Spirit Music Group Acquires Tim McGraw Master Recordings

Tim McGraw

Spirit Music Group has acquired a number of Tim McGraw’s master recordings. The acquisition deal encompasses masters for three of McGraw’s albums: Two Lanes of Freedom (2013), Sundown Heaven Town (2014) and Damn Country Music (2015), all released via Big Machine Records and featuring some of McGraw’s top hits, including the No. 1, Grammy-winning “Highway Don’t Care” and his chart-topping “Humble and Kind,” which were also certified 3x multi-Platinum last week, moving McGraw’s total career RIAA certifications to 75 million. The deal with Spirit also includes the Platinum-certified “Shotgun Rider” and “Truck Yeah.”

“There are few artists in any genre of music who have had the level of success and impact that Tim McGraw has—we’re delighted to welcome Tim McGraw to the Spirit family and to represent his recording interests in some of country music’s most beloved songs,” said Jon Singer, Chairman, Spirit Music Group. “The entire Spirit team is honored to become an active partner in developing and protecting Tim’s incredible legacy of music.”

“Tim is one of the most prolific artists in country music and it is a unique opportunity to be able to acquire such a remarkable body of work in a competitive music rights market. We thank Tim for entrusting Lyric Capital Group and Spirit Music Group with his songs and are committed to doing our part to further build on the success of these master recordings,” said Ross Cameron, Partner, Lyric Capital Group.

“Tim McGraw is a timeless artist who makes timeless music. His recordings have helped shape the sound of country music,” said Frank Rogers, CEO, Spirit Music Nashville. “Spirit Music Group could not be more excited to partner with Tim to represent these amazing records that have become important threads in the fabric of country music history.”

“Jon, Ross, Frank and Spirit’s team have shown great dedication to protecting Tim’s body of work, and that laid the foundation for this deal. They understand the special place that Tim has in music and it’s great to be in business with them,” said Scott Siman, management, EM.Co Entertainment Management Company. “Tim and I are looking forward to working with them to find ways to continue to share the music with the fans.”

Though partnerships encompassing master recordings are rare for a music publisher, this is not the first time that Spirit has done such deals. The company also represents both the master and publishing for a portion of the catalog for T.Rex via Marc Bolan and recently announced it acquired the masters and publishing for the majority of the catalog of Ingrid Michaelson.