BMG To Acquire Sanctuary Records
BMG continues to beef up its recorded music division. The music rights management company has signed an agreement to acquire Sanctuary Records from Universal Music.
The Sanctuary catalog includes over 170,000 recordings from legendary artists such as Black Sabbath, Motörhead, Iron Maiden, The Kinks, Toots and the Maytals, select Bob Marley recordings, Donovan, Grandmaster Flash and The Sugarhill Gang. According to the New York Times, the purchase is estimated at $60 million.
This is the latest acquisition resulting from Universal’s purchase of EMI’s recorded music division. European regulators required UMG sell off some of EMI’s assets in order to gain approval for the transaction.
BMG also agreed to buy Universal’s Mute Records catalog, featuring Depeche Mode, Erasure, Moby and Nick Cave.
Earlier this month, Warner Music Group Corp. entered an agreement to acquire the Parlophone Label Group from Universal for around $765 million. Parlophone’s artist roster and catalog includes Coldplay, Daft Punk, Danger Mouse, David Guetta, Deep Purple, Duran Duran, Iron Maiden, Jethro Tull, Kylie Minogue, Pet Shop Boys, Pink Floyd, Radiohead and Tina Turner.
Still on the auction block are EMI’s share of the “Now That’s What I Call Music!” compilation series and Universal’s Co-Op Music label.
