News | BMG | Berlin, 01/03/2013

BMG Acquires Major Music Publishing And Master Rights Catalogs

Robbie Williams’ mega-hits “Angels” and “Let Me Entertain You,” Take That’s chartbusters “Greatest Day” and “Shine,” and classics including “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” by Tears for Fears and “Enola Gay” by OMD – since the end of December they have all jointly enhanced the BMG publishing catalog. The company, already the world’s fourth-largest music publisher, has bought up selected catalogs including Virgin Publishing’s collection of 21,000 songs.

The newly acquired catalogs also contain the rights of many other stars and songwriters who have been behind worldwide hits of the past three decades, among them Kurt Cobain, Lenny Kravitz, Gary Barlow, Human League, Iggy Pop, Plan B and Mark Ronson. BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch says: “These catalogues contain some of the most influential and successful songs in popular music. We are delighted to have won the opportunity to represent the writers of those songs and to demonstrate to them BMG’s commitment to twenty-first century service.” Speaking on behalf of the BMG subsidiary Chrysalis, Alexi Cory-Smith said that the new catalogs are a significant addition to BMG’s UK-based roster, and that BMG is now the only European-based major music publisher

Meanwhile, BMG has also taken a major step in expanding its business with Master Recordings by acquiring the Mute Records catalog, a transaction announced nearly simultaneously with the Virgin acquisition. BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch said, “We are delighted to become the new custodians of the Mute Records catalogue, one of the most prized and influential in electronic and alternative music and a testament to the vision and A&R skills of Daniel Miller. BMG looks forward to working with all the artists concerned to give these copyrights the care and attention they deserve.”

Miller founded Mute Records in 1978, and by 1980 had signed Depeche Mode, which soon thereafter became an international success. Depeche Mode alone is estimated to have sold over 100 million singles and albums. Mute went on to support a range of experimental artists leading to its next big artist hit, Yazoo (Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet), followed over the years by Erasure, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Moby and Goldfrapp.

The Mute Records catalogue is BMG’s most significant acquisition yet of master recordings as it pursues its policy of bringing together the traditionally separate disciplines of music publishing and masters. Said Masuch, “Earlier this year we said we would double our income from master recordings this year. I am glad to say we have more than exceeded this target. Creating a balanced portfolio of publishing and master rights remains central to our vision of creating a new digital-age music company.”