Eleven Seven Label Group Rebrands as Better Noise Music: Exclusive - Billboard

The company's roster includes Mötley Crüe, Five Finger Death Punch, Bad Wolves and Papa Roach.

Eleven Seven, the rock-centric label group and multimedia company founded by Allen Kovac in 2006, relaunched Tuesday (Oct. 29) in a move that will consolidate its three imprints under the title Better Noise Music.

Kovac launched an Eleven Seven sub-label of the same name in 2015 to house "left of center" rock acts like Nothing More and From Ashes to New. In the new configuration, Better Noise Music will be the umbrella under which it and Kovac's two other imprints reside -- the alternative-leaning Five Seven Music and hard rock flagship Eleven Seven."It's time to take what we do in artist development and put it under one name," Kovac tells Billboard, revealing digital music consumption's increasingly blurred genre barriers as a key factor behind the shift. "When you look at playlists, you see the best of both alternative and rock together. I think the old days of having different label identities for different genres are over."

Recent signees include hard rock titans Five Finger Death Punch and The Hu, a Mongolian four-piece whose blend of metal and their homeland's traditional music has already sparked a viral Facebook post and a No. 1 song on Billboard's Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart. Additionally, the label has recently inked Australian alternative duo Atlas Genius, U.K. pop-rockers Bang Bang Romeo, JUNO Award-nominated alt trio Bleeker and country-rocker Cody Marks.

As of the relaunch, the Amsterdam-based company FUGA becomes the label's new digital distributor.

The relaunch also reflects Better Noise's emphasis on media projects outside music releases. "We are a content company that creates books, films, documentaries, theatrical productions, tours and TV shows that provide opportunities to reach audiences in unique and impactful ways," adds Better Noise COO Steven P. Kline.

Due for release in summer 2020, Better Noise recently wrapped production on Sno Babies, a feature-length drama about America's heroin epidemic featuring original music from several label artists. And The Retaliators -- a horror flick featuring appearances from Five Finger Death Punch, Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee and Papa Roach's Jocoby Shaddix -- is currently shooting.

Kovac adds that Better Noise is currently working on additional scripts for 2021 and beyond, and that the company is open to doing business with streaming services outside of Netflix, which released the Mötley Crüe biopic The Dirt exclusively earlier this year. Co-produced by Kovac, The Dirt helped the band increase streams by 300% during the two months following its March 22 street date.

"You can't just rely on CD sales and streaming music anymore," Kovac insists. "Platforms like Amazon have TV, film, they sell TVs, they stream music, they sell merchandise. Why would we limit ourselves to just music?"

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