Beggars Group

Headquarters: London/New York

Founded: late 70s?

Founded by: Martin Mills

Link: http://www.beggars.com/, http://www.beggars.com/us/

Genre(s): virtually, a little bit of everything

Active Roster (Labels)
Matador, 4AD, XL Recordings, Mantra, Too Pure, Wiiija, Mo'Wax, Beggars Banquet

History
The Beggars Group is quite a unique idea. It is a very well put together network of independent labels that have banded to create a bigger and more powerful (read distributing and promotion power) entity that looks as if could successfully take over the world, well at least the ever growing independent music world. While I have unsuccessfully uncovered the path that the Group took to its present state, I do know that it all started in the late 70s by a man named Martin Mills and a small punk label (at the time) called Beggars Banquet. Apparently Mills & Co. decided to forego the shitty 80s and concentrated on the 90s indie revolution. The result is a network that touches on almost every genre imaginable and in turn, reached the home of countless independent music lovers in one way or another. Artists range from Sri Lanka-born hip-hopstress and current cultural phenomenon M.I.A. to Britain's electro-pop pioneers Stereolab to the lo-fi folk of Devendra Banhart. The most recent acquisition by the Beggars Group was casually picking up a 50% share of the insanely popular indie-rock label, Matador. All in a days work for these forward-thinking fellas.

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