Milk & Honey Launches Label With Songwriter-Friendly Royalty Model: ‘Bring Us Your Songs’

Milk & Honey Music + Sports has added a record label, Milk & Honey Records, to its portfolio.

The new Los Angeles-based label will focus on pop and dance music but differs from most record companies in that it will pay royalty points — as high as double digits — to songwriters who contribute songs to projects.

“Bring us your songs that you might have sent to another label where you wouldn’t be given points. You don’t need to be a Milk & Honey songwriter or artist; we want to be in business with you” said Milk & Honey’s president/founder Lucas Keller in a statement. The royalty will come out of Milk & Honey’s revenue share.

Keller declined to name initial signings to the label, which will be physically and digitally distributed by The Orchard, but told Billboard, “We have a lot of releases coming and we’ve chosen to not play favorites with any artists. [It’s] expected to be a variety of clients, non-clients and will be half pop and half electronic. Grammy winning/multi-platinum artists included, not just new artists.”

 “We live in a world where the working songwriter has a difficult time deciding what to spend their time on, there are so many artists, and a label model that doesn’t support making the writer as wealthy as the artist or the company,” Keller, who has appeared on multiple Billboard power lists, continued. “The way songs are fractured now — with 16 writers and 7 producers — it is nearly financially impossible to be a songwriter. Major companies who publish many writers on hit songs are just as successful as always, but in key markets like Los Angeles and Nashville, there are less songwriters than ever that make a real living. At Milk & Honey, we’ve always been focused on making this into a big business for each songwriter and producer,” added Keller.

Industry vet Dana Shayegan, who has had stints at iHeartRadio, Studio71US and the Collective, as well as co-founded Monk Music, will run the new entity. “I’ve received countless resumes from major label A&Rs who I didn’t believe could enter the new world gracefully. I wanted someone who understands digital and knows how to go deep into the internet to both source and research records and break them, and to be scrappy – Dana is that guy and I am excited to have him as part of the next chapter of Milk & Honey,” Keller said.  

“Lucas, Milk & Honey, and I are all wired the same way. We fight for artists like they’re our family, we love and respect the history of the music business, but we know that tomorrow’s business will never look the same as yesterday’s,” said Shayegan. “In that spirit, we’re launching a label that honors proper old-school A&R while also embracing data and new technology to stay steps ahead in artist advocacy and deliver fans the music they want, how and where they want it.”

Milk & Honey’s staff numbers nearly 60 and includes a 15-person creative team and a 15-person electronic dance music team that will be tapping into helping with the label, as well as  synch, media and content, marketing and A&R administrative staffers.

While paying songwriters royalties beyond what they earn from mechanical and performance royalties is rare, it is not unheard of. Over the last few years, four indie labels – Justin Tranter’s Facet Records, The Other Songs, Nvak Collective and Good Boy Records — pledged to pay songwriters points on every master, generally ranging between three and four percent, potentially below the rate Milk & Honey is pledging.

Additionally, in an effort to further assist songwriters, this summer, the U.K.’s Ivors Academy secured an agreement from the major labels in the U.K. to pay songwriters a per diem plus expenses.

Milk & Honey manages more than 70 songwriters and producers across its five global offices, responsible for many of this year’s top hits, including Y2K (Doja Cat’s “Jealous Type”), Mags Duvall (Alex Warren’s “Ordinary”), Jenna Andrews and Stephen Kirk ( KPop Demon Hunters), David Hodges (Ed Sheeran’s “Camera”), Finn Keane (Charli XCX “Brat”) and Hoskins (Post Malone “I Had Some Help” and “Guy for That”).

Last year, Milk & Honey Music added an agency and marketing sports division that represents 80 athletes, including Travis Kelce (Kansas City Chiefs), Courtland Sutton (Denver Broncos) and Kam Curl (Los Angeles Rams).