Former MNRK CEO Chris Taylor Opens Hall of Fame Artists Management Company
Written by djfrosty on November 14, 2024
Former MNRK Music Group president/CEO Chris Taylor has officially opened the doors on his next venture, Hall of Fame Artists, which is currently managing artists with plans to expand into the recording, publishing and multimedia sectors.
Hall of Fame’s roster of approximately 30 acts includes much-sampled U.K. soul and funk legends Cymande, who are enjoying a resurgence in popularity, Canadian lo-fi rapper and streaming sensation, Powfu, who has 8.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify; jazz pianist and composer, Kiefer, electro pop star, Lights, and stand-up comic Brittany Brave.
Taylor, who resigned from Blackstone-owned MNRK this past summer and took its management division with him, technically opened Hall of Fame in July, but says he chose not to publicize it. Five months later, he told Billboard he has team members based in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Vancouver and the United Kingdom. They include music and comedy industries veteran Keith Hagan, a longtime publicist and marketing strategist for acts like Kenny Rogers, Paul McCartney, TOTO and Paul Weller; touring and merchandise expert Sarah Osgoode (Tragically Hip, Arkells, Lights); radio promotion exec, Polo Brewster (Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Tory Lanez); and marketing team members, Kultar “KC” Chohan and Kate Stronczer.
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“There has never been a better time to be an independent operator in the music industry,” Taylor says. “We are providing a full suite of services that clients can take full advantage of. Everybody is talking about how easy it is to do everything yourself, and I think there’s a lot of truth to that. But there are so many tools now to manage and having experience with those is vital, and I think it’s very difficult for artists to do it all on their own.”
Taylor compares navigating the music industry to negotiating tax regulations. You can master them, but they are changing all the time,” he says. ,n the music business you can master TikTok, Instagram, Spotify, Apple and all the other platforms out there, but they’re changing all the time. How does an artist stay on top of that? I don’t think they do without a team.
The company is in the process of signing their first artists to the recording and publishing divisions. Expect many more exciting updates from the company as the road to the hall of fame gets constructed.
While at MNRK, Taylor’s team worked with The Lumineers, Pitbull, Chromeo, Zakk Wylde and the estate of Chuck Berry. Originally branded Entertainment One (eOne), the company was acquired for a reported $4 billion, and in 2021, Taylor led the sale of the eOne/Hasbro Music division — which he ran, to Blackstone for a reported $385 million. Prior to his work with those companies, Prior to MNRK, he was the music attorney for Drake, Kaytranada, Avril Lavigne, Three Days Grace, Sum 41 and Nelly Furtado.
Taylor says Hall of Fame is in the process of signing its first two artists to its recorded music and publishing divisions. “For now we’re prepared to do this brick by brick,” he says. “Then we plan to scale up swiftly.”