Trumpeter and Jazz at Lincoln Center artistic director Wynton Marsalis has signed with the Orchard, an entertainment services company that licenses and distributes digital music and video through online retailers. The deal ends Marsalis’ affiliation with Blue Note Records, a partnership that began in 2004 with The Magic Hour and ended with He and She, released in March. In July of 2008, Blue Note released Two Men With the Blues, a well-received collaboration between Marsalis and country music legend Willie Nelson.
According to a press release distributed this morning, Marsalis’ new “multi-faceted” contract with the Orchard includes “co-production of new studio recordings, marketing of live recordings; design and implementation of social networking and other forms of collaborative audience engagement [and] initiatives with consumer brands and non-traditional financial partners.”
Marsalis’ move follows a growing trend of A-list artists seeking out non-traditional, all-inclusive business models while the record industry experiences a paradigm shift. For more info on the Orchard, visit the company’s Web site.
