peermusic Expands Into Neighboring Rights
In a historic partnership, peermusic, Premier Muzik, All Right Music and Global Master Rights announced today that the companies are joining forces to form the global independent leader in neighbouring rights.
Following originating discussions between Ralph Peer, II, Chair and CEO, peermusic and Christophe Piot, All Right Music, the deal was spearheaded by peermusic Deputy CEO Mary Megan Peer and will combine the staff and services of all four companies, instantly vaulting the newly formed peermusic neighbouring rights into one of the leading independent neighbouring rights companies in the world.
peermusic’s neighbouring rights client roster will be made up of the clients of the combined companies, encompassing over 300+ record labels and 2500+ performers. Among those clients are major artists including Rihanna, Billie Eilish, Imagine Dragons, DJ Snake, Metallica, Jacques Brel, Jean-Michel Jarre, Leonard Bernstein, Megan Thee Stallion, Finneas, Lady A, Lang Lang, Lizzo, Panic! At The Disco, Migos, and David Guetta, to name a few. Clients from All Right Music, Premier Muzik, and Global Master Rights represented performers in 24% of Billboard’s 2019 Year-End Hot 100 songs and 40% of the 2019 Year-End Top 20 songs.
peermusic, which did not have neighbouring rights staff prior to the deal, plans to retain the staff of the existing companies with support from key peermusic staff in technology, finance and legal. All three acquired firms will continue to operate under their current names while identifying as peermusic companies (ex. “Premier Muzik, peermusic neighbouring rights”) and out of their existing offices (Premier Muzik in Canada, All Right Music in France and Global Master Rights in the Netherlands).
The three companies add significant leadership and expertise in the neighbouring rights space to peermusic. The five principals of the three companies acquired have collectively over 60 years of experience in neighbouring rights, and all five will remain with peermusic post-acquisition. Christophe Piot started his career in publishing in 1990 and founded All Right Music in 2004. Gino Olivieri started his career as a DJ in 1977, then music production and as an A&R rep in the late 80s before founding Premier Muzik in 1989. Gino Crescenza, Olivieri’s colleague at Premier, has over 35 years’ experience in music and has been with Premier since 2000. Erik Veerman and Paul Smelt spent years working together in key positions at neighbouring rights organization SENA before co-founding Global Master Rights in 2014.
“Given the challenging market artists and songwriters currently face, I’m happy to be able to offer our clients new revenue opportunities through neighbouring rights services. Premier Muzik, All Right Music and Global Master Rights are first-class organizations and we’re very fortunate that peermusic can draw on the knowledge, experience, and leadership of Christophe, Gino, Gino, Erik and Paul,” said Mary Megan Peer.
“Neighbouring rights are something we’ve been interested in for a long time, but we wanted to be sure that when we expanded our business into that space we could offer the same high level of service and technology that peermusic is known for. This remarkable series of deals that Mary Megan put together accomplishes that, and I’m excited for the value it will bring our clients,” said Ralph Peer, II.
“I have known peermusic for quite a long time and have been able to connect with their colleagues around the world. They all share the same model of transparency and integrity we offer to our clients, so we are thrilled to make use of their global platform to offer more extensive services to our worldwide clients,” said Christophe Piot.
With performers experiencing the dramatic drop in revenues from touring and live performances, neighbouring rights collections have become more important than ever. Neighbouring rights are the rights tied to a master recording and are owned by the performer, label, back up musicians, and, depending on the territory, non-audible contributors such as the engineer or producer. Neighbouring rights and music publishing are similar in that both collect royalties for their clients worldwide, ensuring proper registration at all collection societies and facilitating payment.
The deals were brokered by Gowling WLG (Canada), Gowling WLG (France) and Dikhoff Van Dongen Advocaten (Holland). All Right Music was advised by Maximilien Jazani (Manswell Law Firm). Premier Muzik was advised by Ciro Cucciniello (Cucciniello Calandriello Attorneys Inc.). Global Master Rights was advised by Richard Goemans (Venture Lawyers).
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