You may have seen a recent item around these parts reporting that PULSE Music Group had writers on the Top 3 songs in the U.S., as well as on three cuts in the Top 10 at Pop radio, the Top 3 albums in the nation and other high-ranking places. It's a big moment for the L.A. company, which has long established a rep as a "creative campus" in the creator community. We asked PMG co-founder/co-chiefs Josh Abraham and Scott Cutler and SVP/Head of Creative Ashley Calhoun to give us a sense of how it all works.
PULSE recently had the #1, #2, #3 and #9 songs. How does an indie publisher deliver that kind of market share?
Scott Cutler: The simplest answer to this is we are very particular about who we sign. We only sign someone if we have a very clear vision for them—and if they are a “one of one.”
Ashley Calhoun: We definitely don’t chase the charts. PULSE has a diverse A&R team that identifies talent that will operate really well within our ecosystem. And then we just do the work. Having a young A&R team helps, because everyone is trying to make an impact and make a name for their clients. They just go really hard for our clients.
In a time when a lot of the focus is on acquisitions of assets, what does frontline music publishing look like in 2022?
SC: It’s really a different muscle. I have immense respect for “creative” financial people. Buying a catalog is a specific skill. Operating a frontline pubco is something you need to spend years developing. I started at 22 as a writer, and Josh started producing at 18. So we’ve been doing this job our whole lives.
