John Watson's Eleven Records is doing something the majors are having troubling doing ... selling quality music. Eleven Records' 'On A Clear Night' for Missy Higgins has debuted at number one in Australia replacing Eleven Records 'Young Modern' by Silverchair.
Eleven Records two successes have also been the two biggest debuts in Australia in 2007, with Silverchair clocking in first week with sales of 35,627 units. Missy Higgins' 'On A Clear Night' wasn't far behind with 34,529 sales.Watson founded independent Eleven Records with the view to have a small roster of artists and take the music to the world. He chose 11.11am on November 11, 2000 to officially launch the company.
His management company includes Missy and Silverchair as well as Wolfmother, Pete Murray, Paul Mac and The Dissociatives.
The label releases the music of Kisschasy, Little Birdy, Missy Higgins, Silverchair, Paul Mac and The Dissociatives.
Prior to "going solo", John Watson fronted A&R for Sony Music for 5 years in the early 90s. Eleven General Manager Melissa Cheney also has a background with the majors, having worked with Watson at Sony.
Outsourcing A&R is common ground now with the majors and an important part of their reinvention. Warner Music drove the process via their acquisition of Mushroom Records. There major success of the last 12 months was Eskimo Joe. Universal have partnered with Paul Piticco's Dew Process and Pav's Modular. That association gives them Wolfmother, Powderfinger and Sarah Blasko.
Other acts such as John Butler Trio and The Waifs choose to do it themselves with great success.
