Philosophy and services
[PIAS] stands for Play It Again Sam. It almost stood for something else ( Periodically I Attach Sausages) ; but the working title didn't fully explain, which was absolutely essential, that it was a label and physical/digital distribution company that places artists and record companies centre. So Play It Again Sam it became when it was set up in 1982. And Play It Again Sam it remains.
At [PIAS] Entertainment Group, we work with acts and labels that we believe in and who believe in us (isn't that the way all music companies should work?).
Over 200 people are employed at [PIAS] and they must pass through the toughest recruitment process known to man. They have to be so passionate about music that, when they brush their teeth, they use guitars and keyboards and they come to work wearing trousers made of choruses and cardigans made of verses. We and our labels and our artists expect nothing less.
We believe that our knowledge and love of the music and artists we work with is what makes us different. Imagine the company is like a bicycle: the frame is the office and staff while the wheels are 'music' and 'business'. In the olden days, the Penny Farthing had one giant wheel and one tiny one. It was a cumbersome mode of transport and meant riders pedalled furiously, didn't move far and invariably fell off and broke their heads. The fact that our two wheels ('music' and 'business') are of an equal size means that our journey is not only smoother - it's quicker.
This has by all means a spirit of attention to quality as much as quantity - and to aesthetics as much as to figures. We, crucially, still love it as much as we did on the first day the company opened its doors and raced out into the bright new dawn.
This is [PIAS]: a receptacle for the selection of great labels and artists to be exposed in our own, common, and collectively-decided-upon terms.
That is our definition of an independent company and we trust it's yours as well.