Streaming is driving growth in Russia, and that in turn is driving consolidation from the global major labels, as they seek to firm up their footholds in the market. Warner Music Group announced yesterday that it is acquiring Russian independent label Zhara Music, and rebranding it as Atlantic Records Russia.
Zhara co-founder Bahh Tee will lead the label as ‘general producer’, and WMG says it will continue to operate as a separate office from Warner Music Russia – although the latter will provide “legal and financial support, catalogue registration and content distribution” for it.
HammAli & Navai; Зомб; Morgenshtern; Slava Marlow; Rauf & Faik; Jony, Elman and Andro are among the artists on Zhara Music who’ll be releasing through Atlantic Records Russia now.
Russia was the 16th biggest recorded music market globally in 2020 according to the IFPI, with 84% of its revenues coming from streaming.
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