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Martin Mills

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For the twentieth century Australian writer who used this name, see Martin Boyd.

Martin Mills (born 12 May 1949) is the founder and chairman of the Beggars Group.

Early life

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Mills grew up near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire and comes from an "upper-middle-class English family".[1] His father worked as a civil servant and his mother was a teacher and headmistress. Mills attended Magdalen College School and Oriel College, Oxford University, where he studied Philosophy, politics and economics, graduating in 1970.[2]

After graduating from university, Mills worked for the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, writing reports on abortion law reformation and processing abortion statistics; however, the experience left him wanting "to do something completely different".[1] After leaving, he found a job at the Record and Tape Exchange, a secondhand record shop in Shepherd's Bush, where Mills realised his future was in the music industry.[2] Eventually, Mills opened a record shop of his own, based on the idea of creating a "new kind of record shop which sold new and second hand records side by side", and began promoting concerts.[3]

Beggars Group

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Main article: Beggars Group

The record store was opened initially to re-sell records that he and a friend, Nick Austin, had collected for a mobile disco.[4] The disco, and then the company, was named after the Rolling Stones' album Beggars Banquet.[5] Mills and Austin had seen an opportunity for a record shop that sold both new and second-hand records. Beggars Banquet soon became a six-shop chain in London, arriving shortly before punk broke through; "It turned what we did upside down. We all started being interested in a completely different style of music. The kind of concerts we had been promoting suddenly became completely irrelevant, so we started promoting punk gigs instead. It was an amazing, incredibly exciting sea change."[6]

In the radio show he was quoted as saying that The whole point [of independent music publishing] is not giving people what they want but what they are going to want.[5]

Having served on the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) Council, the governing body of the record industry, from 1987 to 2000, he quit to become the progenitor of the Association of Independent Music in the UK, and similar bodies in Europe (Impala)[7] and the US (A2IM), and the Worldwide Independent Network.[8]

He also led the establishment of Merlin in 2008,[9] the independents’ rights licensing body, which has distributed well over $2 billion to members since launch, and today counts 850 members from 63 countries.

He has remained active in other music industry organisations, through his participation in the government’s Music Industry Forum, the Music Business Forum, being on the board of UK Music, and both as a director of PPL and VPL, the industry’s rights licensing bodies. In addition, he was called by the US Senate to Washington in 2012 to be a witness in the hearing on the proposed purchase of EMI Records by Universal Music.[10]

He was awarded an MBE in the 2008 New Year Honours list, as well as outstanding contribution awards from Music Week, Billboard, the Radio Academy, the Featured Artists Coalition, IMPALA, Canadian Music Week, The Music Producers’ Guild, A2IM, Billboard, and the 'Pioneer Award' at the AIM Awards.[11]

He has a personal fortune of £230 million.[12] A Beggars Group sale of their stake in Spotify in 2019 earned Mills £8 million.[13]

As of 2023, the labels that comprise the Beggars Group are 4AD, Matador Records, Rough Trade Records, XL Recordings and Young.[14]

Awards and accolades

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Commentary

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In June 2013, Mills was described in a BBC Radio 4 portrait as looking "remarkably unremarkable" but being "like a wise old fisherman watching minnows waiting to catch a really big fish".[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b Werde, Bill (24 January 2013). "Billboard to Honor Beggars Group Chairman Martin Mills at MIDEM". Billboard. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
  2. ^ a b Kelly, Liam. "Martin Mills, founder of Beggars Group: my greatest hits — from rock bottom to Gary Numan and Adele". ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on 19 November 2021. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
  3. ^ "Beggars Group". www.beggars.com. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  4. ^ "Music Made Me Do It: The Label Founder – Beggar's Banquet's Martin Mills". Loud And Quiet. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  5. ^ a b c "BBC Radio 4 - Zeitgeisters, Series 1, Martin Mills". BBC. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  6. ^ dahancb (15 March 2011). "Beggars Banquet". Center of the Indie Label Universe. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  7. ^ "MARTIN MILLS - IMPALA". www.impalamusic.org. 8 May 2020. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  8. ^ "WIN APPOINTS MARTIN MILLS AS CHAIR - IMPALA". www.impalamusic.org. 27 February 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  9. ^ "Merlin is 5: a timeline of achievement". Music Business Worldwide. 5 June 2013. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  10. ^ Gensler, Andy (20 June 2012). "Exclusive: Beggars Group's Martin Mills On Testifying at Senate Universal-EMI Hearing". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  11. ^ Gensler, Andy (20 June 2012). "Exclusive: Beggars Group's Martin Mills On Testifying at Senate Universal-EMI Hearing". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  12. ^ Hall, James (15 October 2021). "Adele, Inc: why the music industry is banking on pop's $1.5 million-a-day woman". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  13. ^ Kelly, Liam. "Payday for Beggars Group music pioneer Martin Mills". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  14. ^ "Beggars Group Homepage". Company Website.
  15. ^ "Strat's entertainment: Music Week's history of The Strat award". www.musicweek.com. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  16. ^ "United Kingdom: Queen's New Year Honours List 2008". Scoop News. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  17. ^ "Martin Mills and Everybody's honoured at Artist and Manager Awards". www.recordoftheday.com. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  18. ^ "Martin Mills | No 22". The Guardian. 26 May 2011. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  19. ^ "IMPALA HONOURS MARTIN MILLS AND LABEL LOVE WITH OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION AWARDS - IMPALA". www.impalamusic.org. 2 February 2012. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  20. ^ Christman, Ed (30 May 2012). "Beggars Group's Martin Mills To Be Honored At A2IM's Inaugural Libera Awards". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  21. ^ Audio Media International: Martin Mills honoured by Music Producers Guild, 4 Jan 2012
  22. ^ Hampp, Andrew (27 January 2013). "Martin Mills Receives Billboard's Industry Icon Award". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  23. ^ Duffy, Thom (2 February 2013). "Billboard Power 100: Martin Mills". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  24. ^ "Beggars Group Founder Martin Mills to Receive Inaugural CMW Global Impact Award at Canadian Music Week 2014". Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  25. ^ "Martin Mills to receive AIM Pioneer Award". www.prsformusic.com. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  26. ^ Duffy, Thom (30 January 2014). "Billboard's 2014 International Power Players List". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  27. ^ Staff, Billboard (13 February 2016). "Billboard's 2016 Power 100 List Revealed". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  28. ^ Staff, Billboard (9 February 2017). "No. 64: Martin Mills | Power 100". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  29. ^ Staff, Billboard (14 August 2017). "Revealed: Billboard's 2017 Indie Power Players, Led by Big Machine's Scott Borchetta". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  30. ^ Staff, Billboard (27 August 2018). "Revealed: Billboard's 2018 Indie Power Players". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  31. ^ Staff, Variety (4 June 2018). "International Music Leaders of 2018". Variety. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  32. ^ Staff, Billboard (8 February 2019). "Billboard's 2019 Power 100 List Revealed". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  33. ^ Staff, Billboard (17 June 2019). "Billboard's 2019 Indie Power Players: The Execs Behind Drake, John Prine, Lauren Daigle and BTS". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  34. ^ Staff, Variety (30 May 2019). "Variety International Music Impact Report". Variety. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  35. ^ Staff, Billboard (15 June 2020). "Revealed: Billboard's 2020 Indie Power Players". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  36. ^ Staff, Billboard (24 January 2020). "The 2020 Billboard Power List Revealed". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  37. ^ Staff, Billboard (7 June 2021). "Revealed: Billboard's 2021 Indie Power Players". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  38. ^ Staff, Billboard (6 June 2022). "Revealed: 2022 Indie Power Players". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  39. ^ Staff, Billboard (26 January 2022). "The 2022 Billboard Power List Revealed". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  40. ^ Eriksen, Kaare (22 August 2015). "Martin Mills". Variety. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  41. ^ DiGiacomo, Frank (2 February 2023). "Billboard's 2023 Power 100: Executives List Revealed". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
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