All posts tagged BMG Rights Management

EMI; another brick in the wall?

The sale of EMI Music Publishing to BMG Rights Management would be by far the largest investment for the Bertelsmann and KKR-backed venture, and would more than triple the current catalog of over 300,000 copyrights. It’s a catalog the JV has amassed in less than two years, through a series of  acquisitions that include Cherry Lane Music, Adage IV, Stage Three Music, Evergreen Copyrights and Chrysalis Music, along with a handful of other international catalogs and pubcos. The speed in which BMG RM has climbed to the spot of fifth largest publisher in the world is striking, but only part of the story when looking at their catalog purchases. What’s more interesting to some insiders are the subplots and what they could signal for the future. Let’s step back and take a closer look… One of the most impressive and significant music publishing constructions in recent decades was that of Dreamworks Music Publishing, a catalog that was assembled under the guidance of veteran publisher Chuck Kaye. It included works from artists such as The Byrds, John Denver, Jimmy Eat World and Lifehouse among others, along with hit titles like “Disco Inferno” and “Take Me Home, Country Roads”. The catalog journeyed from one home to another throughout the 2000′s following the sale of the Dreamworks recorded music division to Universal Music in 2003. The catalog was first sold for $50 million to Dimensional Music Publishing in 2004, a newly created arm of JDS Capitol Management (who also owns eMusic and The Orchard), in a deal which is seen as seminal in the recent trend of venture capital investments in music publishing assets. However, Dimensional publishing’s run was short-lived, selling its assets less than three years later to First State Media Group, a new fund whose publishing entity operated as S1 Songs. Then again in under three years time, in early 2010 - after its own stint on the block almost being bought by then EMI owner Terra Firma – Chrysalis Music acquired First State Media and S1 Songs for $16.5 million, in a deal that included the Wind-Up catalog and of course the original 25,000 Dreamworks copyrights. And in November of last year, less than one year later, Chrysalis announced it was being bought by BMG RM, adding another 100,000 works to the JV’s catalog, in a deal valued at $169 million… So with a major addition like EMI’s publishing assets, what would the future hold? Particularly taking into account the consolidation happening within the ranks of the companies they’ve already acquired. On track to double their revenues by 2015, will the trend continue, with EMI (which has undergone significant cost-cutting of its own recently) as the final piece in a KKR and Bertelsmann plan to build the world’s largest publishing company and flip it? The common belief in many circles is that the industry is headed to a new era of the ‘Big Three’, and as such, none of the majors left will be able to afford leaving such valuable publishing assets outside of their control. It’s going to get interesting… Tune in tomorrow as we break a new big publishing deal currently in play.