Date Signed: January 2023
Publisher: Position Music / Champagne Therapy Music Group (CTMG)
Type of Music: R&B / Pop
Publicity: Deborah Radel @ DR Public Relations / [email protected]
Web: positionmusic.com
A&R: Delmar Powell - Position Music
Songwriter-producer Yonatan Watts has entered a new chapter, signing a global publishing deal in partnership with Position Music and Champagne Therapy Music Group (CTMG). With cuts for Arianna Grade, Black Eyed Peas, Machine Gun Kelly, The Weeknd, and many others, Watts was first inspired by his friends’ Japanese manga and anime cartoons. Singing along to the theme songs, he says “the unorthodox music for cartoons would inspire me to find my voice.”
A member of a vocal trio as a teen, and finishing Top 100 in Canadian Idol (with elimination just before the Top 30 duet rounds), Watts moved State-side for more experience after meeting a New York colleague of his production partner in Toronto. Taking up an offer to couch surf, he built his name in New York as an R&B/Pop engineer (working out of Platinum Sound Studios). Eight years later—and Itching to get back into music production—he relocated to Los Angeles.
Meeting fellow Canadian Murda Beatz at a SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) event, the two began sessions together. He was later asked to create some samples for Ariana Grande’s project by a colleague of Tommy Brown’s and, after a summer in a sketchy downtown apartment, delivered piles of options. Grande’s record was cut, but none of Watts’ work was included. Four months later, he learned that Grande had circled back and Positions was re-released as a deluxe edition—this time using Watts’ tracks on “Main Thing.”
Meeting Tommy Brown on multiple occasions, Brown asked Watts to reach out if he found a worthy team to join and, after connecting with Position Music’s VP of A&R Delmar Powell through a fellow artist overseas, Watts presented the partnership with Brown. Watts says Position “felt more along the energy I like to surround myself with. They have a different catalog and caliber of people—small, but mighty—and amazing at sync.”
Says Delmar of Watts, “Beyond work ethic, when he goes in the room and presses Play, it’s a WOW. He keeps on proving himself and, as a publisher, that is the person that you look for.” – Andrea Beenham
