A potted history of London’s finest boutique music business advisory

In the late 1999 Ade Bullock left Stephen Abery & Co. and set up shop in his spare bedroom, with a couple of clients and little fanfare. Many years on, we find ourselves in our spiritual home of Great Portland Street and we still proudly represent those pioneering clients who gave us a chance. So thank you to them.

In 2000, Bullocks broke new ground by project managing the rights and royalties issues of Daft Punk’s innovative, ballsy counter attack on Napster: The Daft Club.

Fans who bought ‘Discovery’ were able to enter a code online, giving them freebie access to tracks, video and images. Two million downloads in the first week - in the face of massive music industry resistance - meant a victory for Daft Punk…and a growing reputation for Bullocks.

Then in 2003 Ade packed his suitcase as Bullocks branched out into the world of tour accounting, and touring the world. First up was Radiohead’s “Hail to the Thief Tour”, followed by 2005’s Take That comeback, hitting the road with the newly reformed man-band.

In 2006, Ade was joined by Kashif Khan, who brought his strong background in royalty audits to the fold. In 2007, the team was bolstered by the addition of Frank Walshe and Liz Pacleb.

Frank had served an eight-year tour of duty in the trenches of band management, and Liz was a recently qualified graduate in Music Business Management who’d impressed during a long spell as intern.

Now well-rounded into a fully-fledged music business services practice, Bullocks continued to attract clients from all over the globe and we are scrupulous in maintaining existing professional relationships.

2007 and 2008 was all about In Rainbows, Radiohead’s ground breaking release where an unsuspecting public was invited to pay what they wanted for the band’s long awaited album. We helped put together the rights infrastructure that helped smooth the way ahead of release and administered everything after it broke the Internet.

In 2009 we moved into 41 Great Portland Street, from where we have established a reputation as proactive future-facing advisors. The relative certainty of a record sale generating a royalty has been replaced an unbridled free-for-all of price-pressure and digital distribution. Major labels are finding their inalienable rights very, very alien indeed and some artists are taking a cottage industry approach.

That year we also branched out into Neighbouring Rights management. Using our background in forensic auditing, we wanted to maximise this income stream for our clients as its importance continued to grow in this ever-changing industry. As with the other facets of our business, this arm has grown quite organically through word of mouth and personal recommendation.

As our client base grew, so too did our team. In 2012 Stephanie Skinner joined the Bullocks line-up and we soon found ourselves wondering how we ever did without her.

We are working with more and more bands, songwriters, labels, agents, managers and all elements of the industry to piece together this new age of rights management. Whether it’s on the road, on the radio, or on the record player, we are doing our bit to make and make sure our clients get paid what they deserve.

If you want to join our merry band of collaborators, call +44 20 7268 0123