<\/em>Bad Bunny\u2019s Super Bowl-approved \u201cDtMF\u201d (Tyler Spry), Tate McRae\u2019s sultry \u201cSports Car\u201d (Grant Boutin, Tedder) Jordan Davis\u2019s \u201cBar None\u201d (Ben Johnson) and \u201cWoman,\u201d a new hit by Kane Brown (Ben Johnson), among other major cuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tFor Sparkler and Hill, however, there\u2019s no rush to build on that momentum and grow the company. \u201cWe have great ambitions,\u201d Sparkler says. \u201cBut we\u2019ve also seen so many other businesses around us put growth first and figure other things out later. We have been very deliberate in our growth in every sense.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tRunner is still relatively small, composed of eight employees and 19 signees. But it\u2019s also put up big money: To date, it\u2019s deployed $70 million to buy catalogs, including shares of songs like \u201cLevitating\u201d and \u201cPhysical\u201d by Dua Lipa, \u201cDynamite\u201d by BTS, \u201cIt Wasn\u2019t Me\u201d and \u201cBoombastic\u201d by Shaggy, \u201cTaki Taki\u201d by DJ Snake and Selena Gomez, \u201cGhost\u201d and \u201cAnyone\u201d by Justin Bieber, \u201cGone Gone Gone\u201d by Phillip Phillips, \u201cI Won\u2019t Give Up\u201d by Jason Mraz, \u201cHo Hey\u201d and \u201cStubborn Love\u201d\u00a0by The Lumineers and more.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe highest compliment we get paid is that people often assume we have 30 or 40 people on staff,\u201d Sparkler says. <\/p>\n
\n\tAdds Tedder in a statement to Billboard: <\/em>\u201cI\u2019m so proud of the close-knit team of writers and producers we\u2019ve assembled in the last [nearly three] years; as the name says, we have been nonstop running \u2014 [or] sprinting\u2026 In this industry where great songs are dying for attention 24\/7 and virality cosplays as a business plan, I only trust one thing \u2014 doing the work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tWhy did you decide to launch Runner Music three years ago? What gap in the publishing market did you think you could fill?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tSparkler: In late 2021, the conversation between Ryan [Tedder], Ron [Lafitte] and I was really about looking at a lot of publishers and the services they were offering and asking: Is there room in the marketplace for an indie that is creatively forward? It started first as catalog acquisition, and then we started talking to Amanda [Hill] about opening up a frontline business that really nurtured songwriters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tHill: I was Ryan\u2019s publisher at Sony. We clicked right away. I think we both view the music world similarly and have the same kind of competitive spirit. We had been working together at Sony, and then he approached me about doing this. I was entering year 18 at Sony at that point, so the timing was right for me. What I was picking up from songwriters at that time was that people wanted another option. They wanted the reach of a major but something that felt like a family, something smaller and more attentive. A lot of people were getting tired of being just a number on a piece of paper. So on day one, I knew that\u2019s what I was building \u2014 the other option.<\/p>\n
\n\tPublishing deals have largely been moving toward admin-only, trying to get the percentages down as low as possible. Are you offering admin deals, or are you positioning Runner as only a high-touch publisher option?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tHill: We\u2019re the high-touch publisher option. People want the relationship, they want real work done and they want a true partner. Every single person we work with gets 150% from us. We\u2019re intertwined with their teams and individually engaged on what we\u2019re doing every step of the way, and it\u2019s strategic. I look at it like everyone should have their own plan, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing \u2014 executing a custom plan for each person and adjusting it quickly because you\u2019re constantly in conversation with them. It\u2019s definitely the most hands-on approach there could be.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen you were sketching this out and figuring out the strategy, what was your vision of the ideal Runner signee?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tHill: I very much didn\u2019t want to be in the business of just collecting people. The fact that some songwriter is available and we could sign them is not a reason to sign them. The real check marks for me are: How hard do you want to work, and are we aligned on how to get there?<\/p>\n
\n\tHow involved is Ryan on the signing front?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tHill: It\u2019s really my decision. But sometimes he\u2019ll meet someone in the studio and get excited. I\u2019d say 75% of the time it\u2019s just me and my team doing our thing. And 25% of the time, it\u2019s things that he\u2019s bringing in \u2014 he\u2019s connecting dots, and then I\u2019m jumping in and helping bring them into the Runner world. So he\u2019s super hands-on, but he\u2019s not approving deals.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat\u2019s the split between how much Runner invests in catalog versus frontline?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tSparkler: I don\u2019t know the specific dollar split. I think Melody has been a phenomenal partner \u2014 they appreciate the discipline we\u2019ve shown with respect to capital deployment and frontline signings. We\u2019re in a fortunate place where if we go to them with a good case, they say yes. We were a successful business even in the early days, so it makes it easier to get a yes when we\u2019re delivering good returns. I would say Melody is just as invested in the frontline side as they are the catalog side. On the catalog side, we do have a debt facility with Bank of America.<\/p>\n
\n\tFor catalogs, what kind of price range are you looking for, and what kind of rights interest you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tSparkler: We look at everything. All of our deals have been sub-$15 million so far, and most have been sub-$5 million. But we\u2019ve done a lot; certainly well over 20 deals. Our strategy is that we have a disciplined way to analyze on the financial and legal side to complete those deals efficiently, and it\u2019s allowed us to build a good-sized catalog relatively quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tI try to build a diverse catalog across genres. We have some amazing Christian catalogs, a lot of pop catalogs, some producer catalogs with really A-plus music. The thing I\u2019m always trying to do is avoid being overly concentrated in one particular area. We also have a preference against purely passive rights. If it\u2019s a marquee catalog \u2014 if it\u2019s a song my parents know \u2014 then sure, that\u2019s something we\u2019d consider even if it\u2019s purely passive income. But for the most part, we like copyright control to come back to us at some point, although it doesn\u2019t have to be in a year or two \u2014 we\u2019re open to three, five, seven years out.<\/p>\n
\n\tDowntown has been your publishing administrator from the start. Now, Downtown has been acquired by Universal. How is that affecting Runner, if at all?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tSparkler: I think of publishing administration in two buckets: Do they have the technology to execute on the task, and when something goes wrong, do we have people we can call who are going to fix the problem? When Amanda and I were taking meetings about who should administer the frontline piece \u2014 the catalog piece is administered by MSI, a sister company within the Melody family \u2014 it kept coming back to Downtown because we had confidence that we\u2019d have half a dozen people we could call to address any issue. That has not changed. Our terms with them are great, and they\u2019ve been amazing partners. Obviously, neither they nor we can predict the future, but the key is we know who to call when we need something done, and they have been excellent on that score.<\/p>\n
\n\tDo you think Runner would ever do admin in-house?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tSparkler: Never say never \u2014 we\u2019re ambitious. But as a blessing or a curse, I come from an admin background. We have a lot of collective knowledge of how difficult it is to start an administration business. It\u2019s not something we\u2019d take lightly in terms of cost, time or attention. The same service and attention that Amanda and her team give to our writers \u2014 that\u2019s the bar we\u2019d want to hold ourselves to. If we can\u2019t do it at that bar, we\u2019re not going to do it. That said, it\u2019s not lost on us that with every deal we do and every record that comes out with a Runner writer on it, that\u2019s more net publishing share we\u2019re essentially giving away to administration. So at a certain scale, it\u2019s something we\u2019d have to more seriously consider.<\/p>\n
\n\tBTS is back, and Runner songwriters had a hand in nearly half of the songs on their new album <\/strong>ARIRANG<\/em><\/strong>. How did your six credits on the album come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tHill: This was always something we had our eye on \u2014 we really wanted to be part of the comeback. It actually started with some of our writers making ideas that Ryan was sharing with HYBE. Ryan and [HYBE chairman] Bang Si-hyuk<\/strong> have developed a really close relationship over the last couple of years \u2014 they\u2019re doing a boy band together. So it started with \u201cPlease\u201d and \u201cNORMAL.\u201d Those came from around that time. Then, I was chatting with one of Diplo\u2019s team members, and we thought, \u2018We should do a [songwriting] camp with our teams [for BTS].\u2019 That\u2019s really where most of the rest of it came from \u2014 that\u2019s where \u201cSWIM\u201d was written and others.<\/p>\n\n\tYou say you want Runner to be differentiated from the competition and offer high-touch services. What is an example of something you feel Runner does differently than other publishers?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tSparkler: What Amanda has built around the songwriter community within Runner is something I have never seen before and never heard about before. The writers hang out with each other. The writers themselves are bringing each other into sessions. Amanda has hosted incredible dinners and social events that the writers don\u2019t have to attend \u2014 they choose to come. The culture she\u2019s building is really special.<\/p>\n
\n\tHill: You\u2019ll start seeing this in albums that come out in the future. You\u2019ll see Alexander 23 at the helm of a record, and then you\u2019ll notice other Runner writers on it; that\u2019s their choice. They\u2019re calling other people, too \u2014 everyone can write with whoever they want \u2014 but what says it the most is that they\u2019re choosing to collaborate with each other. It stems from Ryan and his open-door policy to bring people in. But you\u2019re going to start seeing projects led not just by Ryan, but by other Runner signees, too, with a lot of Runner synergy on them. I think that\u2019s our next story.<\/p>\n
\n\tYou\u2019re in year three of Runner. Where do you see the company in year 10?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tSparkler: <\/strong>We want to be a large, independent music company across all verticals. We have large ambitions, and we try to be measured about it \u2014 always asking, what are we trying to accomplish this year, and how does that get us toward the goals further out? Ryan and I talked about this a lot when we were starting Runner. Obviously, there are plenty of examples of writers and artists who start companies as a side project. That was never Ryan\u2019s intent. He is as involved in this business as anyone \u2014 we talk to him all day, every day. He agrees that success for Runner, in a lot of ways, looks like this: In 10 years, someone says \u201cRunner Music\u201d and thinks, \u201cOh, that music company \u2014 wait, did Ryan Tedder start that?\u201d Where the company itself eclipses any individual \u2014 me, Amanda, Ryan, anyone \u2014 and it becomes about the creations we\u2019ve helped foster into the world. We think about it in terms of really building a forever company.<\/p>\n\n\tHill: The answer is what we\u2019re doing now, times 10. Yes, we want to scale. We want to be a large company. I want a whole squad of amazing A&R people and other great team members. But it\u2019s all still going to be rooted in this idea of starting with songwriters, having real relationships with people, real strategy around each of them, and not just signing people because they\u2019re available \u2014 really focusing on signing the right people.<\/p>\n
![\"Billboard](\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/2HpFicp.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.billboard.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In late 2021, top songwriter, producer and OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, Downtown\u2019s former chief business officer Andrew Sparkler and veteran artist manager Ron Lafitte had a meeting where they talked through a question that had been on all of their minds: Is there space for a new publishing company? At the time, the three felt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2354309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[21932,457006],"class_list":["post-2354308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-music-news","tag-runner-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Inside-Runner-Music-Which-Made-Hits-for-BTS-New-Album.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2354308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2354310,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354308\/revisions\/2354310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2354309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2354308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2354308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2354308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}