Mike Batt’s Dramatico Entertainment has made a healthy entry to a corporate tracking list.
The independent record label and music publisher has opened at No. 31 on Real Business’ LDC Hot 100 Survey, which tracks the fastest growing privately owned companies by sales over the past four years.
Dramatico — which counts Georgia-born, U.K.-based singer Katie Melua, Nigerian performer Asa, and French artist Carla Bruni (wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy) among its signings — is something of a quiet achiever. Since Batt launched the firm in 2000, sales have grown 106% to £23.7 million ($46.7 million), according to Real Business, the British publication aimed at the entrepreneurial community.
Global sales of Melua’s three albums, “Call Off The Search”, “Piece By Piece” and “Pictures,” have topped more than 9 million units, according to the label.
Aside from running the indie, Batt is deputy chairman of trade body the BPI, and is an accomplished singer, songwriter and producer. He remains fondly remembered for creating the ’70s novelty act the Wombles, which had had eight U.K. Top 40 singles on CBS in 1974/75, and scored four Top 30 albums.
Batt’s own solo album, “A Songwriter’s Tale,” opened this week at No. 36 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart.
