Italian Indie Sugar Revives Insieme Brand June 23, 2010
- Global
| Indies
By Mark Worden, Milan
Sugar, Italy's leading indie label, is reviving its Insieme ("Together") brand as a management company.
The Insieme label was originally founded by Caterina Caselli in the late 1980s. It was subsequently replaced by the Sugar label.
The Insieme name is now being restored as a 360-degree management company within the Sugar company structure. It will represent artists for management (including merchandising and sponsorship deals) as well as live booking.
Insieme has taken on some of Sugar's younger artists. So far Malika Ayané, who won the Mia Martina critics award at this year's Sanremo Festival, has signed up, as have Enrico Nigiotti and Matteo Macchioni, who both took part in the TV talent show "Amici."
In common with the experience of major labels that have set up 360-degree arrangements including management, Sugar is not immediately able to assign its established artists to Insieme as they are already contracted to other companies.
Insieme will be run at the company's Milan offices by Nicoletta Zagone, who was previously promotion manager. She will have the title of project manager and artists relations and will report to Caterina Caselli and Filippo Sugar.
The Sugar family sold its CGD label to Warner Music in the 1980s, but held onto to their extensive publishing and retail interests, and began recording again with Insieme.
Sugar's recording business exploded with the international success of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, and their current roster includes the singer Elisa.
Sugar's recording and publishing interests are run by Caterina Caselli and her son Filippo Sugar. The Sugar Group sold its retail division - two large Messaggerie Musicali music stores in Milan and Rome - to prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's Mondadori company in 2006.
The Sugar family has been a prominent feature of the Italian music industry for several generations. Filippo Sugar's grandfather, Ladislao Sugar, was a music publisher and retailer who acquired the CGD label in 1959. The label produced several hit artists in the 1960s, including Caterina Caselli, who later married Ladislao's son, Piero. She interrupted her recording career to become a mother, but later returned to the industry as an executive and talent scout, setting up the Ascolto label in the 1970s, and later running CGD.
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