The Publishers' Place: Zomba's Development Plan

Nine months into David Mantel's gig as president of Zomba Music Publishing U.S., the company is seeing positive results.

Songs written by new signings are climbing the charts, the A&R team is scouring garages to find undeveloped talent, and business affairs is crafting a new structure for development deals.

T-Pain was Zomba's first signing after Mantel took the reins last September from Richard Blackstone, who moved on to head Warner/Chappell Music. Faheem Najm, professionally known as T-Pain, writes, produces, sings and raps. "I'm Sprung," from his album "Rappa Ternt Sanga" on Konvict Muzik/Jive, reached No. 8 on The Billboard Hot 100 last November. "I'm N Luv (Wit a Stripper)" hit No. 5 in February. The two singles have sparked 4 million ringtone sales, according to the publisher.

Flyleaf, another signing under Mantel's leadership, is a difficult-to-classify screamo/hard-rock alternative band from Texas. Lacey Mosley, who fronts the group, writes with bandmates James Culpepper, Sameer Bhattacharya, Jared Hartmann and Pat Seals. They all signed with Zomba.

"I'm So Sick" from the group's self-titled album on Octone/J Records, peaked at No. 12 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart in April. "Fully Alive" entered the chart in June and rose to No. 34 in the July 1 issue. Flyleaf is on tour with Korn, whose members also have a co-publishing deal with Zomba. Korn's latest album, "See You on the Other Side" (Virgin Records/EMI), has sold 1.7 million units worldwide, according to Zomba.

Meanwhile, Mantel says Zomba is shifting its development focus to find talent at a much earlier stage. In the past, the publisher would sign songwriter/artists to develop, but the talent was already signed to a label or had something else going on that would get them attention, he says.

"Now we're going in at a much earlier stage when someone has no affiliation," Mantel says. "What I want to bring into Zomba is an element of developing talent that hasn't really been recognized yet by the traditional A&R community, who often times doesn't have a manager or any representation at all, but is a brilliant band or songwriter sitting in their living room in some small town, in some small state, who needs to get recognized."

The first three development projects are artist/songwriters Cass Dillon, Cameron Jaymes and the Crew.

Another new twist for Zomba is the way these development deals are set up.

"They are not the traditional, stodgy publishing deals," says Mantel, who worked with artists as an attorney/manager before joining Zomba. "They're structured in a way that allows us to have the flexibility to move, but [which] also gives much quicker benefits to people that sign with us if we get some traction."

For example, traditional publishing deals often provide for an advance to the songwriter, but also provide that there is not another advance or royalties until the first advance has been recouped from earnings. There can be a long lag time that elapses before songwriters receive additional funds.

While Mantel won't disclose specific deal terms, he explains that the developing artist/songwriters can realize financial benefits much quicker under Zomba's new agreements.

"We're working [the artists] like they're stars and flowing through the economic benefit that we can find for them essentially immediately," Mantel says. "Once we know that we have these opportunities—that the money will eventually come in—we're giving the benefit of that back."

The writers do not necessarily have to wait for full recoupment of an advance before receiving additional funds, he says. Before they land a record deal, Zomba is working closely with the film/TV synch network of parent BMG Music Publishing and its offices worldwide to generate revenue for the songwriters. Earnings generated from these opportunities can flow through to the writers.

"What I've found these days is that more music supervisors for films and television shows are interested in breaking bands that are the interesting bands—that are going to be the great bands—and not necessarily going all the time for a well-known name," Mantel says. "They know that kids, listening to music on the Internet and communicating by blogs, know what the great music is, and it doesn't always translate into what the record companies are signing."