Radiohead’s manager Brian Message has launched a new record label that will allow artists to own their copyright. It’s called Polyphonic, and is founded by Message’s company ATC, the MAMA Group and Vancouver-based Nettwerk Music Group.

Whereas conventional labels often finance recordings, tours and videos in exchange for song rights, Polyphonic will will instead rely on a profit-sharing business model to allow artists to retain full ownership of their music.

Polyphonic has launched with $20m (£12.2m) in funding, mostly provided by the MAMA Group, which manages artists, venues and festivals across the UK, including Glastonbury, G-A-Y and the Hammersmith Apollo. They are joined by ATC, which manages Radiohead, Kate Nash, Faithless and the Rifles, and Nettwerk, which looks after Avril Lavigne and the Stereophonics. Polyphonic will reportedly seek additional funding from private equity groups after the credit market recovers.

Though Radiohead are not formally involved with Polyphonic, the company brandished its credentials by alluding to the band’s release model for In Rainbows. “Giving an album away for free may get one million people listening to a new artist,” said Polyphonic spokesman Adam Driscoll. ATC was instrumental in the decision to make In Rainbows available as a pay-what-you-want download. “We will do whatever is most effective to get an [act] noticed,” Driscoll said.[/quote]