"Stargate were like a secret weapon. We had great success with Rihanna and Ne-Yo. In only 2 years, they’ve generated 10 singles in the Top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and 3 of those singles hit the # 1 position. This has been a rewarding partnership and it was time to take the creative venture to the next level," commented JAY-Z.
"We’ve already had a lot of success together and look forward to building the new company," added Stargate. "Roc Nation and Live Nation are two of the most exciting companies in the music business today and we want to be part of that future."
StarRoc, based in New York, is a natural next step for the Norwegian duo that have already had successful collaborations with JAY-Z and the Carter Administration. Most recently Stargate has scored with the #1 songs "Irreplaceable" (Beyonce), "Take A Bow" (Rihanna), "Closer" (Ne-Yo) and "Unfaithful" (Rihanna). The focus is to find new talent and develop artists through mutually beneficial global partnerships which include music distribution, publishing, touring and merchandising.
Stargate, comprised of Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel S. Eriksen are 6x time Grammy nominated 2008 producers, the 2007 PRS/ASCAP Songwriters of the Year, 2008 Rolling Stone Magazine Hitmakers of the Year, 2008 Ivor Novello Award recipients, Billboard #1 Hot Producers 2006 and multiaward- winning ASCAP songwriters 2006-2008.
This groundbreaking new division, headed by Shawn Carter will partner with artists to manage their diverse rights, expand their fan bases and provide a direct connection to fans through the global distribution platform and marketing proficiencies that have made Live Nation the world’s largest live music company. Artist Nation is an equal partner in the new business unit. Utilizing Live Nation’s global resources Roc Nation will provide a full range of services to the Roc Nation roster.
ABOUT LIVE NATION:
Live Nation’s mission is to maximize the live concert experience for artists, fans and sponsors. Our core business is buying and producing artist rights and monetizing those rights via our global distribution pipe. Live Nation is the largest producer of live music concerts in the world, annually producing over 16,000 concerts for 1,500 artists in 57 countries. The company sells over 45 million concert tickets a year and expects to drive over 60 million unique visitors to livenation.com in 2008. Live Nation is transforming the concert business by expanding its concert platform into direct concert ticketing and building the industry’s only artist-to-fan vertically integrated concert platform.
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SOURCE: Live Nation