PIAS Entertainment Group

PIAS is a British recording, licensing, distribution, sales and marketing company for independent music. The company was founded in 1983 by Kenny Gates and Michel Lambot in Brussels, Belgium,"Michel Lambot's Biography"
, Impala. Retrieved 7-10-2018. and has over 250 employees, with 19 offices around the world. The group funds and partners with independent labels and artists.

In 2022, Universal Music Group acquired a 49% stake in PIAS. Founders Kenny Gates and Michel Lambot kept majority control of the record company.

Divisions

* IASRecordings, which launched in 1999, is the group's in-house recorded music division, comprising eight labels, headquartered in IASs UK office in Bermondsey, London.
* IASCooperative. Long-lasting commercial partnerships with a handful of associated record labels (37 Adventures, Acid Jazz Records, ATO Records, Bella Union, DFA Records, Heavenly Recordings, Mute Records, Phantasy, Point Of Departure, Research, Transgressive Records & Wichita Recordings).
* ntegralDistribution Services, the sales & distribution division providing custom marketing, sales, and distribution services to labels and artists on a national and international level. IASrebranded its distribution service to ntegralin 2021.

Sublabels

Within IASRecordings
* Play It Again Sam
* Different Recordings, the electronic music imprint with Etienne de Crecy, Vitalic, Motorbass, Tiga, Crystal Castles and Crystal Fighters
* Le Label
* Urban
* Harmonia Mundi
* Inertia
* Jazz Village
* World Village

History

Michel Lambot and Kenny Gates met circa September 1981 at Michel’s record store then called "Casablanca Moon", exclusively selling records from independent labels and they quickly became friends.

In June 1982 the store "Casablanca Moon" was closed down and they made plans to start an import company named "Play It Again Sam". Play It Again Sam started importing from the UK in October 1982 and were based in the basement of Kenny's parents' house in Brussels, Belgium. Michel and Kenny were then respectively 21 and 19 years old. The company was incorporated in March 1983 with a starting capital of €5000 and the strategy rapidly became a "distributor" rather than an importer / wholesaler; that meant offering a full range of services to labels, such as promotion and marketing. The activities were then extended to production through the creation of their own label in 1984. In 1990, IASset up offices in Hilversum, Holland, then followed the takeover of Vital in 1993 (which was renamed IASUK in 2008). IASoffices were set up in Paris and London in 1994, in Hamburg in 1995, in Madrid in 2000 and in New York in 2013 as well as two joint ventures called IASNordic in Scandinavia and IASAustralia.

In early 2013, IASacquired Cooperative Music (and the Coop-owned V2 Records label) from Universal Music Group, for a fee in the region of £500,000 forming the new business division IASCooperative. The same year, IASacquired Rough Trade Distribution in the Benelux.

IASand Universal Music entered into a strategic global alliance on 9 June 2021. The agreement will see UMG finance IASin addition to accessing the company's international distribution network.

2011 warehouse fire

On 8 August 2011, during the 2011 riots in England a Sony DADC warehouse in the London Borough of Enfield which also acted as PIAS' primary distribution centre was destroyed by fire. Most of PIAS' inventory was considered lost including records from the over 100 British independent labels which PIAS distributes. Several album and single releases were affected by the fire, including the Arctic Monkeys single " The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala", the Battles single "My Machines" and the Charlie Simpson album '' Young Pilgrim''. The total stock loss was reported to be between 3.5 million and 25 million units.

Distributed labels

PIAS distributes and services over 100 independent labels including the following:

Artist & Label Services

*Brainfeeder
* Beggars Group
**4AD
** Matador Records
*** True Panther Sounds
** Rough Trade Records
**XL Recordings
** Young
*All Saints Records
* Thrill Jockey
*Sub Pop
* Soul Jazz Records
*Secretly Group
**Secretly Canadian
**Jagjaguwar
**Dead Oceans
*Rock Action Records
*Real World Records
* Pure Noise Records
*Ipecac Recordings
*Hoo Ha Records
* Ninja Tune
**Big Dada
* Mute Records
* Memphis Industries
*BMG Rights Management
** Infectious Music
* New West Records
*Ignition Records
*Hopeless Records
* Invada Records
*Fearless Records
* Fat Possum Records
* Fabric
**Houndstooth
*Feraltone
* Drag City
*Domino Recording Company
* Chemikal Underground
*Big Brother Recordings
*Greco-Roman
*Metroline Limited
*Normaltown Records
* Touch and Go Records
** Quarterstick Records
* Transmission Recordings
*Victory Records
*Bedroom Community
*BB Records
*Flock Music
*Scripted Realities
*Rivertones
*Village Green Recordings
* What's Your Rupture?
* Arising Empire
* Captured Tracks
*The Vinyl Factory
* Phantasy
*Nuclear Blast
*Self Raising Records
*No Quarter Records
* InFiné
* Hi Records
* Grönland Records
*Warp
* Cocoon Recordings
*Bronze Rat Records
*Asthmatic Kitty
*Partisan Records
* On-U Sound Records
*Finders Keepers Records
* Spinefarm Records

Cooperative

*37 Adventures
* Acid Jazz Records
*Astral People Recordings
* ATO Records
*Bella Union
*Blue Flowers Music
* DFA Records
* Heavenly Recordings
* Mute Records
* Phantasy
*The Point of Departure Recording Co.
*Prolifica Inc.
*Research
*Speedy Wunderground
* Transgressive Records
*Wichita Recordings

References

External links

[PIAS
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/nowiki> Website
Play It Again, Sam

Different Recordings

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