Good morning, creators. ☀️ Welcome to Day 14 of the Toys and Beats Morning Report — your daily scan of the signals moving music licensing, brand licensing, and the toy world. Four signals worth watching today, and the last one is a 16-track fantasy RPG pack from inside our own catalog. Let's get into it.
Primary Wave Partners With Brian Vander Ark of The Verve Pipe — Publishing and Recorded Catalogs Together
What happened: Primary Wave Music announced a partnership on October 13 with Brian Vander Ark, frontman and songwriter of The Verve Pipe, covering his publishing and recorded music catalogs. Reporting puts the deal at more than 500 recordings and compositions across three decades — including "The Freshmen," "Photograph," and "Colorful" — plus his solo work, and it gives the band access to Primary Wave's marketing, licensing, sync, and film and TV infrastructure while they tour into December. (Source: Music Business Worldwide and Digital Music News)
Why it matters: This is the modern catalog play in one deal: publishing and masters in a single partnership, with sync and licensing muscle attached — the songs keep working on screen and in ads long after the tour bus parks.
The ETS/Zillion angle: We built that same bundled structure independently from day one. Every Epic Toy Sound release keeps writer, publisher, and master together and registered before its visualizers go live, so a creator or a sync buyer can clear a track fast — no split confusion, no chasing shares.
Netflix Takes Consumer Products Licensing Direct in Brazil From 2027
What happened: Netflix will run its consumer products licensing business in Brazil directly starting in 2027, moving away from the representation model it used to build the market and expanding its local team across creative development, advertising, and brand partnerships — the same direct model it adopted in Mexico about a year and a half ago. The announcement points to real shelf results behind the move: licensed products tied to its series have ranged from toys to food, with one chips collaboration selling three times the volume of the brand's previous flavor launch across more than 17,000 points of sale. (Source: License Global)
Why it matters: The biggest streamer in the world is bringing licensing in-house, market by market, because direct partner relationships mean faster decisions and products shaped by actual fandom data — which characters fans talk about, what went viral, what they want next.
The ETS/Zillion angle: Direct is how we have always run it: we own the catalog, the masters, the publishing, and the store at toysandbeats.com, and we work face to face with the toy photographers and creators who use the music. Browse the action figures collection — the shelf and the soundtrack under one roof, no middleman.
The Paradox Signs With EMPIRE and Wave Theory — and Keeps Ownership
What happened: Atlanta pop-punk quartet The Paradox — the first all-Black band to top the Alternative Airplay chart, with their breakout single reaching No. 1 in January 2026 — has signed a publishing partnership with EMPIRE Publishing and Wave Theory Music Group. EMPIRE will manage, protect, and monetize licenses around the band's catalog while the band retains creative control and ownership of its work. Their new EP Proceed with Caution landed October 2, and their sold-out headline tour kicks off today, October 14. (Source: Globe Newswire via Things of Business)
Why it matters: The next generation is not signing the old deal. A band that built its audience from a bedroom gets global publishing and licensing support without giving up ownership — growth and independence in the same contract.
The ETS/Zillion angle: That artist-first structure is the exact model this house runs on: 250+ global collaborators keep their identity and their credit, we bring the catalog, the registration pipeline, and the store, and streaming splits live where they belong. Platforms for artists, built by an artist — that is the lane, and we own it.
HOUSE SPOTLIGHT: "Castle Trap" — Epic Toy Sound's Fantasy RPG Music Pack
What happened: Today's spotlight is Castle Trap, the 16-track fantasy RPG background music pack from Epic Toy Sound on Zillion Records. Tracks like "Dungeon Gates," "Medieval March in Gothica," "Magical Gauntlets," and "Warlocks Spellsbook 1" are built with light drums and percussion designed to sit under a story, never over it — made for tabletop RPG streams, actual-play podcasts, game-session recaps, and fantasy content. The full pack is built and ships with the official creator license included, so the music is cleared for monetized creator use from the first play.
Why it matters: Background music is a licensing business of its own: every campaign, stream, and session needs hours of score that does not fight the dialogue. Sixteen cleared tracks in one pack is sixteen separate licensing assets working at once.
The ETS/Zillion angle: Castle Trap sits alongside the newest drops — Artetoyscol's No Stop EP is out now — and alongside creator packs like the Monster Within horror soundscape pack ($5.99). Owned outright, registered, licensed in writing, and driving everything back to toysandbeats.com. For more toy photography features and artist spotlights, visit Zillion Marketplace.
That's Day 14. Keep creating, keep collecting, keep licensing — the catalog and the shelf are the same business. One love. ✌️