BMG and Indie Primary Wave Form Alliance

BMG and indie music company Primary Wave Music have entered into a joint venture that will focus on signing artists with a proven track record in the industry and releasing new album projects on them. Through the venture BMG will also purchase significant publishing interests currently owned by Primary Wave, including songs like Earth Wind & Fire’s “September,” Hall & Oates’ “Kiss On My List”, John Lennon’s “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet It Is,” and the two will sign and develop new writers and administer publishing catalogues.
Primary Wave’s in-house marketing team will act as the marketing arm for the artists signed to BMG/Primary Wave Artist Services and the venture will add radio promotion capabilities to Primary Wave’s creative team. Primary Wave’s marketing team will continue to be involved in marketing those catalog songs BMG is acquiring, and the deal will add even more heft to Primary Wave’s current departments, including their talent management division, digital marketing team BrightShop, brand marketing company Brand Synergy Group, and Primary Wave TV, the TV/Film production & development team. All artists signed to management or publishing with the new endeavor will also be able to tap into the various in-house resources. Currently, Primary Wave manages artists CeeLo Green, Eric Benet, Natalie Imbruglia, Ginuwine, Trevor Jackson, Goodie Mob  and many other bands, writers, and producers.
“The US remains the heartland of and biggest single market in the worldwide music industry,” BMG’s CEO, Hartwig Masuch said. “This strategic alliance with Primary Wave, one of the most respected independents in the business, gives us control of some of the greatest copyrights in popular music in one stroke, while also strengthening our marketing resources in promoting new recordings. And from the writer’s perspective, we are confident this deal will open up many new opportunities for the international exploitation of these iconic songs through our pro-active BMG team.”

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Lorie Hollabaugh

Hollabaugh, a staff writer at MusicRow magazine, has over 20 years of music business experience and has written for publications including American Profile, CMA Close Up, Nashville Arts And Entertainment, The Boot and Country Weekly. She has a Broadcast Journalism and Speech Communication degree from Texas Christian University, (go Horned Frogs), and welcomes your feedback or story ideas at lhollabaugh@musicrow.com.

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