Burleigh Heads digital music agency Cowbell may have rung its last note with funding difficulties believed to be behind a walkout of its CEO and CFO.
Both CEO Shayne Locke and CFO Andy Brown have walked away from the company, the first independent record label to crack the heavily regulated Chinese digital music market.
As recently as August one of Cowbell’s artists Nik Phillips, secured the No.4 spot on the Chinese music charts.
Locke was reluctant to comment on the company’s financial situation, but says he set up separate venture Liquid Online Media with the ‘permission of directors’ and majority shareholders Michelle and Glenn Day to supplement an income.
The Days, who are well known on the Gold Coast’s restaurant scene with their Aztec chain, have denied any prior knowledge of Locke’s new company and allege he wiped IP data from Cowbell’s computer’s before leaving.
“Since the departure of our former CEO Mr Shayne Locke on the 1st October, we have been in a state of temporary paralysis pending the return of our computers and drives from Ernst & Young who are performing a complete data retrieval service for us,” said the directors in a statement.
“Without this data we are completely blind as to the business transactions Mr Locke has performed over the past eight months and certainly we were unaware of the company ‘Liquid Online Media’ being set up within our company.”
Locke has strenuously denied any wrongdoing and is understood to be considering legal action to remove the Day’s ‘unfounded and slanderous’ allegations from Facebook and other mediums.
Liquid Online Media has more than 40 artists signed up and has won the backing of Hollywood actor Harold Perrineau (Lost, The Matrix).
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