BMG Expands Into Neighboring Rights Market
BMG has set up a boutique performance rights service with its first new clients, UK DJ and producer Jonas Blue and founding member/lead singer of the legendary band The Who, Roger Daltrey.
The new service will be headed by VP Operations Strategy David Miller. Miller’s team will be responsible for ensuring each artist’s repertoire is registered accurately with collective management organizations in around 40 countries worldwide, tracking international income and ensuring faster royalty pay-through.
“There are some really great national performing rights agencies, but international performance is highly variable,” said Miller. “The best analogy is probably music publishing. Collection societies provide the backbone of collections, but publishers still add significant value.”
The deal with Daltrey includes classic recordings by The Who such as “My Generation,” “Pinball Wizard,” and “Who Are You,” as well as his own solo work. With Jonas Blue, BMG is representing performing rights in recordings such as “Perfect Strangers,” “Polaroid” and “Rise.”
“We’re thrilled to partner with the team at BMG for the next phase of my neighboring rights collection,” said Jonas Blue. “They have shown a considerable depth of understanding in this field, and I’m absolutely confident they will use their absolute best endeavours to be the best most efficient and pro-active team to handle this important side of our global business.”
The expansion into rights comes just four months after BMG moved into artist management in a partnership with Carl Stubner’s Shelter Music Group.
“We are delighted to welcome Jonas and Roger as we further extend our service offering to artists by offering a bespoke neighboring rights service,” said BMG COO Ben Katovsky. “We believe there is a substantial opportunity to increase artist income in this fast-growing area.”
