Anthem Entertainment Purchases Selection Of Creative Nation & Luke Laird Copyrights

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Luke & Beth Laird. Photo: Spencer Combs

Creative Nation co-founders Beth and Luke Laird have sold certain copyrights in the Creative Nation and Luke Laird song catalogs to Anthem Entertainment.

With Beth at the helm, Creative Nation has become a leader in the Nashville music publishing scene over the last 11 years, with 20 No. 1 songs and over 60 radio singles. The Creative Nation catalog includes back-to-back country and pop No. 1s with Sam Hunt’s “Hard To Forget” and Harry Styles’ smash “Watermelon Sugar.” It also includes cuts across multiple genres such as No. 1 hit “Adore You” by Styles and other releases by Lady Gaga, Sam Smith, Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Parmalee, The Highwomen, Tim McGraw, Sara Bareilles, Jon Pardi, Luke Combs, Jordan Davis, Morgan Wallen, Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris, Thomas Rhett and more.

The company is made up of publishing, management, artist development and records sectors, and counts songwriters Kassi Ashton, Barry Dean, Lori McKenna, Steve Moakler, Travis Wood and Ben West on its publishing roster.

“Luke and I have worked hard to sign quality people and songwriters and continue to commit to that. We are excited to announce that Anthem Music Publishing purchased Creative Nation’s exploited songs from the past 11 years,” Beth shares. “I’m grateful to Jason Klein, Sal Fazzari, Andrew Jamal, Adrian Battiston and Gilles Godard, and everyone at Anthem who worked with our team (Derek Crownover, Megan Pekar, John Rolfe, Chris King and Kella Farris) for making this such a smooth and transparent process. It’s great to know our past copyrights are being taken care of by a great publisher and we are excited to continue building Creative Nation.”

Luke is a three-time Grammy-nominated songwriter, was named BMI’s Country Songwriter of the Year in 2023 and ACM’s Songwriter of the Year in 2015. He has amassed 24 No. 1 songs and won six CMA Triple Play Awards.

Of the acquisition, he adds, “Over the years I have been fortunate to have songs recorded by so many incredible artists. I’m grateful that a company as renowned as Anthem sees the value in these songs, and I’m excited my exploited copyrights have been sold to Anthem alongside the Creative Nation songs.”

The acquisition continues the momentum of the Anthem Nashville publishing team, who recently celebrated Davis’ recent re-signing and No. 1 “What My World Spins Around.” The company also recently charted four songs in the top 30 on the country charts with No. 1 hit “Wild as Her” co-written by Kelly Archer, “Next Thing You Know” by Davis, “You, Me, And Whiskey” co-written by Cole Taylor and “How It Oughta Be” by Shane Profitt.

Godard, President of Anthem Music Publishing Nashville, shares, “I have watched Luke and Beth build a world class catalog over the last decade with iconic copyrights and amazing diversity from country to global pop hits. It is an honor and a privilege to now represent this impressive legacy body of work.”

Crownover, Pekar and Rolfe of Loeb & Loeb handled the transaction on behalf of Creative Nation and Luke Laird.

LB Cantrell
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