Sony Music Masterworks Enters Joint Venture With Jonathan Shank’s Terrapin Station Entertainment

Masterworks has acquired a majority stake in Shank’s Terrapin Station Entertainment and will work in partnership with Shank to curate and spearhead a range of live productions from Terrapin, including licensed tours and events adapted from popular multi-platform family brands. 

Shank, formerly at Red Light Management, has overseen a string of successful family-oriented touring productions and events including Disney Junior Holiday Party, LOL Remix Live in 360, Peppa Pig Live, The Fresh Beat Band. He will lead the joint venture in tandem with Mark Cavell, President of Sony Music Masterworks.

Masterworks and Shank will also work to further grow Terrapin’s artist management business and drive the career advancement of developing artists including Victoria Justice, Scarypoolparty, Maddie Poppe, Magic!, Laura Marano, and Sam Tsui.

“As a company, great entrepreneurs excite us and Jonathan is just that!,” comments Mark Cavell, President of Sony Music Masterworks. “They help us grow and we can help them grow with proactive support. Jonathan is extremely passionate and committed, and he has a natural connection with artists and creatives. We’re thrilled to work closely with him and the Terrapin team to further develop our opportunities in the live space when the touring business returns and to expand our business to now include artist management for the first time.”

Terrapin Station founder Jonathan Shank adds: “With the support of Mark and our staff, there’s a tremendous opportunity to build Terrapin into one of the most competitive artist management and production companies in the industry. We are also sympathetic to the state of live entertainment right now. We want to be at the forefront of helping bring live experiences back to the world and shine light on the ability of new entities to build a foundation and thrive.”

Masterworks continues to expand its presence in the live touring business following the recent launch of its RoadCo Entertainment joint venture with The Road Company and previously announced acquisitions of global event companies Raymond Gubbay Ltd. (RGL) and Senbla in the U.K. The new alliances with Terrapin and RoadCo in the U.S. further position Masterworks to develop, promote, and launch a range of original and innovative live family entertainment experiences globally.

For nearly a decade, Shank led the family entertainment division of Red Light Management, galvanizing the success of multiple record setting tours to the tune of over $80 million in gross boxoffice sales and three Pollstar Award nominations during 2019 and 2020.

Artist management clients include Victoria Justice, prodigal songwriter Scarypoolparty, American Idol winner Maddie Poppe, multi-platinum recording artist Magic!, multi-hyphenate Laura Marano, and global influencer Sam Tsui under his watch. 

Shortly after the launch of Terrapin, which took place in just August, Shank told Pollstar the company would be aggressive in the touring space.

“We’re going to be also reaching into the experiential space and further into producing more concerts and also tours for traditional and non-traditional types of artists,” Shank said in September.  “If you look at what I’ve done over the last 10 years, I’m certainly not afraid to take a look at any idea that might be left-of-center as long as there’s a core audience.

“Really, that’s what all of these things boil down to. The brand has to be strong enough to have a really, really passionate core fanbase. That’s where the crossover is between management and production – it’s no different for scarypoolparty or any artist we manage. It really is about figuring out how to tap the marketplace and figure out how to bring these artists and these brands into the cultural mainstream and into what we would call larger pop culture.”

He also said he and his clients would be making an effort to support local venues during the coronavirus pandemic, and Scarypoolparty has done just that, with multiple livestreams in his native Los Angeles area, including at the Roxy Theatre as well as three shows at the Wiltern, its first since the pandemic.

“As an industry we all need to be supporting our local venues,” Shank said. “We need to support these facilities and venue owners and all of the crew and staff that are such an important part of our ecosystem. We all know that the longer this pandemic goes on, the more venues are going to be affected.”