Lance Freed Named President Of Newly-Formed Blackbird Music Publishing Group

Photo Credit: Gary Gershoff |

Blackbird Presents, Keith Wortman and The Raine Group have named Lance Freed President of the newly-formed Blackbird Music Publishing Group. Freed was previously President of Rondor Music International where he led the building of that company into the largest independent music publisher in the world, resulting in its sale to Universal Music Publishing Group.

Blackbird Music Publishing Group will have offices in New York City, Los Angeles and Nashville, and has acquired the administration rights to the famed music catalog of Burt Bacharach. With over 400 songs, including timeless classics such as “What The World Needs Now Is Love,” “I Say A Little Prayer,” “What’s New Pussycat,” “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do),” “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” and “That’s What Friends Are For,” the Academy, Golden Globe and Grammy Award-winning songwriter, musician and composer had one of the most sought-after catalogues in the industry.

“Music publishing is a natural next step for us given that our work across film, television, concerts and festivals enables us to offer incredible opportunities to songwriters. There was only one name on the list for us to lead this effort and it was Lance Freed. Lance is the most thoughtful and creative music publishing executive in our industry, and I am thrilled that he has joined the Blackbird Presents family,” said Keith Wortman, CEO of Blackbird Presents.

“I am thrilled to join Keith, Blackbird Presents and The Raine Group as President of Blackbird Music Publishing Group. My entire career has been predicated on providing total, complete, personal focus on songwriters and their songs. Now I get to continue that journey and also provide a range of remarkable strategic and financial opportunities to songwriters given the similar philosophy and assets of my new partners,” said Freed, President of Blackbird Music Publishing Group.

“We are thrilled that Lance has joined the Blackbird Presents Family. We look forward to supporting him as he leads our strategic expansion into music publishing,” says Co-Founder and Partner of The Raine Group Jeff Sine.

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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 [email protected].

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