16 September 2019
Newsdesk
Rihanna is reportedly set to sign a deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing as she prepares to release new music.
Multiple sources tell Variety the Umbrella singer is leaving her current firm Warner Chappell Music and will follow her longtime publisher Jon Platt, who left Warner to become the Sony subsidiary's Chief Executive Officer earlier this year.
Insiders tell the U.S. publication that the move could prompt the release of long-awaited new music, saying the singer has been working on two albums for the past two years - a pop and R&B collection and a dancehall record - one of which will come out when the deal is done.
Platt and other Sony/ATV executives attended Rihanna's Diamond Ball last week, where another of his artists, Pharrell Williams, performed.
He has also long been the favoured publisher of JAY-Z and Beyonce, with the rapper hailing him while presenting the executive with an award at a charity gala in Los Angeles, California last year.
"This man has worked his way up from a Denver DJ to be (the) highest-ranking black executive," Jay gushed. "He's the Obama of the music industry behind some of the biggest hits in the world."
Sony/ATV has the largest music publishing catalogue in the world - boasting the publishing rights of artists including Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Taylor Swift and Sia.
