New Ministry of Sound MD talks A&R, breaking talent and the future of the label

New Ministry of Sound managing director Negla Abdela has spoken to Headliner about her vision for the company, A&R, and the label’s strategy for breaking new talent.

Having joined Ministry of Sound in 2015 as social media manager, Abdela has gone on to serve as head of digital and general manager, before being promoted to managing director earlier this year. During her time with the iconic dance label – part of the Sony Music Group – Abdela has played a significant role in the company’s success, with the label achieving multi-platinum hits from artists including Paul Woolford, Ewan McVicar, Riton and Majestic as well as spearheading global campaigns for domestic talent such as Regard, London Grammar and Sigala.

Abdela also sits on Sony Music UK’s Social Justice Fund steering committee and is the co-executive sponsor for Sony Music’s internal Diversity committee HUE (Helping Unite Everyone). Earlier this year she featured on Empower’s 2023 Role Model List, which showcases individuals who are advocating for people of colour within the workplace.

Here, Abdela joins us for a chat about her illustrious career so far and what the future holds for Ministry of Sound…

Tell us a about what you were doing before you joined the Ministry of Sound, what's been your route into where you are today?

My career journey started about 12 years ago as an intern at Island Records in the marketing team. That was my entry point into understanding the inner workings of a record label. I was there for about four years where I grew through the team and worked my way up into a junior product manager role. I looked after the domestic and international campaigns there and got to see the full breadth of what you could do at a label. It was after leaving Island Records that I decided to hone my speciality into digital marketing

As wild as it sounds, social media at that time wasn't as big as it is now. It was kind of there, and you had Facebook and Twitter, but it wasn't a core part of our marketing campaigns as much as it is now. So, I moved over into digital when I joined Ministry of Sound at the right time industry wise.

What was the path from joining as social media manager through to becoming managing director?

When I started, I was looking after the social accounts for the club and the brand - I wasn't initially working on the label. But once I'd been there for a few months, we identified a need for the label to have a digital team as well. So, we were given the opportunity and from there we started to build out.

There was a lot of change in that period of Ministry. It was an independent label and we started building all these partnerships with the likes of Spotify, Vevo, YouTube, SoundCloud, and we were transitioning all of the repertoire on to those platforms. We then joined a major label with the Sony acquisition, so I've been able to see all of those changes in real time and watch the label evolve in front of my eyes.

The label has been enjoying a very successful period of late, reporting year-on-year growth and an increase in market share. What have been some of the key drivers behind that?

When Ministry was an independent label, we were having a lot of success as an indie and but we were limited in how far we could take those successes. So, the Sony merger really sped up that process. Being part of the Sony system gave us a global network to tap into with regard to label partners and also just on an operational basis. We were more able to break domestic talent outside of the UK, while also working with our US counterparts on their domestic signings. So, we've broken acts like Riton, while the likes of Sigala, have been very good for the label’s UK success. And we've also broken international artists like Doja Cat and Tate McRae in the UK, so the Sony system has helped open up so many opportunities in terms of how big Ministry can be and where we can go.

How did you manage that integration with Sony? How do you maintain Ministry’s sense of independence within a major structure?

Maintaining our independent ethos and culture has always been important, even more so when we became part of the Sony Music Group. And I think that's reflected in the size of the team. We're not a massive label; we are quite a small team. We're very collaborative, very hands-on with our artists and we don't sign too much. We sign the stuff that we're passionate about and then we're really going to be able to give our attention and best efforts to them.

What's your vision for the label? Are there any aspects that you feel need to be changed or shaken up?

The first priority is always going to be growing the label and having continued success developing and breaking new artists. We’re in a very strong place at the moment. We've got three singles [at the time of interview] in the top five this week and it's all about how we can maintain that and bringing through new talent.

I think our internal goals are always to focus on our team and make sure we're developing and nurturing the next generation of music execs. We do that by cultivating a creative, collaborative environment. We all work very closely together. And we work very collaboratively across the Sony Group.

From a personal standpoint, I think being MD and being more visible as a black woman to other black and brown women starting out in the industry is really important. It’s vital to have more women and women of colour in leadership roles.

How do you go about uncovering new talent in today’s market?

In this day and age there are so many different avenues to finding talent and a lot of it tends to be online, whereas 10-15 years ago, you'd go to gigs and you'd go to clubs to discover new talent it. There is a plethora of online platforms that A&Rs are using to find and uncover new talent. For artists, they have to do more than ever. They have to build their audience.

A lot of the time before looking for a deal they have to be active on social media promoting their music, and there's a lot of competition. But in terms of uncovering new talent and how we develop them, it is taking longer and longer to develop talent to then break through. So, it's about sticking with an artist, being patient and investing in artist development.

The dance market in general has been booming over the past two or three years. What’s driving the growing demand for dance music?

For Ministry specifically, lockdown was a really good period for dance music. People were looking for happiness and joy and dance music provided that. People were having lockdown ‘parties’ in their kitchens and we were able to provide a soundtrack to bring people joy in a really dark time.

I think we're now in a period where it's almost back to where we were pre-pandemic. Clubs are busier than ever. DJs are busier than they've been in the past couple of years and that's really helped. They drive dance music and propel it further. You can see from the charts at the moment that dance music is dominating and I think that's reflective of culture - a lot of stuff is breaking from the clubs now and that is translating into music in the charts.

Also, younger people are going out clubbing for the first time post-pandemic. They're discovering music for the first time - you see that with the re-emergence of drum and bass for example. It’s reaching a whole new generation and it's in the charts like it hasn't been for a long time.

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities you face as we head towards 2024?

The dance scene is in a really healthy place at the moment and with so much talent emerging now, it has become more competitive. But I think that's a good thing because that competitiveness creates more opportunities for new talent to breakthrough, which is what we want. We want to sign and develop and nurture new talent. It just keeps the scene and the genre evolving.

In terms of opportunities, we're seeing more focus on more women, and I think that's a massive opportunity. We're already seeing the benefits of that with the talent that's coming through that may not necessarily have come through before when there wasn't as much representation and balance and diversity in our team. So, it's good to see that there is an industry focus on it and that everyone is making an effort to be more representative of the world that we live in.