Last night was a big night in the US, sure. But it was a big night in London too.
Yesterday evening (November 5) saw MBW’s Music Business UK Awards take place in Covent Garden, celebrating the very best that the UK music biz has to offer.
The night began with a surprise: the International Executive of the Year award, presented to Jon Platt by his friend and multi-talented songwriter and artist, MNEK.
The night’s International Executive award recognized a non-British company leader who has substantially furthered the prominence and success of UK and Irish music across the previous 12 months.
It was voted for by a panel of talent managers that subscribe to Music Business Worldwide‘s MBW+ tier, who considered executives across live, labels, management, music publishing, and more.
Platt, as MBW readers will know well, is the global Chairman and CEO of Sony Music Publishing, based in Los Angeles.
British musicians signed to SMP include a number of breakthrough and outstanding talents that have been active in the past year, including but not limited to Charli XCX, Myles Smith, Artemas, Beabadoobee, Calvin Harris, Tom Grennan, Central Cee, Hozier, Olivia Dean, Ed Sheeran and many more.
Addressing a packed-out audience at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms, Platt spoke fondly of his global team at Sony Music Publishing, and the UK songwriting community, and recounted how hits like Beyoncé’s Hold Up and Jay Z’s Empire State of Mind came together.
He also paid tribute to Rob Stringer [Chairman of Sony Music Group and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment], as well as leaders in the wider music publishing business, including Jody Gerson [Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group], who he noted, hired him 30 years ago at EMI, and Guy Moot [Co-Chair and CEO of Warner Chappell Music], who he worked with at EMI as well.
You can read an abridged version of his full speech below:
Thank you. It takes so much convincing for [MNEK] to do something, and for him to be here, means so much. Thank you also to Tim [Ingham, founder of] Music Business Worldwide. I really appreciate it.
I say no to pretty much every award right now, but when Tim [Ingham] called me and told me about this – I’ve never been honored in another country before. It just shows how global music is and the impact of it. And I appreciate it, Tim. Thank you so much. I usually thank my family last, but tonight, I want to thank them first.
Many of you in this room are A&Rs, you’re admin people, you’re people that are part of the music family. There are two things that are very important in this industry, [one of which] is trust. We have to trust each other to be able to achieve things. [The other thing] is commitment and sacrifice.
We sacrifice a lot for the talent that we work with, being away from our families, traveling the world. I didn’t realize how many people I knew in the UK, because it’s been decades, but I know so many people, and I got to feel that love when I walked in tonight. It’s like a family. But it’s also our family’s sacrifice to allow us to be a part of this family. I just want to thank my wife Angie, who’s here tonight, and my three beautiful sons who aren’t here.
To emphasize sacrifice, tonight is my wife’s birthday. When I found out about this, I told Tim [Ingham], “I don’t know if I can do it. It’s my wife’s birthday. I gotta ask my wife.” She was like: “Let’s go!” So thank you, and happy birthday. I love you.
I was thinking today about my history in the UK, and when we talk about the Executive of the Year, all of those amazing songwriters mentioned are because of the amazing team that I’m lucky to lead in the UK at Sony Music Publishing, led by David Ventura and Tim Major.
I want to thank everyone from Sony Music Publishing for your hard work and for your trust. You guys kill it every single day, and this is as much yours as it is mine. So thank you.
And then there’s the UK songwriters that I’ve worked with over the years. I want to give thanks to someone who was a bit of a hero of mine. I was able to sign Rod Temperton. I spent many nights with Rod and I want to thank him and his beautiful wife Kathy for trusting me. That’s when I was at Warner, and his catalog is still there and they’re taking great care of it. But that was a huge honor, and it made me so happy to walk in and hear all the Quincy Jones music. So thank you for that.
But as a publisher, my life in music is about songs, and I thought today about all of the music in the UK that I’ve been lucky to be a part of.
[MNEK] told you the story about [Beyoncé song] Hold Up. He was in my office, and I was like, okay, he’s gotta meet B. And I call her and she says, “Well, I’m leaving town tomorrow”.
I said, “Well, can you do this meeting?” She’s like, “I’m going out of town. Can we do it when I’m back?”
I said: “You have to take this meeting”.
She said: “Well, can you be here by 10am?”
And we went to her house on a Saturday, at 10 in the morning. We go down to the little studio she had and [MNEK] is playing her music.
And in typical [MNEK] fashion. She’s like, “I like that song”. He’s like, “That’s mine”. He plays another song. Beyoncé said: “Oh, I love that one,” [MNEK said] “That’s [also] mine”.
And so finally, after about 30 minutes, she’s like, “What can I have?” And then she says, “Jon, we should get him to write on Hold Up” [from her album, Lemonade]. And we gave him the draft for the song. A week later, he sent me back three verse ideas.
She told me, “I kept one of those verses”. It just shows how much of a genius [MNEK is]. Thank you for being a part of that project. And then the second song is another Beyoncé song called Runnin’ (Lose It All).
What I love about the UK is the community of it. Everyone plays music for each other. I come here, I meet with an A&Rs, and everybody plays me music. And when I was meeting with Ed Howard [Co-President of Atlantic Records UK], one day, he plays me this song that he was trying to get for Rudimental but it didn’t work out. It was a Naughty Boy record.
I don’t know why he gave me the copy of the song, but he gave me a copy of the song. And I was like, “This song is crazy”.
So I let Beyoncé hear the song, but I told her: “The song is not available. Just listen to it. Maybe we can work with the songwriters”.
And she emails me back, saying: “This is great. It could be the first song on the album.”
So that put a battery on my back to get this song for her, but Naughty Boy was not giving up the record. So then I met with my friend Glyn [Aikins, Co-President, RCA UK & Since 93 ]. I said, well, Glyn is my man, he’ll get the record for me. It didn’t work out that way,
It’s a bit of a longer story, but eventually, I said: “They’re not going to give up the song. We’ll keep him on the song”.
So finally I asked her, “Why don’t we just do the song anyway? It’s a great song…”
And she did the song with him, and it went number one here in the UK. And so that’s a great UK moment, which then led to us working with those writers, which led to the song Freedom on her album [Lemonade] with Carla Marie Williams, [Arrow Benjamin] and Jonny Coffer.
Another big story is a song that was written in the UK [co-written by Angela Hunte, Janet Sewell, and UK songwriter Al Shux]. . It’s probably the song that I’m most known for. It’s Jay Z’s Empire State of Mind. That song was written in the UK, the original demo, it was an R&B record.
Teamwork is so important, and I’ve been very lucky to be part of great teams. Jody Gerson [Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group], who is here, actually hired me. I wouldn’t be on the stage if Jody didn’t hire me in 1995 so, thank you. But then there’s also Guy Moot [Co-Chair and CEO of Warner Chappell Music] who I worked with in EMI as well. A great friend.
But then there’s this unsung hero about this song Empire State of Mind. And the beautiful thing about the UK is the spirit of collaboration.
I didn’t put that session together, I heard the song six months after it was written. The person who put the song together was one of the most unsung heroes in UK A&R , and that’s Amber Davis [SVP, Warner Chappell Music UK].
Years later, I was lucky to work with Amber at Warner, where she went on to sign Stormzy, Skepta, Dave, J Hus. So many people. I’m so proud of you. A lot of what I’ve been able to do in the UK is because of you, because Guy [Moot], Tim [Blacksmith] and Danny [D of Stellar Songs].Thank you to the team at Warner that I had, and Guy, you’re doing a great job there, carrying on the tradition and legacy.
And then that leads me to Sony Music Group. I get to work with our beautiful leader, Rob Stringer, who cares so much about artists and songwriters. It’s an amazing thing. And I just wanted to congratulate and say thank you to all the UK songwriters for all you do for this industry, and what you do for the world, and allowing me just to be a part of it. Thank you.
And Tim [Ingham], I think this is beautiful what you do. You are honoring the executives who are behind the scenes, the A&R, the admin people. I think it’s just fantastic.
If I can give you any closing words that I hope are meaningful, I’ve been doing this, you know, it’ll be 30 years next year since Jody [Gerson] hired me, and if you succeed as a creative in this business, you might be lucky enough to lead a company.
I look at all these people who have succeeded in this way – Kevin [Liles], Aaron [Bay-Schuck], and David [Ventura]. [I see] Ryan Press [President of A&R, U.S. for Warner Chappell Music] is here, he is someone who really put a lot of trust in me, and he’s doing amazing.
When you have had success as a creative and then you lead a company, the reward is you don’t get to do [the creative work] as much anymore.
Someone once asked me: “Do you miss working with writers like MNEK?”. Of course I do.
They said, ‘”Do you miss the A&R process?” And I said, “Yes”. And they asked, “Well, how do you fill the void?”
I’m lucky that I’ve been able to fill the void because now I don’t get to A&R songwriters as much, but as a leader I do get to A&R people on their journeys and guide these executives.
And I’m a person, and my wife will tell you, [that doesn’t] celebrate much, if at all. And what I will tell you is you get to a point where you’re 30 years in – and I see Max Lousada sitting there – and you realize you didn’t really appreciate it [the creative work], because you don’t get to do it as much anymore.
But you do get to watch these other careers grow, and be a part of it, and that is super exciting.
And what I would tell all of you is, every now and then, just stop and smell the roses. And then get your ass back to work. Thank you.Music Business Worldwide
