Independent distribution and marketing company Ditto Music announced the launch of a new artist management division. Ditto Management will operate as a stand-alone company and will be helmed by Matt Dodds, former A&R manager with the UK-based Jem Music.
According to Rolling Stone, which first reported the launch, acts already on the roster at launch for the new management venture include Big Zuu, DJ Nathan Dawe, R&B artist Bobbi Lewis and singer-songwriter Nathan Brooks.
“My vision is that artists will use Ditto to get their music up on Spotify and Apple Music, and we can work with some of them and keep hold of them,” Dodds told Rolling Stone. “If you have a management company as part of your service, it means you can
find those artists, the Ed Sheerans and the Sam Smiths, and nurture them from an early stage.”
According to Ditto, the new management venture is a first from an independent music distributor and falls in line with the company’s view that 2019 will see multiple music distribution companies make a push to become full-service companies.
“The space is going absolutely crazy at the moment. In this landscape, everybody is diving into everything — there’s SoundCloud adding distribution, Spotify and distribution,” Ditto CEO Lee Parsons told Rolling Stone. “I’d rather focus on the long-term. For me, it’s more about A&R than building out technology. It’s hard to label what Ditto is with distribution and management together, but I’d say it’s like a very fair record label. This is a brand-new infrastructure that hasn’t been done before.”