Cooking Vinyl growth heats up with new Australian office

Cooking Vinyl, the fast-growing UK indie group, has opened an office in Australia.

Located in Melbourne, the new operation will be headed by Australian-music veterans Leigh Gruppetta (left in photo), the former general manager, music, at Australia’s largest independent label Shock Records, and Stu Harvey, Shock’s former senior international label manager.

They will be responsible for signing their own local and international artists and representing the needs of Cooking Vinyl acts and businesses in other markets, like the UK and the US.

Upcoming releases on their schedule are from Glasvegas, NYPC (New Young Pony Club), High Tension, Fur Trade, The Stepkids, Turin Brakes, Twin Forks, Dinosaur Bones and The Flatliners.

Other plans include offering a range of label services, such as strategic project management, for international labels like BMG Rights, Canada’s Dine Alone and US-based Kemado Records.

The move to launch in Australia comes shortly after Cooking Vinyl ended a distribution deal with Shock Records and clinched an exclusive partnership with Caroline Label Services, said Martin Goldschmidt, Cooking Vinyl’s CEO/founder.

Besides, he added, the label already works with Australian alternative rockers The Church, Sydney-based indie rock act Howling Bells, and New Zealand-based hard rock band The Datsuns.

“Having enjoyed our best ever year in 2012 in the USA with Marilyn Manson, The Cult and The Cranberries, Australia was next on the list for Cooking Vinyl's international expansion plans,” Goldschmidt declared in a statement. “Tim (Janes at Caroline Label Services), Leigh and Stu have looked after us for the last decade in Australia. Getting them into Cooking Vinyl Australia is a dream.”

Gruppetta points out that the timing for setting up an Australian office was ideal because “Australia is a relatively stable market and it recently overtook Canada as the (world’s) sixth biggest market but despite having two-thirds of the population.”