Music Industry Moves: SalXCo Signs Co-Management Deal With Revels Group for Producers Wallis Lane (EXCLUSIVE)

Thania Garcia and Jem Aswad
·8 min read

Grammy-nominated producers Wallis Lane have signed a global co-management deal with SalXCo and the Revels Group.

The Los-Angeles based songwriting-production duo — Farsi (Paimon Jahanbin) and Nizzy (Nima Jahanbin) — has produced multiple hit singles and projects for artists including Travis Scott (“Wake Up,” “Houstonfornication”), Tiesto (“Jackie Chan”), Drake (“Is There More,” “Nothings Into Somethings”), Kanye West (“Heaven & Hell,” “New Again”), Post Malone (“Saint-Tropez”), Migos (“Having Our Way”), Justin Bieber (“We’re in This Together”) and more. The duo also co-produced three tracks (“Lil Secret,” “Like A Blade of Grass” and “Parent Trap,” featuring Justin Timberlake) from Jack Harlow’s latest album, “Come Home the Kids Miss You.” They also produced “21C / Delta” from Harlow’s previous album.

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At SalXCo, Wallis Lane joins a roster that includes the Weeknd, Doja Cat, Swedish House Mafia, Ty Dolla Sign, Bebe Rexha, Metro Boomin, London on da Track, Rex Kudo and more; they will work with a team including Ryan Ramsey, Alan Zadeh and Wassim “Sal” Slaiby. The Revels Group’s management roster includes G-Eazy, Gibson Hazard, Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, Ambezza, Tommy Parker, Maaly Raw and more; they will work with Matt Geffen, Jamil Davis, Matt Bauerschmidt and Brian White. (Pictured above, L-R: Rahsaan “Shake” Phelps (SalXCo), Summer W.,  Paimon Jahanbin (Wallis Lane), Alan Zadeh (SalXCo), Brian White (The Revels Group), Wassim “Sal” Slaiby (SalXCo), Jamil Davis (The Revels Group), Nima Jahanbin (Wallis Lane), Matt Geffen (The Revels Group), Ryan Ramsey (SalXCo)

Wallis Lane says, “We are excited to announce our new partnership with SalXCo and the Revels Group. Aligning forces with the two best management companies allows us to pursue and accomplish our goals and aspirations. We are so fortunate to have found an incredible team that supports and guides our vision. Thank you Sal and Jamil for making this incredible milestone happen. Looking forward to the next chapter in our journey!”

+ Chad Kudelka has joined Creative Artists Agency as an agent in the company’s music touring department. Kudelka will split time between Austin, Texas, and the agency’s Nashville office.  He comes to CAA from Red 11 Music, the Nashville and Austin-based agency he co-founded. His client roster includes artists including Cody Johnson, Koe Wetzel, Kolby Cooper, Pecos & The Rooftops, Randall King, Roger Creager, and Ray Wylie Hubbard, among others.  

“Chad’s stellar reputation in the industry goes without saying, and we’ve long admired his talent in signing and developing a roster of remarkable clients,” said Marc Dennis, co-head of Nashville Music at CAA.  

+ Saban Music Group has fortified the executive team of the recently launched Saban Music Latin by hiring Liz Leyva as vice president of Latin marketing and Cristobal Brito as senior director of Latin A&R. They will report to Saban Music Latin EVP and General Manager Alejandro Reglero.

Over her career Leyva has held executive positions at Universal Music Latin Entertainment, NBC Universal, and, most recently, Sony Music U.S. Latin, where she worked closely with Becky G, Natti Natasha, Jennifer Lopez, and Reik. Puerto Rican native Brito co-founded Good Family Group, which managed producers and songwriters such as Latin Grammy Award winners Jon the Producer, Palace, and others. He also served as director of publishing for Rimas Publishing.

Saban CEO Gustavo Lopez said, “Liz and Cristobal are two of the most respected and innovative executives in the business. I’ve watched them from the outside, and they’ve each impressed me. They’re perfect to really ignite the next chapter of Saban Music Group.”

+ Warner Music Canada has appointed Julia Hummel to the new role of VP of digital strategy & business development. According to the announcement, Hummel — who joins from Amazon Music Canada but began her career at Warner Canada in 2014 — will help the label’s artists leverage the opportunities opening up in the web3 universe, as well as working to continue to strengthen relationships with its existing digital partners. She will be based in Toronto and report to Andy West, EVP/GM of Warner Music Canada.

“Julia is a brilliant, creative executive and it’s a pleasure to welcome her back to Warner Music Canada.  She understands how campaigns work from the perspective of artists, labels and different types of digital services and how we can all work together to deliver moments that impact culture and shape lives.”

+ Sony Music Publishing has signed a global administration deal with the artist MAX, in addition to launching Colour Vision Publishing in partnership with SMP. The first signing to  Colour Vision is Cody Dear.

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AJR has signed with Mercury Records, the Universal Music label that recently relaunched via Republic Records. The New York-based trio of brothers Adam (vocals/bass), Jack (vocals/guitar), and Ryan (guitar/piano/vocals) Met, are currently in the midst of the U.S. leg of their OK Orchestra world tour. The group joins a Mercury roster that includes Post Malone, James Bay, Lord Huron, Jeremy Zucker, Chelsea Cutler, and Noah Kahan, among others.

The group said in a statement, “We couldn’t be more excited to be partnering with Mercury Records. We knew from our first meeting with their team that they understood our creative vision and are the right label to take the band to the next level.”

+ LimeWire and Universal Music Group have inked a global deal to bring UMG artists’ digital collectibles to a global audience through LimeWire’s NFT marketplace.

As part of what is described as a complete rebrand, LimeWire will begin to offer new digital collectibles in marketplace format focusing on music, art, and entertainment. UMG will provide licenses that will allow LimeWire to partner with UMG artists in order to launch music-based NFT projects. UMG artists, as well as many of its labels (Interscope, Republic, Def Jam, Capitol, Motown and others), will have the option to offer audio recordings, audiovisual content, backstage footage and any artwork and images as NFTs on the LimeWire marketplace and sell them directly to fans and collectors.

“We see this partnership as a true demonstration of the pace at which the music industry is embracing Web3,” said Paul and Julian Zehetmayr, LimeWire Co-CEOs. “We’re thrilled to open up the LimeWire NFT ecosystem to Universal Music Group artists and fans and can’t wait to see the first creative projects being launched on the marketplace.”

+ BMG has promoted Dominique Casimir to chief content officer; the Berlin-based exec will also join the BMG board, charged with representing the company’s repertoire interests. Casimir, who joined the company in 2008, is currently EVP repertoire & marketing for the European Union, Asia-Pacific and Latin America and oversees synch and corporate responsibility. She will also take on U.K. repertoire, with U.K. repertoire and marketing president Alistair Norbury reporting to her. She will continue to report to CEO Hartwig Masuch.

“Dominique is an exceptional music executive,” said Masuch. “She exemplifies so many of the key attributes of BMG itself, with a rare talent to communicate with artists and songwriters on their own terms and an utter commitment to help them to achieve their objectives.”

+ Caitlin Haurie has joined Position Music as the company’s new senior director, creative synch (ads and brands) as announced by Tyler Bacon, president and CEO.

Haurie will report to Emily Weber, VP, head of synch. With the addition of Haurie, the synch team at Position Music rises to 11 full-time employees working solely on synchronization and music licensing. Prior to joining Position Music, Haurie was the senior director of synch at MNRK Music Group as well as senior manager of synch at Downtown Music Holdings.

“I’m very excited and grateful to have a powerhouse creative executive like Caitlin joining Position Music,” said Weber. “Our synch team has been growing over the past couple of years and Caitlin is an exciting addition to the team.”

+ 4AD has promoted Alyssa DeBonis and Sophie Hall to the positions of U.S. and U.K. label managers, respectively. Based in the New York office of the label’s parent company Beggars Group, DeBonis joined the label as an intern 10 years ago, left for a licensing and sync role at Big Deal Music Group and returned to 4AD in 2018 as West Coast manager and A&R. Hall joined 4AD in 2013 as a junior product manager.

The label also has promoted Will Tompsett to worldwide head of marketing and Isa Castro-Cota as U.S. communications manager, both based in New York.

+ Outback Presents has acquired Robomagic Live, joining forces to expand its global touring offerings. “Rob [Hallett, CEO of Robomagic Live] is one of the very few legends of the music business that I have met who has a shared vision of building a true artist partnership company where the relationship between promoter and artist is transparent,” said Vaugh Millette, CEO of Outback Presents. “We are thrilled to welcome Rob into the Outback family.”

+ Reservoir Media has inked a worldwide publishing deal with Roxy Music guitarist and songwriter-producer Phil Manzanera. The deal includes works from Manzanera’s catalog, which also includes songs by Pink Floyd, Tim Finn and Brian Eno, among others, plus future works.

+ Nettwerk Music Group has expanded its global team, bringing in Meg Tarquinio as VP of strategy and A&R in New York, Spencer Kelley as A&R in NY/London, Marshall Altman as VP of A&R in Nashville, Mark Abramowitz as director of A&R in Nashville, Eric Robinson as director of A&R in Los Angeles and Dan Medland in charge of Australian strategy and A&R in Sydney.

Nettwerk co-founder Mark Jowett says, “On behalf of the Nettwerk Partners, I can’t describe how honored we are to be working with such a team of passionate music executives. They all have incredible histories where each has demonstrated in their unique way, their ability to identify great music and help artists forge paths of success.”

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