Longtime entrepreneur and executive Richard Stumpf has announced the launch of Hawkeye Music Publishing, a new firm that both signs active songwriters and acts as the dot connector between teams looking to sell music catalogs with their strategic partner Round Hill Music.
Previous to his new firm Hawkeye, Stumpf found success as an executive at Imagem Music and Cherry Lane Music. More recently, he was the founder and CEO of the indie publisher of Atlas Music Publishing which guided Van Halen, Brandi Carlile, Counting Crows, Dan the Automator, Sean Garrett, Ashley Gorley, and the Al Jackson Jr. catalog (“Let’s Stay Together”) as clients. Eventually, the firm caught the attention of HYBE’s Ithaca Holdings and sold to the Korean music giant at the start of 2019. As part of the sale, Stumpf agreed to stay on as CEO until January 2021, which he did. (The rest of the original Atlas team also departed in 2021).
Since then, Stumpf has taken an advisory role, helping a number of tech companies looking to break into the music business, including Right Box and MerchCat, and lent his expertise to catalog buyers or administrators like Pythagoras Music Fund, GoldState Music and Round Hill Music.
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“What was clear to me working alongside tech and catalog companies was that there is an enormous and growing appetite for copyrights – both from a consumer and ownership perspective,” says Stumpf. “I wanted to put myself in a position where I could bring relationship driven catalog business to a home where I knew the music would be treated with the utmost respect and at the same time have a partner who could assist in administering Hawkeye, which would be dedicated to active writers. I found that strategic partner in Round Hill Music. Josh [Gruss, founder of Round Hill] and his team exemplify what it means to be a proactive partner who puts the music and writers first.”
Hawkeye Music Publsihing has not signed its first active songwriter yet, but it has already assembled a team of advisors across the music industry to, as Stumpf puts it, “provide expertise across several sectors of a constantly evolving and overlapping music space.” This list includes Ann Mincielli (Grammy-winning engineer, co-founder of She Is the Music), Gruss (founder/CEO of Round Hill), Sean Garrett (producer/songwriter), Barry Ehrmann (founder/video producer Enliven Entertainment), Brandon Young (head of music affairs, Activision Blizzard), Chris “Coach” Rodriguez (assistant program director/ dj for 107.1 The Peak) Julio Guiu (president of Clipper’s Music Group) and Amy Berkholtz (digital media Strategist).
“This advisory team shares my reverence for the songwriter and the creative process. They are a group that fully embrace innovation,” says Stumpf. “I’m humbled and excited by their participation.”
Adds Gruss, “Rich is a real music guy with a lot of creative ideas about maximizing value for copyrights and writers. He’s a respected industry vet that I’m happy to have working alongside Round Hill Music. We’ve already been able to welcome Warren Haynes as a Round Hill Music client and are grateful to Rich for the introduction and endorsement.”