Beggars Group, home to indie labels such as XL Recordings, Matador, 4AD and Rough Trade has entered into a partnership with Ben Turner and Simon Astall to launch a new music supervision, licensing and composition company, called Colourbox Music.
Turner and Astall are the partners behind the award-winning London-based music supervision company Earworm Music.
UK Companies House filings confirm that Colourbox Music is a true 50/50 joint venture, with Beggars Group owning 50% of the company and Turner and Astall splitting the other 50%.
Colourbox Music will be based in London and Los Angeles, specializing in music for Film, TV, Advertising and Gaming.
The company will also launch a joint publishing venture focused around writers in what it calls “bespoke composition and scoring”.
It also plans to work closely with the Beggars Group (4AD, Matador, Rough Trade, XL Recordings and Young), its licensing teams and the Beggars Music publishing arm to provide new opportunities in composing to their artists, writers and composers.
Ben Turner and Simon Astall have worked alongside directors including Andrea Arnold, Baz Luhrmann, Danny Boyle and David Lynch.
They have also supervised Film & TV projects for A24 Films (American Honey), HBO (Big Little Lies, S2, and Run), Netflix (White Lines), and FX (Trust).
Current projects include a new A24 drama film starring Joaquin Phoenix called C’mon C’mon (directed by Mike Mills), Cow by Andrea Arnold (BBC), a 10-part Amazon series called The Power based on the award-winning book by Naomi Alderman, along with music documentaries on Karen Dalton and Professor Longhair.
“We wanted to create a much broader offering for our clients around our work in Film, TV and Advertising and are excited to partner with the Beggars Group.”
Ben Turner and Simon Astall
Turner and Astall said: “We wanted to create a much broader offering for our clients around our work in Film, TV and Advertising and are excited to partner with the Beggars Group – one of the world’s most respected and valued independent music companies.
“We’ve really enjoyed the process of collaborating with them in the past, and we are very aligned on a new company which will act independently of Beggars but have access to their catalogue, composers and artists to create new opportunities in this creative landscape.”
“When Ben and Simon approached us to develop a new company that was much more than a traditional supervision company, it was an easy decision.”
Paul Redding, Beggars Group
Paul Redding, Beggars Group CEO, added: “As our artists and songwriters have become increasingly involved in projects across film, television, advertising and video games, music supervision has been something we have been exploring for a while now.
“When Ben and Simon approached us to develop a new company that was much more than a traditional supervision company, it was an easy decision.
“They have a proven track record and it became immediately clear that their talent would integrate brilliantly with our record and publishing companies to deliver new opportunities for our artists and writers alongside developing an exciting new part to our global business.”
Beggars Group revenues hit $83m in 2019, while XL Recordings generated over $50m.Music Business Worldwide