U.K. A&R: YOUTUBE STARS SECURE DEALS

YouTube stars have been on a roll securing label deals in the U.K. lately, starting with Calum Scott signing to Capitol, and with Warner following suit with Catherine McGrath and Absolute Label Services with Hannah Trigwell.

Scott and McGrath have similar beginnings. Both spent time under the wing of Conrad Withey’s Instrumental firm, which finds and develops acts using YouTube data. McGrath is a young Irish singer who has developed a following online by doing stripped-back covers of popular songs. She signed to Max Lousada’s Warner U.K. earlier in June, and will be launched with a PR campaign around her first release in a few months.

Trigwell has had a self-sustaining independent music career for a while and is one of the artists YouTube regularly cites as one of its success stories. She has more than 400k subscribers to her YouTube channel, and nearly 60m views. The Absolute deal provides her with label services tools.

In other signing news, Guy Moot’s Sony/ATV U.K. has been busy again, signing songwriter/producer Tom Mann, who had a Top 40 track in “Love Me So,” written for his short-lived band Stereo Kicks last year. Elsewhere, Simon Dunmore has signed French producer/singer/rapper Kiddy Smile to his Defected Records independent house label.

Finally, Tom March and Ben Mortimer's Polydor has another A&R executive with expertise in the urban genre (after tapping Rich Castillo) as Elle Simionescu-Marin joins the UMG U.K. label as a consultant. She’s also co-editor and brand manager at popular urban culture site GRM Daily.