Sentric Music have come a long way in ten years but have always stayed close to the city in which they were founded.
The Liverpool based music publishers have expanded their operations across international markets and are working in six locations around the world.
Sentric have just received a £3 million investment from BGF to further expand the business and to continue to develop their programmes and technology.
We caught up with founder and CEO, Chris Meehan to discuss Sentric Music’s incredible journey, the benefits of working in the Baltic Triangle and the growth of Liverpool’s creative industries.
Q. Tell us a bit about Sentric Music – the idea behind it and the business model you have employed.
We are a music publishing company and we founded in 2006 in Liverpool. We’ve basically built a technology that simplifies the music publishing business which means that we can look after tens of thousands of songwriters and providing them with support for their work on a global scale.
Q. What is your personal and professional background and how did you come to be involved with the music publishing business?
I grew up in Rainhill just outside of Liverpool and I ended up doing a music management course at LIPA. As part of the course I had to do a three-month work placement so I thought I’d try and do something on my own and set up a business – that was the start of Sentric. I teamed up with a colleague on my course and a local entrepreneur called Andy Davidson and we set it all up from there.
Q. Sentric recently celebrated its ten-year anniversary, what have been the highlights so far?
The company and personal highlight are all tied to the satisfaction of coming up with an idea, believing in it and making a success of it – even though it didn’t sound so viable to begin with!
In the first year we signed up 502 artists to the platform and once we started generating income and paying royalties out it was clear we had something that could possibly grow into something quite big.
It’s nice to turn artists who have been working as a sort of hobby now making decent money out of their work which (for us) is very fulfilling.
Also, seeing the business grow, and seeing people employed in roles they enjoy gives me a great deal of satisfaction and what gets me up in the morning.
Q. There are a number of creative industries setting up in Liverpool, what is it about the city that compliments such ventures?
The great thing about Liverpool is that it’s a great place to live. It’s a small city but it’s got big ambition and that chimes with the people who are looking to work with Sentric. There’s a sense that people really enjoy Liverpool and it’s got a great vibe to it – our five last recruitment campaigns have brought people from London because Liverpool is attracting talent from all over the country. It is becoming a place that young people are looking to for career opportunities but also quality of life.
There’s good colleges and universities and we do tend to work with them where we can – giving lectures and work placements. We do recruit a lot of people from these institutions and it’s a privilege to be able to be in that position.
Q. Sentric music is now based in the Baltic Triangle area of Liverpool – why did you decide to locate your business there?
In the early days, we used to be based on Seymour Terrace just behind Lime Street train station. We were surrounded by accountants, law firms and architects – although it was a great place for us to start there was no sense of community there.
The thing that drew us to the Baltic was that sense of community – there’s lots of exciting companies working in the creative and digital space and we feel so at home there. The office space is incredible – like a New York loft space and it never fails to impress our visitors. It really is an exciting place to be and offers all the things we need to grow and flourish.
Q. What does the future hold for Sentric Music?
More expansion into more places and new locations. We have five offices outside of Liverpool which is soon to become six. More of the same really – more growth in Liverpool and always looking to attract and work with local talent.
We’re also working on new technology that we’ve been working on for the last two years and that is all about to come to fruition. Watch this space.
