Huff Co.

ONErpm Nashville has launched a joint venture with Huff Co., a production company spearheaded by brothers Dann Huff and David Huff, to help guide artists from various musical genres into the marketplace.

Dann, a Billboard producer of the decade honoree, will be at the helm, with creative input from David, as they produce artists signed to the joint venture. Meanwhile, ONErpm will fund production and oversee distribution and marketing for the artists. Artists will be signed directly to the joint venture, with ONErpm acting as a record label and co-owning the master recordings.

Tim Wipperman, the MD for ONErpm Nashville, previously spent nearly three decades as the head of Warner Bros. Music. He also served as CEO of Rezonant Music and then as president of Anthem Music Publishing Nashville.

“For some artists, the traditional model isn’t viable or necessary,” Wipperman tells Billboard. “There are advantages and disadvantages to working within that kind of corporate structure, and there are a lot of advantages to working outside of that corporate structure with a more nimble organization. We did 70 billion Spotify streams last month and 20 billion YouTube streams, so this company has leverage and reach.”

Musician and producer Dann has played on and/or produced recordings by Barbra Streisand, Reba McEntire, Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, Shania Twain, Keith Urban, Megadeth and more. He has won the CMA musician of the year honor three times as well as CMA Awards for his production work on CMA single of the year-winning songs in 2016 (Thomas Rhett’s “Die a Happy Man”) and 2017 (Urban’s “Blue Ain’t Your Color”). Dann will continue to produce artists outside of the joint venture.

David’s resume includes work as a producer, music director, consultant and artist development executive. In the studio, he’s collaborated with Rhett, The Smashing Pumpkins, Avicii, Sheryl Crow, Twain, Michael W. Smith and more.

Though specific artist signings will be revealed later, Dann tells Billboard that he expects the joint venture will ultimately work with a mix of new artists who have made an impact in the streaming arena as well as established artists seeking more freedom than they can get in a typical label deal structure.

“Because I have this long history in Nashville, there’s been talk of finding homes for some of these artists that maybe aren’t [still] in the mainstream, doing what they’ve done through the course of their career, but they are very viable in the sense that they have active audiences who want new music,” Dann says. “I like the fact that not everything has to go through the prism of being radio-driven. It just opens so much more…for someone who loves music, there’s nothing better.”

Wipperman adds, “We want ONErpm to be at the forefront of finding new ways to build careers. When artists look at a non-major [label operation], there’s a concern about production and the ability of a non-major to leverage what they are doing. I think getting into business with producers [with] the quality of Dann and David, that eliminates one of those impediments. You grow a company by creating alliances with talented people.”

ONErpm’s services include music distribution, marketing support, publishing, accounting and global payment systems. The company operates in 43 offices around the world, with more than 500 staffers globally. Artists currently working with the company include country artist William Michael Morgan, reggae artist I-Octane, Jamaican dancehall superstar Sean Paul, pop band Nightly, singer-songwriter Jay Allen, singer-songwriter Chance Peña and Americana artists Mark and Maggie O’Connor.