide digital distribution and marketing for all catalogue and frontline titles. The deal also includes audience development services, international coordination, and physical distribution for new releases. IDOL’s previous agreement with Le Plan covered digital distribution for a select number of catalogue titles.
The new deal continues IDOL’s long-term relationship with Caravan Palace, which includes their upcoming album Gangbusters Melody Club, out on Friday (1st March). IDOL will exclusively distribute the band via Le Plan in North America, as well as offer direct distribution in France and selected territories worldwide. To date, Caravan Palace has sold over 700K albums in the US, and achieved two RIAA certifications for tracks, ‘Lone Digger’ (Platinum) and ‘Wonderland’ (Gold).
IDOL has signed a global distribution and marketing deal with Old Soul Music – the new North Carolina-based label launched by Austin Hart (also known as producer L’Orange). The label released its debut album from Nappyhigh in October 2023, with its roster also including veteran rapper and producer J-Live and more.
Mandy Freebairn also joins IDOL’s US team as Label & Project Manager to support its growing North American repertoire of artists and labels, as well as increase its marketing offering in the region. Based in New York, Freebairn will report to IDOL’s US General Manager, Thomas Sharp Maxwell. Freebairn joins IDOL from Omnian Music Group (Captured Tracks, 2MR and Sinderlyn), where she project managed releases from The Lemon Twigs, Widowspeak, Juan Wauters, Kedr Livanskiy, and TATYANA.
The deals and new hire follow a series of recent US partnerships made by IDOL, including Young Art Records belonging to DJ/producer TOKiMONSTA in November 2023. IDOL also signed US hip hop artist Erick the Architect in July 2023, with his new album I've Never Been Here Before, including features from Channel Tres, Joey Bada$$, and production from James Blake, released on 23rd February.
Thomas Sharp Maxwell, US General Manager at IDOL, said: “As IDOL continues its growth in North America, we couldn’t be more excited to welcome two new imprints that align perfectly with IDOL’s ‘music-first’ ethos. Both Le Plan Recordings and Old Soul Music bring a new level of variety to our already eclectic roster of labels & artists and we’re delighted to play a part in the future success of each - both in the US market and abroad.”
Laurent Masset, founding owner at Le Plan Recordings, commented: “I'm excited to extend my partnership with IDOL, and to start this new chapter with the release of Caravan Palace’s new album. We’ve achieved tremendous success with the band in the US already and with the help of IDOL's’ Audience Development team, we're hoping to keep growing their fanbase.This partnership will also help us in our international development considering IDOL’s strong European presence.”
Austin Hart (AKA L'Orange), owner & CEO at Old Soul Music, added: "At Old Soul Music, we’re extremely excited about our partnership with IDOL. When we first started this company, we wanted to do something new and something human. With IDOL’s forward-thinking philosophy and unwavering dedication to label support, it was a natural fit to partner together. In a world where so many people working music are passionate about everything except the work, it’s a pleasure and an honor to partner with a company that is as excited as we are to put in the time and effort to help artists. Together, we’re looking forward to creating the change we want to see both in the industry and in artists’ lives."
About IDOL
IDOL is a digital distributor that provides world-leading service to some of the most prestigious names in independent music. Its diverse roster, built around the highest standards of artistic curation, includes Erased Tapes, Fire Records, Glitterbeat, Gondwana, AIM Awards 2022 winners Local Action, Soundway, SRD, Ubisoft, Acrophase, B3SCI and Exceleration Music, whilst also working with artists like Four Tet, Erick the Architect, TOKiMONSTA, Daphni, La Femme, L’Impératrice, Yemi Alade, Ibrahim Maalouf, Afro B, and Lomepal.
IDOL was founded in 2006 by Pascal Bittard as one of the first fully digital distributors, with “independence is a strength” as its core belief. Its offering combines unbeatable label management and marketing services with a focus on long-term catalogue development – an approach that consistently achieves better results for its clients.
IDOL operates its own digital distribution platform, Labelcamp, which offers state-of-the-art supply chain management tools and analytics dashboards to its distributed partners. Labelcamp is also available as a SaaS product for third-party labels and distributors, and is used by the likes of [PIAS], Because, Concord and Ditto.
IDOL’s team and operations are spread across Paris, London, Berlin, New York, LA, Nashville and Johannesburg.
About Le Plan Recordings
Le Plan Recordings is an electronic music label based in New York. Launched in 2008, the label’s artists come from France (Caravan Palace, The Strangers), Austria (Parov Stelar) and Belgium (Boogie Belgique), and share a home studio-based ethos and a love of DJ culture. Together they have sold over 1 million albums in the USA.
About Old Soul Music
Old Soul Music is a newly launched label that was founded earlier this year by Austin Hart, also known as the artist L’Orange. Austin spent nearly 15 years working for US independent hip hop label Mello Music Group before finally branching out on his own with the goal of helping independent artists release their music more effectively. While the label is launching as primarily a hiphop focused company, he has commitments from other artists across other genres like Americana and experimental.