Fueled By Ramen is a New York-based record label that is owned by Warner Music Group.
Since 2018, Fueled by Ramen has operated as a sub-label of frontline Warner label group, Elektra Music Group.
The biggest artist to emerge from FBR in recent years is Twenty One Pilots.
Origins
Fueled By Ramen began life as a side-project in 1996 for two individuals at the University of Florida: John Janick (now Chairman and CEO of Interscope Geffen A&M) and Vinnie Fiorello, a member of the band Less Than Jake.
The label’s name was a nod to Janick and Fiorello’s diet at the time, and the fact that they couldn’t afford more expensive food due to the amount of spare money they were investing into the company.
FBR has success with Jimmy Eat World’s first album, before inking a distribution deal with Warner’s ADA.
Further success and John Janick depature
In 2005, in tandem with the label Decaydance, Fueled By Ramen scored its biggest hit: A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, the debut album from Panic! at the Disco, which went double-platinum in the US.
After Vinnie Fiorello left FBR in 2006, Janick and his company went on to enjoy yet more success with the likes of Paramore, Fall Out Boy, and fun..
Janick left Warner Music Group in 2012 to become head of Universal‘s IGA, shortly after Twenty One Pilots signed to the label.
He told Music Business Worldwide in 2017: “As soon as I told Warner I was leaving, I called all the [FBR] artists. I had really good relationships with them; I hoped they would be really supportive, and they all were.
“The hardest one was twenty one pilots, because I had just signed them two months beforehand. I didn’t know I was going to leave when I signed them, and they probably felt a bit deserted.
“They were really cool about it, but that was a hard conversation.”
Recent years
Following Janick’s departure, Fueled By Ramen operated as a sub-label under Atlantic Records, and was run by Mike Easterlin, who stepped up from the label’s General Manager to its President in 2017.
Easterlin told MBW in 2015 of the evolution of the post-John Janick FBR: “We needed to broaden the culture of Fueled By Ramen a little bit, because that culture was changing.”
Following huge multi-platinum success with Twenty One Pilots, and continued success with Panic! At The Disco, Easterlin was promoted to co-head of Elektra Music Group in 2018.Music Business Worldwide