Kuok Meng Ru’s BandLab Technologies Reinvented as Caldecott Music

BandLab Technologies, a Singapore-based venture capital fund that owns historic music media title NME, will reorganize itself under the new name Caldecott Music Group.

Headed by Kuok Meng Ru, scion of one of Singapore’s most famous business families, the company will operate under three divisions: tech, media, and retail.

The BandLab Technologies name will be retained as the brand for the tech division. It plans to double down on designing and developing innovative tools and services for music creators and a vision of a future where there are no boundaries to making and sharing music. The unit comprises digital audio workstation Cakewalk, and flagship social music creation platform BandLab, which hosts a user base of 40 million creators globally, and the recently announced acquisition of artist services platform ReverbNation.

The media division, which will be labeled as NME Networks. It “unites the group’s journalism titles to inform musically-curious audiences, from those researching their first guitar via Guitar.com and discovering new artists and pop culture news through NME, to those staying updated on creator tools and technologies with MusicTech and unpacking decades of rock history in Uncut.”

NME Networks also facilitates consumer events such as Guitar.com Live and the NME Awards shows. This will return to London. U.K. on March 2, 2022.

The new manufacturing and retail division Vista Musical Instruments covers musical instrument brands MONO, Harmony, Heritage Guitars, Teisco, and omni-channel, multi-brand retailer, Swee Lee.

“From our unique vantage point here in Singapore, our brands have seen massive growth globally in terms of community, traffic, and sales across the board. I truly could not be prouder of our team,” said Kuok group CEO.

Appointments within the newly-formed Caldecott Music Group include: Ivan Chen as group COO, Grace Chong as group CFO, Krystle Hall as group chief brand officer, and Laurent Le Graverend as group chief technology officer.

“The best part is that we’re still just getting started,” said Kuok. Kuok’s companies were previously part owners of Rolling Stone, before it was sold in 2019 to Penske Media Corporation, which is also owner of Variety.

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