Lifestyle
9.28.2021
Saudi label Bridj Entertainment signs new partnership with US giant Empire
Every hip-hop fan knows Empire from near and far. Mention 50 Cent, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg and you’ll instantly think of one of the hits on your Spotify playlist. But it turns out that your Spotify playlist may soon be expanded to include a Saudi hit, as the famous label has just signed a multi-year global deal with its Saudi alter ego Bridj. The aim? To bring Eastern and Western culture closer through music.
Bring cultures together through music
“Exporting culture in the most fruitful way possible and disseminating the emerging artistic expression of today’s Saudi world“. This is, in a few words, the objective that drives the founders of the Saudi label Bridj Entertainment.
With this in mind, the company has signed a brand new partnership with Empire, an unheralded American label that will provide strategic distribution services to Bridj Entertainment’s artists for the next few years, and will help the company to complete and perfect its existing global contracts.
Proudly, Saüd, head of the Saudi label, said: “We are honoured to have the opportunity to build a strong partnership with a global powerhouse like Empire, as we export our musical vision around the world”.
Bring East and West together through music
Brij Entertainment is a label founded in 2017 in Los Angeles, California by Saudi producer and curator Saud Alturki.
His desire, and as the label’s name suggests, was to bridge the cultural gap between east and west by creating diverse collaborations and creating a unique space open to talent from an emerging and fertile region that is the MENA region.
This collective welcomes all styles of music without any limits in order to highlight the unknown regional talents that are emerging and developing in the Middle East.
The Empire label or the American success story
Empire is an American label founded in 2010 by Ghazi Shami and based in San Francisco.
If the company started out simply as a digital distribution aggregator, i.e. a tool that allows artists to place their music production on the main online music sales services and streaming platforms, it will quickly take a new turn and, in 2013, will operate as a label, with the rapper Sage The Gemini as its first collaboration.
To differentiate itself from other professionals in the business, the label decided to offer non-exclusive contracts to its artists. This means that they can use another distribution service at the same time. But that’s not all, as Empire also wanted to distinguish itself financially by offering an advantageous share of the income to the artists (on a basis of 80% for the artist and 20% for Empire).
It is these two criteria, offering flexibility and transparency to artists, that have allowed the company to build up an incredibly extensive urban catalogue, from Top Dawg Entertainement to Anderson Paak to Rich Homie Quan to Young Dolph.
With experts like these, there is no doubt that this partnership will be a success!
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