Denzyl Feigelson

Platoon Co-Founder and C.E.O. Denzyl Feigelson has left his imprint on some of music’s most significant movements since his childhood in South Africa. Sought out by Paul Simon, he ended up plugging the icon into the South African sound, assembling players, and managing the process behind the seminal quintuple-platinum GRAMMY® Award-winning classic Graceland. He went on to manage the careers of Johnny Clegg, Gypsy Kings, and Kenny Loggins throughout the nineties before pioneering digital distribution for the music industry with AWAL—Artists Without A Label—in 1997. By the time he sold AWAL to Kobalt in 2011, it represented over 20,000 artists. In 2001, Steve Jobs enlisted Denzyl to handle licensing for keynote speeches. Soon after, Denzyl proved integral to the 2003 launch of the revolutionary store as Chief Music Editor and label rep, going on to institute the platform across Europe, Asia, and South America and the world. As strategic advisor, he also curated the iTunes Music Festival.

He recognized another opportunity to empower artists during 2016 with the foundation of Platoon. Platoon landed its first success with BRIT Award winner Jorja Smith’s “Blue Lights” before fueling the explosion of Billie Eilish in 2017—migrating her from Soundcloud to stardom. By Apple’s 2018 acquisition of Platoon, the team consisted of 12 employees across London and Cape Town’s “Creative Lab,” while recent signings include Princess Nokia, Poo Bear, Aron Smith, Victoria Monét, Marian Hill, Kali Claire and Kennedi, to name a few. Both offices notably boast 24-hour recording studios and double as inspiring ecosystems for artists to openly collaborate and create in addition to classes for recording, filming, editing, and marketing.