Republic Records has announced the launch of its new independent music company: Imperial Music. Led by veteran label executive Glenn Mendlinger, the company has already generated over four billion cumulative streams for its artists — including Bo Burnham, G Herbo and Twice — since quietly launching less than a year ago.
The New York-based Imperial, which has partnered with Ingrooves Music Group for distribution services, has the flexibility to upstream artists to Republic after first signing, developing and marketing emerging talent on its own. Mendlinger reports to Monte and Avery Lipman, Republic Records co-founders and executive leadership team. (Both Ingrooves and Republic are divisions of Universal Music Group.)
“Imperial Music was created to support the incredible emerging talent that continues to grow in the independent music sector,” Mendlinger said in a statement. “Artists and creators are seeking more independence, speed to market and services that scale with their needs. I’m thrilled with the quick and successful impact Imperial Music has made in the marketplace to support the next generation of musicians and creators.”
Mendlinger previously spent 21 years at Astralwerks, working as the general manager since 2006. There, he oversaw and aided in campaigns for Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, David Guetta and Swedish House Mafia and signed superstar Halsey in 2014.
Prior to Astralwerks, Mendlinger worked at East West and Virgin.
Since launching, Imperial has already raked in several wins; in the last two months alone, the music company had two albums land in the top five of the Billboard 200 with Tomorrow x Together’s The Chaos Chapter: Freeze and G Herbo’s 25. Meanwhile, Bo Burnham’s Inside (The Songs) debuted atop Billboard‘s Top Comedy Albums chart and has also won three Emmy Awards (music direction, variety special directing and variety special writing), while Twice debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 with Taste of Love.
Other Imperial Music artists include Baby Gravy (Yung Gravy & bbno$), The Chemical Brothers, Jelani Aryeh, Brye, The Score, Chri$tian Gate$ and Laurel.
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