Doc McGhee and Scott McGhee of McGhee Entertainment, Inc. have announced the windup of their 25-year business partnership.

With offices located in Los Angeles and Nashville, the 40-year-old McGhee Entertainment will remain “business as usual.” Doc McGhee will continue to oversee the McGhee roster of rock acts and corresponding live events and tours, as well as direct time and attention to film and television development/production ventures. A Doc McGhee autobiography is also in the works; during his career McGhee has worked with artists including Kiss, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, and Hootie & The Blowfish.

Scott McGhee has launched his new artist management company, 1˚ Entertainment Music & Management Group. The company will also offer integrated brand development, digital and social media strategies, and content creation for alternative distribution. These synchronized services will be incorporated into every artist initiative.

McGhee Entertainment, Inc. (Nashville) and 1˚ Entertainment Music & Management Group offices will continue residency at 21 Music Square West in Nashville.

“We were a good team; our skill sets complemented one another,” said Doc McGhee. “Together, we led the way to expand international touring opportunities and lent assistance to piece the puzzle to celebrate Darius Rucker’s success in becoming the only solo artist with a No. 1 single in another format. I’m proud of the work we’ve done. Our separation is spawned merely by personal and professional objectives, maturity and growth.”

“Doc had established the management company as a frontrunner in the music industry. He had solidified a sound business model and was managing two of the biggest bands in the world…with great success…when I came in,” Scott McGhee added. “Our varied perspectives in marketing, branding, artist development and touring, combined with our commitment to our artists, is what made McGhee Entertainment work and we worked well together.”

“Our objective is to find new and innovative opportunities for our artists over the course of his or her entire career,” Scott McGhee says of his new 1˚ Entertainment Music & Management Group. “We don’t want to just provide a service; we will offer new business strategies tailored to suit each one of our clients. The goal is to canvas the artists’ careers through development in the early days to maintaining relevance, viability and longevity for years to come. Our team will incorporate our mutual experience into a business strategy that is in keeping with the ever-changing environment.”

117 Entertainment Group’s Zach Farnum has announced promotions and hirings for several staffers. Publicity Manager Heather Trotter rises to Director of Publicity, while Office Manager Max DaCosta rises to Management Associate. 117 Entertainment also welcomes Lauren Manderbach as Director of Digital Marketing and Allen Hodge as Tour Coordinator.

Trotter will continue to execute PR strategy and take lead on select projects for 117 Publicity’s roster which includes Jerry Lee Lewis, Randy Travis, Chuck Negron, Dallas Wayne, Drew Jacobs, James Carothers, Kalie Shorr, Kendall Gary, Lee Roy Parnell, Marta, Max T. Barnes, Mickey Gilley and the Nashville Association of Talent Directors. DaCosta will take over day-to-day responsibilities for 117 Management’s roster, including flagship artist Bobby Bare, with additional artists being announced in the coming months. He will continue to support 117 Live initiatives including the Chillin’ on the Lucie music festival in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Manderbach joins from her own marketing firm, Alloy Signature, where she worked on marketing and content creation for artists and brands. She has spent the past six months working with Johnny Lee and Bobby Bare on their digital strategies. Her background is in print layout, web and graphic design, photography and videography. She will continue to operate Alloy Signature in addition to her new role at 117 Entertainment.

“We have a very young and hungry team of people who have been absolutely rocking it for our clients across the board. The projects we are working on for clients across the board come in many shapes and sizes, so I need a team of people who can stretch and bend to their needs – this is that team,” said Farnum, 117 Entertainment’s President & CEO.

Vivendi, Universal Music Group’s (UMG) parent company in France, says it will begin to engage banks as it looks for strategic partner(s) in selling up to 50 percent of its stake in the music company, per its mid-year financial report issued today (July 30).

Recommendations were to have the transaction completed within the next 18 months, potentially by the fall, in order to extract the highest value as streaming continues to offset the decline in music sales.

UMG makes up a majority of Vivendi’s revenue. While Vivendi will establish a floor price for the entry of partners into UMG’s share capital, analysts have estimated the value to be worth from $20 billion to as much as $40 billion. An IPO was ruled out due to its complexity.

Recorded music revenues were reported to have grown by 7.4 percent as “subscription and streaming revenues more than offset the continued decline in both download and physical sales.” Music publishing revenues were reported to have grown by 11.1 percent, also driven by increased subscription and streaming revenues, as well as better performance revenues.

UMG is the largest of the “big three” record labels, ahead of Len Blavatnik’s Warner Music Group and Japanese-owned Sony Music Entertainment. UMG has been the only of the three to retain its bulk of shares in Spotify, estimated to be around 5 percent of the streaming service.