Eleven: A Music Company

Eleven: A Music Company is an Australian record label known for its small but successful roster, including Silverchair and Missy Higgins. The company was founded on 11 November 2000 by leading artist manager John Watson.

History

John Watson grew up in Townsville, North Queensland. He worked in independent record stores there while still at high school then left Townsville with local indie band, The Spliffs in 1986. In the late 1980's he worked as a freelance music journalist while completing an honours degree in politics at the University of New South Wales. In 1991 he became the Sydney based Artist and Repertoire manager for Sony Music Australia and later also became the company's Director of International Marketing. In 1994, Watson the young rock trio Silverchair came to his attention. After being jointly responsible for signing the band to the new murmur imprint he left Sony, became Silverchair's manager and founded John Watson Management. Under Watson's guidance Silverchair had immediate worldwide commercial success and have since gone on to sell more than six million CD's and achieve five #1 albums in Australia.

When Silverchair's deal with Sony ended in 2000, Watson formed Eleven: a music company to release their works. He also signed several other successful Australian artists to the label, including Missy Higgins, Paul Mac, Kisschasy, The Dissociatives and Little Birdy. John Watson Management represents all of these artists and also counts multiplatinum selling artists Wolfmother and Pete Murray as management clients (although they are not signed to the Eleven label).

Eleven took its name from the amplifier in the cult movie "This Is Spinal Tap". Like that amplifier the label seeks to go one step further in its efforts on behalf of its artists.

Eleven's releases were originally distributed in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia (except Japan) by Virgin/EMI. In the rest of the world, however, the label is of independent status and some of its artists are signed to different labels in other territories. For example Missy Higgins is with Warner Brothers Records and Silverchair most recent album Young Modern was distributed in the U.S by Warner Music's Independent Label Group (ILG).

In July 2008, Watson announced that Eleven would be leaving EMI and joining Universal on 11 September 2008. The new deal allows Eleven and its artists to have total control over marketing and promotion and to more closely link the marketing and promotion of recordings and tours. In a statement, Watson said "Instead of the traditional approach of having one group of people trying to sell CDs while others try to sell concert tickets, artists need to be in the broader business of building enduring relationships with their audiences in all the different forms that may take. Universal Music truly understands all this, so our new deal will allow us to integrate those processes much more seamlessly.

Management/label roster

• Silverchair
• The Dissociatives
• Paul Mac
• Missy Higgins
• Little Birdy
• Wolfmother
• Kisschasy

See also

• List of record labels

References

Craig Mathieson The Sell In

External links

• Official website