Sony Music Australia’s Parade Management Creates Joint Venture With Glenn Wheatley’s Talentworks
Two giants of the Australian music industry, Sony Music’s longtime leader Denis Handlin and Talentworks owner Glenn Wheatley, have come together for a joint venture which promises to “add substantially to the opportunities for Australian artists.”
Sony Music Australia’s Parade Management division has united with Talentworks on the new venture Talentworks Parade, an ambitious new initiative which will sign, develop and manage artists and celebrities, and reach into the live space with touring events and a slew of other entertainment activities.
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“We are delighted to join forces through Talentworks Parade with Glenn,” explains Denis Handlin, chairman & CEO, Australia & New Zealand and president, Asia, for Sony Music Entertainment, in a statement announcing the JV. “He is a real ideas man and is a leader in the management community in building artists’ careers, such as the legendary John Farnham.” The combined might and experience of both companies “will add substantially to the opportunities for Australian artists,” Handlin insists.
The roster represented by Talentworks and Parade for management includes Sony Music recording artists Jessica Mauboy, Samantha Jade, Dami Im, Justice Crew and Farnham.
Adds Wheatley, “I am very proud to be able to bring our two companies together. Talentworks has had a long history of artist management and concert promotion in the music industry in Australia.”
Leading the Talentworks Parade senior team is Wheatley and Parade /Sony Music’s Wayne Ringrow and Ken Outch and David Champion of Parade, the booking agency and artist management firm which was founded in 2007.
Looking ahead, Talentworks Parade will also promote touring events, corporate performances, special event appearances, and develop merchandise, new media formats and other entertainment industry activities, according a statement.
In Handlin, the JV can call on Australia’s most accomplished and decorated major label chief (and long-time ARIA chair), and in Wheatley, one of the market’s most experienced and best-known artist managers.
A former bass player with revered Brisbane pop-rock The Masters Apprentices, Wheatley embarked on a career in artist management, event management and promotion when he established Talentworks in 1982. He would go on to guide the careers of Little River Band, Farnham and Ross Wilson, all of whom were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, as was Wheatley himself when The Masters Apprentices was elevated in 1998.
Wheatley also managed Australian Crawl, Pseudo Echo and Real Life, and his wards have sold more than 20 million albums. With Farnham, Wheatley has been a constant in the background of a living legend, whose 1986 hit “You’re The Voice” is considered by many as the “unofficial national anthem,” and the album it’s lifted from, Whispering Jack, is recognized as the best-selling homegrown album of all time.
Just last week, Handlin was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) for his “distinguished service to the Australian recording industry” and for his philanthropic endeavors as a founding member of the Sony Foundation of Australia. The Sydney-based exec also appeared in Billboard’s latest International Power Players list.
Sony Music has spread its wings into the live arena on numerous occasions. The music company has promoted or co-promoted national concert tours over the last several years for Delta Goodrem, Human Nature, One Direction, Jessica Mauboy and others, and toured Simon & Garfunkel through its Day 1 Entertainment concerts division, which launched in 2009 but was later put on ice. Sony Music Australia is also a production investor in the local production of the musical Beautiful.
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