Nashville, TN (June 20, 2019) – Spirit Music Group, one of the world’s leading global independent music publishing companies, has appointed Derek Wells to Senior Director A&R/Production, Spirit Music Nashville. Wells will report to Frank Rogers, CEO, Spirit Music Nashville. Spirit Music Group has also established a joint venture with Derek Wells for his 2 Mix Music company.
“Derek Wells is one of the most talented people in music – period. His resume as a musician and producer speaks for itself, but that is just scratching the surface,” said Frank Rogers, CEO, Spirit Music Nashville. “He is a magnet for great people and great music. I speak for the entire Spirit Music Nashville family in saying we are thrilled to partner with Derek in this next phase of his career. Here we go…”
“I’m thrilled to join the Spirit Music Nashville team in this new A&R role and also as a partner in 2 Mix Music,” said Derek Wells. “Jon, Joe, Rak and everyone at Spirit Music have built an amazing company offering boutique service with global reach. Naming Frank Rogers CEO of Spirit Music Nashville — someone who I have a long history with and tremendous respect for — shows their commitment to strengthening the Nashville headquarters and building upon an already impressive list of writers and catalogs. I’m excited to be a part of this next chapter!”
A native of Nashville, Derek Wells is a Grammy nominated first call multi-instrumentalist and producer. As a session musician, Wells has performed on number 1 songs from a diverse listing of artists that include: Kid Rock, Dolly Parton, Kenny Chesney, Shakira, Midland, Kane Brown, Blake Shelton, Florida Georgia Line, Corey Hart, Ian Gillian of Deep Purple, Thomas Rhett and Carrie Underwood. His work on the Maren Morris album, HERO earned him a GRAMMYÒ nomination.
In 2016, Wells was the youngest person in history to win The Academy of Country Music’s Guitar Player of the Year award and also the youngest person to ever be nominated for the CMA Musician of the Year Award. In 2018, he earned the honor of being named Music Row Magazine’s Guitar Player of the year. In 2019, he was awarded his second ACM award, again for Guitar Player of the Year.
As a producer, Derek has completed successful projects for Universal Music Group (Maddie and Tae), Broken Bow Records (Granger Smith) and Triple Tigers/Sony (Scotty McCreery) which produced a multi-week number one single (“This is It”) and has been certified Platinum.
Wells currently serves on the Country Music Association’s Board of Directors as well as on committees for the Academy Of Country Music and The GRAMMYS.
In January, Spirit Music Group executives Jon Singer and Ross Cameron formed Lyric Capital Group to take ownership of Spirit Music Group and secure a recapitalization of over $350 million. The capital raise allows Spirit to continue to build upon its already impressive legacy and community of renowned artists and songwriters. Now wholly-owned by the newly formed Lyric Capital Group, Spirit Music Group remains a strong, independent publisher.
ABOUT SPIRIT MUSIC:
Spirit Music Group, founded in 1995, is one of the world’s leading independent music publishers, owning and/or managing more than 75,000 songs spanning seven decades and every musical genre. Spirit’s portfolio consists of over 200 #1 Billboard hits and over 450 Top 10 songs.
Among its most notable songwriters and writer/artists are James Bay, John Barrett, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Big Data, Marc Bolan, T Bone Burnett, Jonny Coffer, Zach Crowell, Rami Dawod, Henry Mancini, Matt & Kim, Johnny McDaid, The Marshall Tucker Band, Graham Nash, John Newman, Rick Nowels, David Paich, Doc Pomus, Frank Rogers, Boz Scaggs, Billy Squier, Pete Townshend, Gregg Wattenberg; and the breakthrough work of newer artists including Dagny and Tim Montana.
Spirit has earned a strong reputation as an aggressive royalty administrator and a peerless promoter of its songs into film, television and advertising productions as well as a wide range of new media. In recent years, Spirit has helped transform the publisher’s role beyond royalty collection and song promotion to proactive career and legacy partnership by creating and executing marketing plans to revitalize its clients’ songs and expand their brands.
Spirit Music Group is headquartered in New York with offices in London, Los Angeles, Nashville and the Netherlands. Spirit is a portfolio company of Lyric Capital Group, led by seasoned music executives Jon Singer and Ross Cameron.
For further information about Spirit Music Group, go to www.spiritmusicgroup.com.
