{"id":134854,"date":"2022-07-20T13:56:30","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T12:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=134854"},"modified":"2022-07-20T13:57:41","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T12:57:41","slug":"onerpm-has-conquered-brazils-streaming-market-now-its-taking-on-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/onerpm-has-conquered-brazils-streaming-market-now-its-taking-on-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"ONErpm has conquered Brazil\u2019s streaming market. Now it\u2019s taking on the world."},"content":{"rendered":"

Which record company had the most positions on the weekly Spotify Top 200 in Brazil in the first half of this year: Universal Music, Sony Music, or Warner Music?<\/p>\n

Trick question. Sony technically<\/em> had the most, when you include Brazilian label Som Livre, which the major acquired for $255 million last year.<\/a><\/p>\n

But if you counted Sony Music (and The Orchard) and Som Livre separately, the No.1 company on this particular list isn\u2019t a major music company at all: it\u2019s ONErpm<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Nashville-headquartered ONErpm<\/a> was founded 12 years ago this month by entrepreneur (and the company\u2019s CEO) Emmanuel Zunz. The business targeted Brazil as its priority market from the very start.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrazil was the first office we opened in July 2010,\u201d recalls Zunz, who studied in the LatAm country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were probably the first business to go into Brazil and provide a music DIY platform that was both open to anybody and transparent. And at the time we were extra rare because we actually paid people!\u201d<\/p>\n

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A chart showing the total number of weekly chart placings for each distributor\/record company. (Note: This doesn’t reflect the weekly volume of share\/sales which would traditionally be the metric for market shares.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Today, ONErpm has far outgrown its DIY distribution beginnings. The firm still does run a DIY tier, but \u2013 somewhat akin to Believe\u2019s model \u2013 it also invests more heavily in a smaller pool of artists, like a label would.<\/p>\n

Some artists (those within what ONErpm calls its \u2018Taking Off\u2019 tier) are paid advances and given in-house marketing\/PR\/playlisting support to accelerate their careers; others (\u2018Next Level\u2019) might even share copyright ownership with ONErpm, and receive a more blockbuster level of investment.<\/p>\n

Today, with a global staff of over 450 people<\/strong> \u2013 and a dedicated A&R staff of over 60 people<\/strong> \u2013 the company says it aggressively sources new business from all corners of the music market.<\/p>\n

In addition, over the past few years, ONErpm has been quietly acquiring copyright catalogs from artists and labels, with Zunz estimating that \u2018owned\u2019 or \u2018part-owned\u2019 copyrights now account for a significant single-digit percentage of ONErpm\u2019s repertoire.<\/p>\n

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By building this model over the past dozen years, and expanding into territories such as the US, Chile, Colombia, Jamaica, Argentina, Spain, the UK, Australia, and Nigeria, ONErpm \u2013 according to MBW\u2019s sources \u2013 is a profitable and fully independent business (i.e. no VC capital). It currently operates in no less than 30 global territories (see below).<\/p>\n

MBW\u2019s sources also tell us that on a gross revenue basis, ONErpm turns over a nine-figure sum annually \u2013 although obviously the majority of this is paid out as royalties to artists and labels.<\/p>\n

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Zunz won\u2019t be drawn on his firm\u2019s finances, but does say his company\u2019s revenues grew by 70%<\/strong> last year, and he\u2019s expecting further 30%-plus<\/strong> annual growth in 2022.<\/p>\n

The scale of the business is obviously impressive \u2013 and not just in LatAm.<\/p>\n

Zunz says that ONErpm artists\/tracks currently attract approximately 12 billion<\/strong> plays a month on YouTube, tens of billions<\/strong> of plays a month on TikTok, and over 3 billion<\/strong> streams per month across Spotify and Apple Music combined.<\/p>\n

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You probably don\u2019t need MBW to tell you how smart ONErpm’s early focus on Brazil was. Zunz says it gave his business a “first-mover advantage” on other companies servicing indie artists.<\/p>\n

According to IFPI statistics, Brazil was the world\u2019s 10th largest<\/strong> recorded music market in 2021. And according to local trade body ProMusica, Brazil\u2019s annual subscription streaming revenue shot up by 28% YoY in 2021, to BRL 1.084 billion (around $219m).<\/p>\n

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ONErpm\u2019s success in Brazil certainly isn\u2019t limited to Spotify: On YouTube, for example, it beat the likes of Universal Music and Warner Music in the first half of 2022 in terms of the number of distributed artists taking places on the platform\u2019s weekly Top 100 (see below).<\/p>\n

In turn, ONErpm\u2019s success in LatAm isn\u2019t limited to Brazil: The company has seen similar levels of major-beating\/major-baiting success in the likes of Chile, Peru, and Colombia. (Based on the IFPI statistics for 2021, Zunz believes that ONErpm took a 20% market share in that territory by revenue last year.)<\/p>\n

“We are big believers that the \u2018creator economy\u2019 and direct-to-fan platforms, including YouTube, will continue to change the global music business for the better.”<\/p>\n

Emmanuel Zunz, OneRPM<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Says Zunz: \u201cWe have built very clever technology that helps us manage all of our marketing campaigns in each territory. Because of that, we have economies of scale, which a lot of our competitors don’t \u2013 including the majors. It means we\u2019re able to render high-quality services for artists at much more affordable rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re no longer just a distribution company; we\u2019re a full-service music company for artists that also happens to offer a distribution solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cWe are big believers that the \u2018creator economy\u2019 and direct-to-fan platforms, including YouTube, will continue to change the global music business for the better. We have built significant infrastructure to support those creators.\u201d<\/p>\n

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For the rest of 2022, Zunz and his team are laser-focused on globally expanding the ONErpm model.<\/p>\n

This plan sprung into life last month with the announcement<\/a> that ONErpm was adding five new offices to its setup in Africa: in Accra, Ghana; in Abidjan, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire; in Nairobi, Kenya; in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and in Johannesburg, South Africa.<\/p>\n

These new launches joined ONErpm\u2019s office in Lagos, Nigeria, which the company opened in 2020.<\/p>\n

More expansion is on the horizon for ONErpm, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the process of opening up properly in Asia, hiring our first people in China, in Malaysia,\u201d explains Zunz, who says that he\u2019s aiming to double the size of ONErpm\u2019s business in the next three or four years.<\/p>\n

The gateway to that growth, he explains, will be based on two things:<\/p>\n