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Nettwerk
Founded	1984
Distributing label	Sony Music Entertainment EMI (non-US)
Genre	Alternative music, Electronic music
Country of origin	Canada
Location	Vancouver, British Columbia
Official Website	http://www.nettwerk.com/

The Nettwerk Music Group is the umbrella company for Nettwerk Management, Nettwerk Records, Nettwerk One Publishing, Nutone Records, and Artwerk. With over 150 employees, the Vancouver-based company has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Boston, Nashville, and Hamburg. The principals of Nettwerk are founders Terry McBride, Mark Jowett, Ric Arboit and Dan Fraser.

Nettwerk Management handles the careers of such esteemed artists as Sarah McLachlan, K-OS, Jars of Clay, Sum 41, Josh Rouse and Sixpence None The Richer.

Nettwerk's Producer Management arm also handles the careers of such sought-after producers as Don Was, Howard Benson, Bob Clearmountain, Chris Lord-Alge and Tom Lord-Alge to name a few.

As a record company Nettwerk has released over 200 full-length albums and sold over 150 million albums in its 25-year history^[1]. Artists on the roster include: Old Crow Medicine Show, The Weepies, Ladytron, The Submarines, Uh Huh Her, Datarock, Delerium, Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet and Kinky.

[edit] Artists

The label specializes in alternative music acts, particularly in genres such as industrial music, electronica, and folk-rock, releasing albums by both Canadian and international artists in those genres.

Artists that have recorded on the label include the following:

[edit] Nettwerk-managed artists

Nettwerk also manages a number of artists including Sarah McLachlan, Kinky (band), The Pipettes, Leigh Nash, Griffin House, Bombay Bicycle Club, MC Lars, Fear of Music, Sixpence None the Richer, Chromeo, Brand New, Jars of Clay, State Radio, Stereophonics, Katherine Jenkins, and Fun.

On July 22, 2009, long-time Nettwerk artists the Barenaked Ladies announced it had terminated its management contract.

[edit] Nettwerk and the RIAA

Nettwerk has joined the fight against the RIAA by offering to pay the legal fees of a teenager in Texas who is being sued for downloading songs.^[2] They will also pay any fines if it loses the case. The label came in contact with the teen when she wrote to MC Lars (who is managed by Nettwerk) about his song "Download this Song."

Nettwerk further sells actual MP3 music files for singles and FLAC music files for certain albums from its artists, and artists it manages, directly from its Web site. While these files are generally priced at 99 cents as many online music files are (including those from iTunes and most songs from Amazon MP3), these files do not include any digital rights management. Hence, unlike files purchased from Napster but similar to iTunes Plus—unprotected songs purchased from iTunes—these files allow consumers the freedom to copy the songs they purchase to any other device of theirs.

Nettwerk states on its Web site

[edit] Nettwerk and DRM

Nettwerk is one of the first major music companies to abolish DRM, releasing songs in the unrestricted MP3 format, as well as the lossless FLAC and Apple Lossless formats. Many songs are available on Nettwerk's own store as well as Puretracks, a Canadian music-download site. Nettwerk is also the first major music company to have its music listed on Amie Street.

[edit] See also

• List of record labels

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Official YouTube page
• Save the Music Fan
• Video Interview with Terry McBride - CEO of Nettwerk
• "So What Is A Song?" Blog Post by Terry McBride - CEO of Nettwerk
• No Suit Required article in Wired magazine
• Music mogul wants to change how music is sold Canada.com, December 2, 2006
• Interview with CEO Terry McBride, HitQuarters May 2007