Liz Phair Signs Global Publishing Deal with Warner Chappell Music 05 Aug 2024
Warner Chappell Music (WCM) has signed a global administration deal with influential singer-songwriter and musician Liz Phair. The agreement includes her full music catalog, including hits like “Why Can’t I?,” “Supernova,” and “Never Said.” With a career spanning over three decades, Phair is known for being a key player in the underground early 90s indie rock movement. Her iconic 1993 debut studio album, Exile In Guyville, has been marked as a classic feminist landmark and continues to resonate with audiences worldwide.
On signing with WCM, Liz Phair said: “My songs represent my life’s work, and I am excited to take a fresh look at my catalog with the support of such a unique and maverick team at Warner Chappell, co-headed by the charismatic Carianne Marshall.”
Carianne Marshall, WCM Co-Chair and COO, shared: “Liz has always embraced her true self, releasing songs that were ahead of her time. She opened doors for women in music in the 90s, ushering in a new era of rock and roll with her bold, empowering lyrics and trailblazing sound. She continues to influence music today, and we're proud to be working together to introduce even more audiences to her incredible songs.”
Greg Sowders, WCM SVP, A&R and Catalog, added: “Liz's songs and records changed the way songwriters and artists wrote and recorded in the 90s. She single handedly helped forge the alternative music genre, and her work is more relevant today than it was when she first changed all the rules. There are many more great things in store for Liz and her career as she takes on this next chapter.”
Born in New Haven, Connecticut, and raised in Chicago, Liz Phair first pursued a musical career in San Francisco after graduating from Oberlin College in 1990. She later returned to Chicago, where she began songwriting and self-releasing audio tapes under the name Girly-Sound, which led to a record deal with Matador Records. In 1993, she released her debut studio album, Exile in Guyville, which received instant recognition for its raw and honest lyrics of gender and relationships. The album is now regarded as an iconic work and continues to resonate today, recently reaching the top ten of Pitchfork’s “Best 150 Albums of the 1990s” (No. 4) and the top 100 of Rolling Stone’s “Best 500 Albums of All Time” (No. 56). Last year, Phair celebrated the 30th anniversary of the record and launched a U.S. tour with a full band to perform Exile In Guyville in its entirety at some of the largest venues of her career.
In the years following Exile In Guyville, Phair has continued to defy expectations and break barriers. She released several other albums, including Whip-Smart (1994) and whitechocolatespaceegg (1998), which both earned GRAMMY nominations for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and has sold over five million records worldwide. In 2018, Matador Records reissued Exile in Guyville as a deluxe box set, including the remastered original album and the first official restored audio of 1991’s Girly-Sound tapes – early Phair works that were self-released on cassette. On her most recent full-length album, Soberish (2021), Phair reunited with Exile in Guyville producer Brad Wood.
Phair has also written for TV as well as authored the memoir Horror Stories (2021), further solidifying her legacy as a multifaceted artist.
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THE HEADLINES
Can TikTok revive classic songs? A statistical analysis (see Analysis)
UMG’s Michael Nash: ‘AI can be instrumental to the future of music’ (see Digital)
In the post-music streaming era, do artists and labels give too much away? (see Comment)
Songwriters ‘missing millions in royalties from more than 100,000 UK gigs’ (see News)
Merck Mercuriadis plots comeback with Hipgnosis remix (see Business)
V&A East Storehouse to open the David Bowie Centre (see News)
ESCA calls on the EU to block Universal Music’s deal to buy Downtown (see News)
Virgin Music CEOs push back against critics of Downtown Music deal (see News)
Record labels are running on empty (see Opinion)
AI music is going viral, but it’s not what fans want (see Comment)
The Velvet Sundown may be the first breakout AI band from Suno (see Digital)
Amid cuts, WMG to "continue to supercharge our capabilities in long-term artist, songwriter, and catalog development" (see Business)
WIN CEO writes to European Commission Vice-President over Universal's acquisition of Downtown (see Comment)
If Spotify truly champions discovery, it should champion fair compensation from the first stream (see Comment)
Selected Glastonbury coverage (see News, Features, Showbiz, Reviews)
Streaming is both retail and radio – it shouldn’t be (see Comment)
Impala’s Helen Smith on UMG's planned Downtown acquisition (see Comment)