Concord Music has acquired the London-based record label Independiente Records. Independiente currently serves as a label home to the Scottish rock band Travis, as well as Embrace, So Solid Crew, Archive, Martina Topley-Bird and Paul Weller, among others.
Independiente was launched by label veteran Andy McDonald in 1997 after he sold his first label Go! Discs to Polygram Records for a reported $30 million. Since 2009, Independiente stopped releasing material by new artists and has built a successful sync business for its existing catalog.
Independiente’s best selling artist Travis first scored international success with the 1999 release of The Man Who. The album peaked at #1 on the UK Chart and has since shifted more than 3.5 million copies.
Travis’ 2001 follow-up, The Invisible Band, also reached #1 on the UK Chart with the radio hits “Sing” and “Flowers in the Window.”
Independiente also found #1 UK Chart success with recording artist Embrace and two of their releases, Out of Nothing and This New Day. So Solid Crew’s hit “21 Seconds” likewise found its way to the #1 position upon release.
“It was very important to me to hand over this collected body of work to a label who both understands and respects the work that has been put in from the artists and label staff and it was immediately apparent from our meetings with Scott [Pascucci] and Steve that they tick both of those boxes and more. Concord Music has assembled a fantastic universe of brilliant music over the years and I am proud to see Independiente become an important part of that picture,” Macdonald said.
The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.