Nearly two years after the idea became a reality, Verswire – a venture capital model alternative for signing musicians – has announced its forthcoming publishing arm, set to launch in 2024 in partnership with Kobalt Music Group.
With a $12.3 million investment from E.O.A. Productions (Enoch K. Osei-Acheampong and Nicole A. Parke) and idobi Radio, plus participating investors including Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman and Foo Fighters tour manager Gus Brandt, Verswire is heading into the new year intending to expand its artist roster. Current clients include pop band Beauty School Dropout and the freshly signed alt-rock duo Girlfriends comprised of Travis Mills and Nick Gross.
Verswire provides each of its clients a custom investment plan that includes funding, resources, tools, mentorship from a variety of music executives and “an ecosystem to own and operate their businesses within while allowing them to keep majority ownership of their masters,” per the company’s boilerplate. Partners include Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus and veteran music manager Nick Lippman, while Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz assumes the role of strategic advisor.
Founder and CEO Sherry Saeedi, who also pioneered the live-streaming platform Veeps, describes her new venture as “the alternative artists have always needed; to be treated like the CEOs of their own company and be given the resources and personnel to build their businesses without sacrificing ownership of their own work.”
Verswire is tapping into both emerging and established artist communities and is aiming to bring a modernized alternative to the recorded music industry where artists retain the majority ownership of their projects. As Hoppus sees it, Verswire will exist “outside of the traditional record industry,” where “artists and our love for music is the driving force behind everything.”
Saeedi continues, “We’re very proud to say that Beauty School Dropout, the first band we ever signed, has seen enormous growth over the past eighteen months and has already begun receiving royalty checks — all within their first album cycle.”
Beauty School Dropout toured with Blink-182 and also performed for festivals like Lollapalooza and Reading and Leads, in addition to headlining their national tour. “Their success, marked by rising streaming numbers and widespread critical acclaim, exemplifies the shift towards genre-blending and the use of digital platforms for music distribution and audience engagement,” Lippman tells PvNew of Beauty School Dropout. “This trend is shaping the future of the music industry by highlighting the importance of digital savviness and creative versatility in reaching global audiences.”
Wentz recalls the self-made-culture that helped propel Fall Out Boy during the early stages of their career in 2003, making note of crucial elements “from writing, recording the songs, booking shows, playing shows… all the way to making merch and designing the art,” he says. “[It’s] a relay race, so I’m very happy to help carry the baton how and where I can. I know how hard of a lift the entire thing was for my band, and that it’s inevitably harder today given the nature of pop culture and the way we consume art.”
“Similar to my first company Veeps, I didn’t see the solutions I knew artists needed out there, so I created it myself,” says Saeedi. “We believe this is the future of music, and we are honored to lead it.”
