Nick Raphael is a

music industry The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by Songwriter, writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music and sheet music, presenting live music, concerts, ...

executive and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England. He is a former President of

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

in the UK.

Career

In the early 1990s, Raphael moved to

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, UK and organized, managed and promoted several night club venues such as Hi Flyers, The Gallery and The Warehouse. This led him to becoming a DJ and recording artist with partner Paul Fryer under the name 'TWA'. Raphael, Fryer and Suzy Mason then started the Vague club, which ran between 1993 and 1996. His work throughout 1991 until 1994 as a Night Club promoter, DJ, recording artist and remixer led Raphael to his first corporate job in the UK music industry in 1994 at

London Records London Recordings (or London Records and London Music Stream) is a British record label that marketed records in the United States, Canada, and Latin America for Decca Records from 1947 to 1980 before becoming semi-independent. The London nam ...

UK, where he served as Product and later Label Manager for FFRR. In 1996, he left London Records to start NorthWestSide (NWS) Records (at BMG) with Christian Tattersfield. They signed

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American Rapping, rapper, businessman, and record executive. Rooted in East Coast hip-hop, he was named Billboard and Vibe's 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time, the ...

the same year. In 2000, NorthWestSide Records was rolled into Arista Records and Raphael was appointed A&R Director. In 2007 Raphael was appointed as the managing director of

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

UK. Raphael stayed with

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

for 10 years he left in 2011 with

Jo Charrington Jo Charrington is a prominent music industry executive, widely recognised as one of the most influential and successful female A&R executives in British music history. She currently serves as the President of Capitol Records UK, a subsidiary o ...

to relaunch

for

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum ...

. After Universal bought EMI they decided to launch

in the US and UK in April 2013. London Records roster and staff were rebranded Capitol Records UK - with Raphael named as president. Over the next eight years the artists signed, A 'n' R'ed and released by Capitol Records UK included Sam Smith (the multi Grammy, Oscar and Brits award winner), 5 Seconds of Summer (the first band in Billboard history to have their first three albums to debut at #1 the Billboard top 200 album chart) and Liam Payne (from

One Direction One Direction, often shortened to 1D, were an English-Irish pop boy band formed in London in 2010. The group consisted of Niall Horan, Zayn Malik (until his departure in 2015), Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson. The group sold o ...

). In 2008, Nick Raphael together with Jo Charrington founded the companies Salli Isaak Songs Limited and Salli Isaak Music Publishing Limited. Collectively, the Salli Isaak roster has written twenty UK Top 10 singles, nine UK No.1 singles, and won multiple Ivor Novello Awards. in 2018, both Salli Isaak companies were acquired by Downtown Music Publishing. The End of 2021 Nick Raphael left

UK to start a new venture with the ex Chairman of

Warner Music Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and the third-largest in the gl ...

UK Christian Tattersfield. The pair who had previously worked together have set up the NWS Music Group which includes records, publishing and sync (the latter two with Ben Bodie).

Career progression

Posts held at the following record companies since 1994; *

UK – Product Manager 1994 - 1995 * FFRR UK – Label Manager 1995 - 1996 * BMG UK 1996–2000 * NorthWest Side Records UK – Label Founder – 1996 - 2000 * *

Arista Records Arista Records ( ) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music G ...

UK – A&R Director 2000 - 2001 *

UK –

Managing Director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

2001 -2002 *

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

UK –

Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

- 2002–2004 * Sony/BMG UK – A&R - 2004–2005 *White Rabbit Records – Label owner - 2005 - 2007 *

UK –Managing director - 2007 - 2011 *

UK - President 2011 - 2013 *

UK - President 2013 - 2022 *NWS Music Group - Owner/Founder 2022–Present

Artists discovered or signed by Nick Raphael

Raphael (alongside Tattersfield and Charrington) has signed, and launched a number of artists including * 5 Seconds of Summer at London/Capitol with Charrington. *

Aloe Blacc Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III (born January 7, 1979), known professionally as Aloe Blacc (), is an American singer and rapper. He is known for his guest performance on Avicii's 2013 single "Wake Me Up (Avicii song), Wake Me Up", which peaked on ...

at Epic with Charrington. * Another Level at NWS/BMG with Tattersfield * Armand Van Helden * Big Brovaz * Charlotte Church at Epic with Charrington. * G4 at Epic with Charrington. * Imogen Heap at Sony/BMG and NWS Music Group * *

, with Tattersfield * JLS at Epic with Charrington. *

Lemar Lemar Obika (born 4 April 1978), known mononymously as Lemar, is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. Initially rising to fame after finishing third on the Fame Academy (series 1), first series of British talent show ''Fame Acade ...

at Epic with Charrington. * Mylo * Olly Murs at Epic/Whiterabbit Records/Sony with Charrington. * Paloma Faith, at Epic with Charrington. * The Priests at Epic with Charrington. * Sam Smith at London/Capitol with Charrington. *

Scouting For Girls Scouting for Girls are an English pop rock band. Their name is a play on the title of the 1908 Scouting handbook ''Scouting for Boys''. The band was formed in 2005 by three childhood friends from London, Roy Stride on vocals, piano and guitar, ...

at Epic with Charrington. * Aitch at

with Colin Batsa and

* Jimmy Napes at Salli Isaak Songs ltd with

* The Gypsy Queens at London/Capitol with Charrington.

Awards and nominations

Music Week Awards

In 2010, Raphael and Charrington were recipients of the

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...

A&R award, which they received again in 2015 making them the only A&R team to win the award twice. , - , 2010 , Nick Rapahel & Jo Charrington (Capitol Records) , A & R Award , , - , 2015 , Nick Rapahel & Jo Charrington (Capitol Records) , A & R Award ,

References

External links

Nick Raphael's profile on Music Tank - The University of Westminster's business development networkRecordoftheday.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raphael, Nick British talent agents 1971 births Living people