Stephan Bourdoiseau
President, Wagram Music – (France)Very quickly, thanks to good management and a significant development of its activities, WAGRAM MUSIC became the first French independent with a volume of business of over 50 million euros. In just a few years
this figure rose from 30 million alongside a staff increase of 75 to over a 100.
In 2003, due to these results, a group of 15 employees repurchased the structure to take a 51% controlling stake in the company. During these years, WAGRAM MUSIC in particular concentrated on the development of artists such as Corneille (800000 sales), Pauline Croze (120000), Yves Jamait (75000), whilst working also with artists such as Hugues Aufray, Laurent Gerra, Charlélie Couture, Sinclair, Béruriers Noirs.
Wagram is also the distributor of prestigious labels such as Because (Charlotte Gainsbourg -500000 in, Tinder and Mariam - 300000 -, Tandem - 80000 -), Pschent and George V (Compilations such as Costes Hotel and
Buddha Bar which are sold with more than 200,000 specimens per volume in the world), Village Green, At home as well as scores of other labels.
Wagram Music is regarded today as one of the most prolific success stories of independent labels in the past decade. Since 1998, Stephan Bourdoiseau has been employed in the trade association of independent music
UPFI. Working in the office of Patrick Zelnik (President of the UPFI and owner of Naive), with Eric Morand (Fcom), Marc Thonon (Atmospheric), Vincent Frèrebeau (Early or Late).
The trade association’s mission is to fight against the concentration of the sector (editors, media, distribution), the diversity of the repertories and the pluralism of the actors. It also seeks to increase its notoriety and its political position to enable its ambitions. It engages a fight baited against mergers of the majors (at the sides of
the European trade association Impala that P. Zelnik and S. Bourdoiseau work on with 15 other European producers).
In 2004, the UPFI actively supported Impala to challenge the decision of the European Commission to authorize the merger between Sony and BMG. The European Court of First Instance gives them reason in July 2006 and the merger is called into question.
In parallel, Stephan Bourdoiseau took the chair of the UPFI in June 2004 and under his authority, the trade association particularly concentrated on a project concerning cultural mechanisms of exception (the tax credit to the production and the development of artists) which successfully informed the Ministry for Culture, directed towards the independent companies which see this mechanism as fundamental to incite investment in local music.
The text is voted in June 2006 by the French Parliament, after authorization of the Commission of Brussels. Stephan Bourdoiseau was re-elected the same month as head of the UPFI, which subsequently worked on new proposals to adapt the legal and tax environment to the changes of the economic models of production and development of artists in an era of numerical and cultural exception. In the capacity as President of the UPFI, Stephan Bourdoiseau also contributes with strength to the debate on the royalties within the framework of the
transposition of the European directive.