Warner Records and Producer Tony Berg Launch Joint Label Crime & Punishment

Warner Records has launched a new record label with the producer Tony Berg. The venture, called Crime & Punishment Records, was announced on October 22, 2026, according to Music Business Worldwide.

The label is a joint venture, meaning two companies agree to run a business together and share in what it earns. Here, the partners are Warner Records and Berg. The new label will focus on finding and developing new artists rather than signing established names.

Its first act is the singer-songwriter Elle Bramhall, who has been signed to Crime & Punishment. Bramhall will also provide the label's debut release. Yahoo Entertainment reported that the label is scheduled to launch in early 2027, so the first release is still some months away.

Berg brings a long track record in the studio and at the record company desk. He co-produced SOMBR's 2025 debut album, I Barely Know Her, which was released through Warner Records. SOMBR, born Shane Boose, was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2026 Grammy Awards.

He also produced Phoebe Bridgers' Lost Weekend, released in 2026. It is Bridgers' third solo album. His other production credits include Sarah McLachlan's Better Broken and Bruce Hornsby's Indigo Park. For a time he was musical director for Bette Midler, which means he led her band and shaped the sound of her live shows.

Before he became a producer, Berg worked as an A&R executive, the job of spotting and signing musicians, at the labels Geffen and Virgin. In that role he helped sign Beck, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, A Perfect Circle and At The Drive-In. Those signings are part of why his new partnership draws attention: it puts a producer who has found artists before in charge of finding them again.

Warner Records Group is led by Chairman and CEO Aaron Bay-Schuck.

For a new singer, a label deal is often the first step between writing songs in a bedroom or a rehearsal room and having strangers hear them. Crime & Punishment's first months will show how that step works in practice. Its first release is due to arrive in 2027.