One of the main strands at our Music Ally NEXT conference this June is ‘next-gen labels’. A keynote interview with broke Records founder Andre Benz and a follow-on panel will be exploring how a new wave of disruptive labels are addressing different pain points in the music industry.
There are a lot of examples to choose from, as we’ve been following in our daily news coverage. New labels (and label-like startups) are rethinking various facets of The Way Things Are Usually Done, from their relationships with musicians to their use of AI.
Others are springing up to connect some of the most exciting local music scenes with the world, or forging links between artists across those geographic boundaries. To set the scene for Music Ally NEXT – you can get your tickets for the 18 June here, by the way – here are some of the next-gen labels on our radar.
New models for music-makers
Good Boy Records has been in the news recently for its partnership with James Blake, freshly emerged from his major-label deal in search of partners to build his business as an independent artist.
It helped him to put together a group of companies that also included Virgin Music Group and Stellar Music to handle his new album, with each entity contributing funding and sharing in the album’s commercial success.
However, Good Boy Records has also innovated on the technology side of its business, building a service called Clearnote that uses AI to draft music contracts for independent artists. The company has also invested in startups Notes FM, Good Neighbor and Indify.
Another independent label taking this approach is Futures Music Group, which we covered recently when it raised $6m of seed funding. Besides working with artists including Lykke Li, Mt. Joy and Cavetown, it has invested in music/tech firms Indify, Splice, Chordal, Big Effect and ITM Studio.
A trend we’ve been following with interest in recent years is new independent labels who have made songwriters one of their key priorities. And in a specific way: by giving them ‘points’ on recordings of their songs, so that they share in the recordings royalties.
Milk & Honey Records launched out of management firm Milk & Honey in October 2025, promising to offer songwriters “as much as double digits worth of points perpetually accounted directly to them as a production royalty”.
It wasn’t the first indie taking this approach. Two founded by musicians – Justin Tranter’s Facet Records in 2023 and Nina Nesbitt’s Apple Tree Records in 2024 – also launched with songwriter points on their agenda. Both also stressed that these points would not be taken away from artists.
Creator imprints and virality-builders
We’ve been following Andre Benz since his days running YouTube channel Trap Nation. His latest venture, Broke Records, has been going since 2023, working with artists including Zhu and Ndotz.
The company also found itself at the centre of a controversy late last year with Haven’s ‘I Run’, whose AI-assisted vocals were accused of being too similar to those of established artist Jorja Smith. Since then, a re-recorded version has gone on to be a big hit.
Broke’s focus on nimble digital marketing has also seen it branch out into creator-led labels, working with TikToker Jillian Webber on her ‘wbbr.’ imprint. The goal is to put Webber’s online influence to work even more directly with the artists who she signs.
(Benz is one of the headline keynotes at Music Ally NEXT, also.)
Another disrupter-label navigating the world of TikTok and social algorithms is 0to8, whose founders we interviewed in March this year. They have been honing the art and science of seeding tracks with niche (or not-so-niche – some of them are huge) communities on TikTok, generating more than 4bn streams in the process.
Anime edits, car culture and sports highlights are among the categories 0to8 is making the most of, as well as the hyper-engaged dance (as in choreography) communities in Asia.
Connecting the world
The global barriers for local music genres and scenes are well and truly down, having been knocked over by K-Pop, Reggaeton and Afrobeats artists among others.
Tracks, artists and scenes from anywhere can now blow up overseas, regardless of what language they’re recorded in. And we’re seeing a new wave of labels spring up to ride these waves, including independents and joint-ventures with majors. A few examples follow:
5 Junction is a joint-venture label launched by Warner Music Group and entrepreneur Anjula Acharia. The label is dedicated specifically to signing US-based artists with South Asian heritage, translating their stories.
Heatwave Records was launched to sign artists from West Africa, Latin America and India, distributing through Too Lost to help musicians outside the traditional western hubs reach audiences around the world.
Inversa‘s focus is on electronic-music artists from Latin America, tapping Milk & Honey and ONErpm to give them a stronger pathway to join the global EDM community.
Docemil Music is a label launched by K-Pop giant Hybe… but not in its homeland of South Korea. It’s part of the company’s expansion into Latin America, tasked with finding local creativity and talent to take to the global stage.
Beeef (standing for Bringing Every Emerging Echo Forward) is the work of Believe Thailand: a label focusing on the local indie-pop scene as both label-services operation and a community hub for collaboration.
Vedam Records was a partnership between musician Ricky Kej and Universal Music India with a very specific focus: wellness music: yoga, meditation, focus, sleep and chakra balancing.
Also in India, Visva Records is a partnership between Indian-American musician Savan Kotecha, Republic Records and Universal Music India, which is taking a leaf out of Hybe’s book with the launch of boy-band OutStation – deliberately drawing most of its members (via auditions) from outside India’s entertainment capital of Mumbai.
On a different path, Irruk Birruk is a not-for-profit label established by Universal Music Australia. It’s entirely about preserving historical recordings from indigenous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, including making them available on streaming services.
AI-powered labels (and GenAI artists)
We’ll end with some labels that may raise a few hackles (and heckles) within the music industry for their work with the creators of AI-generated music – and often the artist personas that release it.
Hallwood Media is the most prominent of these. Founded by former Geffen and Interscope executive Neil Jacobsen, it has signed the humans behind AI projects including Xania Monet and Bleeding Verse, as well as one of Suno’s top ‘music designers’ imoliver. The label is also an investor in Suno, tying its growth tightly to its key platform.
Higgsfield Records is an imprint launched by AI startup Higgsfield, whose launch tagline – “You don’t need talent anymore. Your face is enough” was guaranteed to elicit hard stares from the music industry and its musicians. Pitched as an “AI record label” it started with an ‘AI idol’ K-Pop character called Kion.
Stage Zero is in similar territory, but founded by a famous name: Timbaland. He launched it as a label that “builds, owns, and manages iconic synthetic IP” – avatars who release music generated on Suno, for whom Timbaland is also an ambassador. Its first project is called TaTa Taktumi, although its popularity (as measured in Spotify listeners and social followings) has yet to ignite.
Finally, Greater Music Group is taking a different spin on AI: rather than sign AI artists, it’s using the technology to run… well, all of its operations, from A&R and artist development to fan intelligence and catalogue optimisation. Read our recent interview here with founders Paula Moore and Randy Jackson (yes, of American Idol fame).
This is just a snapshot of some of the next-gen labels currently at work. To follow the discussion around this topic at Music Ally NEXT in June, get your tickets here.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source musically.com ’
