Universal Music Latin has inked a multi-year partnership with the Los Angeles based multicultural music and media company, MPM Productions. MPM will find, grow, and develop credible cross-over Latin musical acts from around the world for UMLE under the MPM Latin label name. MPM was co-founded by 3 Arizona State University alums, Eric O’Connor, Dimitri Hurt, and Luis Arellano in 2016.
MPM’s first artist under this agreement is JD Pantoja who’s debut single release under this agreement, “ERROR”, reached #1 on Spotify Top 200 charts in 11 countries and #1 on Apple Music Chart Latino Top 200 in 7 countries. The video of the song currently has over 34 million views on YouTube and, trended #1 in 14 countries and Top 3 in the US. “ERROR” finished the week at #2 on the Global YouTube Charts.
“We’re proud to say that our artists are paving the way for this business model to be successful.” – Luis Arellano, President of MPM Latin.
“It’s kind of art AND a science to be able to tell which creators that are predominantly known for online videos/content can be taken seriously as credible musicians,” states Eric O’Connor.
“We’ve seen hundreds of online creators try to ‘make music’ over the past 3 years, and for the most part, it’s just ok. We have 2 artists that are signed to US labels that started on YouTube, DDG (@pontiacmadeddg) at Sony Epic and Pantoja. So we’re on to something.” – Dimitri Hurt.
“It all starts with the music. You can have 15 million followers and just because you make a song that does great numbers, doesn’t mean that the ‘industry’ will accept you,” O’Connor cautions. “The music has to be great.”
“These guys have shown a proven track record of not only finding these successful acts early on but also in sticking with them to develop them and provide them with the strategy and resources they need to succeed and be great artists. UMLE is happy to be in business with MPM.” – Victor Gonzalez, President of UMLE.
In its 3 year history, MPM has already earned 4 gold records, with the latest being certified by the RIAA, in April 2020. MPM songs have over 1 billion streams to date.
