The artist and label services division of Sony Music UK, known as Sony RED, has acquired independent sales and distribution company Essential Music and Marketing.

The merger of Sony and Essential will commence from March 7. The new company will be called RED Essential, and they will be based at The Cooking Vinyl Group’s West London offices.

The current managing director of Sony RED, Ian Dutt and Essential's founder, Mike Chadwick, will act as co-managers at Red Essential.

"The integration of Essential and Cooking Vinyl’s extensive international network with the global reach of RED will, we hope, offer independent labels the gold standard for worldwide access to market," said Mike Chadwick. "RED Essential will bring together a formidable independent network and the geographic scale of Sony Music’s truly global infrastructure."

He added, "RED Essential will see this alliance combine staff, expertise, resources and back office functions to build a ‘future-facing’ global sales and distribution company in the UK market, which will offer labels and artists a global platform alongside music expertise, a strong heritage in distribution and a ground-breaking record of tech innovations."