The first move by a major Liverpool company when setting up in 2006 was to purchase a London phone number to help the new business be taken seriously, according to its founder and CEO.
Sentric Music, founded and based in Liverpool for close to two decades, has gone on to become one of the major independent music publishing companies within the sector. To date it has worked with over 400,000 artists across the world.
Speaking at Liverpool Sound City industry conference today, Friday April 28, its founder and CEO of Sentric Chris Meehan shed light on the early days of the businesses and the challenges of establishing the brand away from the main hub of the sector in London. Featuring as part of a panel titled ‘Northern Powerhouses’ which focused on the potential for northern music businesses to build from the ground up, he explained how “perception” was one of the biggest obstacles when launching a creative company in Liverpool 17 years ago.
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Reflecting on its founding, Chris told the audience: “[Sentric] bought a London phone number before we bought a URL [for the site]. There was this idea that we couldn’t be out of London.”
London phone numbers are characterised by their zero-two dialling code. Most major music companies will be based in the capital with Chris explaining that perceptions of the business were key in its early days - with a local Merseyside 0151 dialling code showing that the company was away from the industry centre down south.
17 years since the businesses inception it was said that these "perceptions" have now changed and Liverpool and the north’s reputation has improved within the music industry. Chris said that developments have shown you “don’t have to have a presence in London”, however he added that things in the north are “better but still difficult” when it comes to equal opportunities.
The panel was led by Sound City’s Becky Ayres and featured insights from Scruff Of The Neck label head, Mark Lippmann, who is based in Manchester and artist manager Louis Brown - also based in Manchester. Sound City Music Festival runs from Saturday April 29 to Sunday April 30 with shows taking place at venues across Liverpool city centre.
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