Simon Horrocks, Co-Founder, Affix Music
Simon Horrocks and Michael Weeman are the driving force behind Affix Music. Their vision for the company evolved from a shared appreciation of urban music, working relationships with successful producers and recording artists and deep experience in artist management and music publishing. They’ve made it their mission to make licensing easier and more profitable for everyone involved. As a management consultant for Ciara, Simon Horrocks witnessed the global demand for hip-hop while working with the Grammy-winning artist on her first world tour. Simon discovered the supply side of the business when he returned home to Atlanta to work with Devyne Stephens as the GM of Upfront Records, home to Akon & Kandi. A mountain of CDs from hopeful unsigned talent began to grow on his desk. The opportunity to connect supply and demand presented itself when he was asked to find affordable, relevant music for an urban lifestyle project with The Athlete’s Foot. Simon selected a track from one of the producers he was working with, and the net result was a satisfying win-win experience for all involved. Thinking he might be onto something, Simon approached several producers to shop their unplaced music for TV and radio projects. “Yes. Go get me a check!” was their unanimous response. Simon immediately started helping Clear Channel find musical talent for major brand advertisers. From there he landed projects for HBO, BET and Disney. Business was good, but he wondered if the venture would be scalable. After serving as an artist manager and an A&R consultant to MCA Records and Zomba Music Publishing, Michael Weeman was hired as a Writer-Publisher exec to open BMI’s Urban-focused Atlanta office. As the city’s Urban Music community continued to evolve, he left BMI to manage a group of producers and mixers with Multi-Platinum credits, including Ludacris, Lil Jon, David Banner, Bone Crusher and Shop Boyz. Michael was impressed by the resourcefulness and prolificacy of the talent in his stable. He was also struck by the volume of quality music left un-monetized in the rapidly changing music business. He began using his knowledge of music publishing and his law degree to negotiate licensing deals to help his team capitalize on the unplaced music in their catalogs. But the traditional methods of licensing often made the process extraordinarily time-intensive, and the varied collaborations inherent in Urban music creation made the deals cumbersome. There had to be a better way. When Simon and Michael shared their experiences, they agreed the market was hungry for quality urban Music and related genres. They both agreed the conventions of licensing were creating obstacles that were stunting the growth of creativity for music providers and media professionals. And they both agreed that they were uniquely positioned to solve the creative and legal problems that would help break down these obstacles to let the music flow.