Publishing
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Liz Phair has signed a global publishing administration deal with Warner Chappell Music. The agreement encompasses her full catalog, including hits like “Why Can’t I?,” “Supernova” and “Never Said.” Phair said of the deal: “My songs represent my life’s work, and I am excited to take a fresh look at my catalog with the support of such a unique and maverick team at Warner Chappell, co-headed by the charismatic Carianne Marshall.”
Jonas Group Publishing has signed two-time SESAC songwriter of the year Justin Ebach, a writer behind hits like Luke Bryan’s “Down To One”; Jordan Davis’s multi-platinum “Singles You Up”; “Sleep Without You” and “Here Tonight” by Brett Young; and Jon Pardi’s “Your Heart or Mine.” Ebach said in a statement, “I look forward to celebrating a lot of success together.”
Iconoclast has struck a strategic partnership with Ujama Designs to acquire the intellectual property rights of Half Pint, a legend in reggae. Born Lindon Andrew Roberts, Half Pint is best known for songs like “Greetings,” “Mr. Landlord” and “Winsome,” which was covered by The Rolling Stones, and “Loving,” which was sampled in Sublime’s massive hit “What I Got.” Joe Serling and Greg Brooks from Serling Rooks Hunter McKoy Worob & Averill represented Iconoclast, while Peter Csathy of Creative Media and David Baram of Baram & Kaiser represented Half Pint.
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Concord Music Publishing has signed Grammy-winning songwriter/producer Sammy SoSo. The deal includes his back catalog, including “Water” by Tyla, and his future works.
Reach Music Publishing has acquired select publishing assets and songwriter shares from multi-platinum writer Wyatt Durrette, including his shares in songs like “Chicken Fried,” “Toes,” and “Whatever It Is” by Zac Brown Band and “Beautiful Crazy” by Luke Combs. Wyatt’s longtime publisher, Blackstone Entertainment, will remain his publisher and will co-administer these works together with Reach.
Big Machine Music has signed singer/songwriter Lanie Gardner to her first-ever global publishing deal. The news of the deal comes just after Gardner was featured on the star-studded Twisters: The Album soundtrack with her song “Chasing the Wind.”
Avex USA has signed LA-based Nigerian producer Tyson “Zone” Kong. Though he is just 23 years old, he has already worked with the likes of Jason Derulo, Sexxy Redd, Ludmilla, Lay Bankz and more.
Prescription Songs, in partnership with Hazheart Music, has added producer, songwriter and artist atlgrandma to its roster. Though he is perhaps best known for his work as a writer and producer for Willow, SNOW WIFE, Dorian Electra, The Hellp, D4ine, Izzy Spears, ericdoa, lil aaron, Y2K and Frost Children, atlgrandma also releases his own music, including his latest track “Nightmare Blunt Rotation.”
Primary Wave Music has acquired the producer royalty and neighboring rights royalty streams for artist manager, music critic, and record producer Jon Landau.
This deal includes Landau’s points and neighboring rights royalties to songs by Bruce Springsteen, whom he worked with as a co-producer for Born To Run, The River, Darkness on the Edge of Town, The Promise, Born in the U.S.A., Live 1975-1985, Human Touch, Lucky Town and Tracks. The deal also entails his producer and neighboring rights royalties for his production on Jackson Browne’s The Pretender.
A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Landau was a pivotal figure in rock music during his decades-long career. Landau got his start writing about music for publications like Crawdaddy and The Boston Phoenix and by 1967 he was hired by Jann Wenner as the lead writer for the brand new Rolling Stone publication, a position he held for a decade.
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By 1970, Landau was simultaneously writing for Rolling Stone and getting back to his roots as a lifelong musician by producing MC5’s studio album debut Back In The USA.
He got to know Springsteen in 1974 after he reviewed a performance by the singer-songwriter and called him the “future” of rock music. The following year, he co-produced Born To Run, cementing both his relationship with The Boss and his career as a producer. He would go on to co-produce eight more of his records. During this time, he also befriended Browne and produced 1976’s The Pretender, featuring songs like “Here Come Those Tears Again” and the title track.
Two decades later, Landau experienced another career peak as the manager for Shania Twain. He helped build the country-pop artist’s career, leading her to true super stardom with her 1997 album Come On Over, featuring the song “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” and “You’re Still The One.”
Landau has also worked with artists like Natalie Merchant, Train, Alejandro Escovedo, Livingston Taylor and more.
“I thank all at Primary Wave for recognizing my contributions over the last fifty years and look forward to having an ongoing and productive relationship with them,” says Landau of the deal.
Marty Silverstone, president of global synch at Primary Wave, adds: “We’re honored to be partnering with Jon Landau and all of the legendary music he helped shape. He’s an influential figure in music, and we’re proud to welcome him to the Primary Wave family.”
The transaction between Landau and Primary Wave Music was facilitated by David Simone and Winston Simone.
Peso Pluma‘s Double P Records has signed a global administration deal with Downtown Music Publishing, Billboard has learned.
Serving as the global admin for the label’s publishing arm, the company will also provide sync placement across Double P Records’ current and future releases as well as administration for Peso Pluma’s own publishing interests, including his latest double album, Éxodo, which peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200.
The label and publisher was founded in April 2023 by Peso and his manager George Prajin. Besides Peso, it’s also home to Música Mexicana singer-songwriters Jasiel Nuñez, Tito Double P and Estevan Plazola. “We are looking forward to joining forces with Downtown and continuing to grow our partnership,” Prajin, CEO of Prajin Parlay and co-founder of Double P Records, said in a statement. “I am confident that together we are going to do great things.”
While Peso is not the first regional Mexican act to join Downtown’s roster (including Luis R Conriquez and Código FN), the partnership reflects the ever-growing overall interest in a genre that’s seen exponential growth in the past year alone, in part spearheaded by Peso Pluma. Regional Mexican music is now the largest Latin subgenre in the U.S., according to Luminate’s 2024 Midyear Music Report.
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Mexican music’s growth is something Ben Patterson, Downtown Music’s president of artist & label services, has been keeping an eye on, while also “tripling” his staff focused on the genre. “First and foremost by investing in the clients,” he says about adapting to the changing landscape. “By making resources — financial, creative and human — available to support the global demand. Ensuring we remain as responsive and reactive as we can be in creating commercial support, audience growth that is organic and ad-driven and marketing strategies that fit the label, artist or project. This is a full company focus.”
The deal, adds Jedd Katrancha, chief commercial officer of Downtown Music Publishing, “reimagines what independent music culture can be like — it’s modeling a future of a lot of other artists and songwriters.” Most recently, Katrancha and his team scored Peso’s “TEKA” an Apple TV placement for the 2024 Leagues Cup between MLS and Liga MX.
“That’s what we’re excited about, to bring in mainstream global brands that are looking at what Peso is doing and wanting to be a part of if in a really authentic way,” he says. “That’s really encouraging and we’re just scratching the surface.”
The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) has partnered with Beatdapp, an independent fraud detection company, to prevent streaming fraud. While the MLC already has internal measures in place to fight against this, their collaboration with Beatdapp will provide additional and complementary protections to their database.
Beatdapp has quickly become the music industry’s go-to for independent fraud analysis in the last few years. The company has worked for a number of record labels, collection societies, distributors and streaming services to help them sift through trillions of lines of data and identify and investigate suspicious patterns. At the beginning of this year, Beatdapp announced a strategic partnership with Universal Music Group and a fundraise of $17 million in its latest funding round. Other clients include SoundCloud, Beatport, 7digital and more.
According to a report from Centre National de la Musique (CNM), a government-backed organization that supports France’s music industry, in 2021, over 1 billion music streams — between 1% and 3% of all streams generated in the country that year — were fraudulent. Streaming fraud can take on a number of forms. This can include falsely claiming royalties and ownership of songs made by other artists, or uploading songs and juicing their stream count using various means, like bot farms or account hacking.
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Billboard has investigated the rise and persistence of royalties fraud, including one story detailing an outfit out of Arizona, called Mediamuv, which stole $23 million in YouTube royalties over the course of 5 years. “The methods used by fraudsters are constantly evolving and improving,” as the CNM report states.
“The MLC is uniquely positioned within the music industry to contribute significantly to addressing streaming fraud,” says Andrew Mitchell, chief analytics and automation officer at The MLC. “Building on our ongoing efforts, we are proud to be working with Beatdapp to further amplify the many ways The MLC serves its 43,000+ Members.”
“The MLC plays a vital role in the music industry and we’re proud to collaborate with them and enhance their continuous efforts to combat streaming fraud,” says Morgan Hayduk and Andrew Batey, co-CEOs at Beatdapp. “Beatdapp has built its technology by learning from the best trust and safety solutions serving other online verticals and tailoring our technology to the unique attributes of music, to provide an unbiased, independent fraud detection solution capable of grappling with the persistent and ever-changing nature of fraud.”
IMPEL has announced a new partnership with AMRA, the Kobalt-owned global digital licensing and administration platform. With this new deal, IMPEL, a global licensing collective made up of 57 independent music publishers in 14 territories, is now offering its services in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and various Southeast Asian countries for the first time. Through […]
Primary Wave Music has acquired the catalog of Toto keyboardist, songwriter and composer Steve Porcaro. The multi-million dollar deal includes the ownership of Porcaro’s publishing catalog, artist royalties and neighboring rights, including some of his hits with Toto and all of his film/TV compositions, including his score for the FX show Justified.
Warner Chappell Music has signed Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and producer Cris Chil. One of the top songwriters in the Latin music market, Chil contributed to hits like “Telepatía” by Kali Uchis; “Contra La Pared” by J Balvin and Sean Paul; “Lento by Lauren Jauregui and Tainy; “Fuego” by DJ Snake, Anitta and Sean Paul; and “I Can’t Get Enough” by Selena Gomez, Benny Blanco and J Balvin.
NEON16 and UNRESTRICTED have jointly signed Mexican-American producer Frank Rio to a publishing deal. Known best as a producer for Ivan Cornejo, Becky G, A.Chal and Peso Pluma, Rio now hopes to expand his credits beyond the Latin charts.
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BMG Nashville has signed an administration deal with the publishing company Triple Play Music. Owned by Jason Aldean and his bandmates Kurt Allison and Tully Kennedy, the Triple Play roster includes John Edwards, John Morgan and Neil Thrasher.
Tim & Danny Music and Warner Chappell Music UK have signed an exclusive publishing agreement with Elmiene, a 22-year-old emerging British R&B/soul star. Along with his own artist project, Elmiene has also written with Stormzy, Timbaland and Justin Timberlake. Recently, he was named one of BBC Radio 1’s “Sound Of 2024” artists and was also nominated for the Rising Star Award at the 2024 Ivor Novello Awards.
Concord Music Publishing has signed Grammy-nominated and Juno award-winning artist Daymé Arocena to a worldwide publishing deal. The agreement also includes a selection of the neo-soul fusion singer’s back catalog.
Warner Chappell Music has signed a publishing deal with Schmitty, a rising singer-songwriter who combines the sounds of ’90s-era country hits with rock and roll influences.
Wise Music Group has signed a new publishing deal with English folk duo The Staves. Comprised of sisters Jessica and Camilla Staveley-Taylor, the duo’s new publishing agreement comes on the heels of its fourth studio LP All Now, released in March.
Alison Donald, Kobalt’s global head of creative, will depart the company at the end of July to pursue other opportunities, it was announced Monday (July 29). Donald joined Kobalt in 2017 to oversee the company’s A&R and creative in the U.K. and Europe for Kobalt Music Publishing and AWAL’s U.K. and Europe creative teams. She […]
Five years ago, the music industry celebrated the passage of the Music Modernization Act (MMA), a landmark piece of legislation that streamlined the way songs are licensed to streaming services and created the Mechanical Licensing Collective (and the lesser-known digital licensing coordinator) to put the new license in action. Now, the MLC and DLC are going through the first-ever MMA-mandated “re-designation” process, a routine five-year review of their operations, to ensure that the organizations are working effectively.
At the end of the process, experts believe the MLC’s position as the organization that administers the blanket mechanical license will be reaffirmed. But this process still represents a rare opportunity for stakeholders — like songwriters, publishers and streaming services — to discuss what they think these organizations have done well, and how they could improve operations for the next five years.
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As the re-designation, which has no set end date, stretches onwards, the relationship between some of the stakeholders has become increasingly contentious. In a guest column for Billboard, Doug Collins, a former member of Congress and co-author of the MMA, accused streaming services of “trying to redefine [the MMA’s] intent.” In a blog post on its website, the National Music Publishers’ Association also called out the streaming services, which are represented by trade organization Digital Media Association (DiMA), saying DiMA was using the MMA review as “an opportunity to re-write history and undermine the MLC’s progress.”
All of this is made more bitter by what’s happening outside of the MLC re-designation: Spotify recently decided to bundle audiobooks to its premium tier offerings. Now, the service argues it owes songwriters a lower royalty rate, given it now also needs to pay book publishers from the same price tag. In reply, the NMPA launched a multi-faceted campaign to try to stop Spotify from doing this, and the MLC filed a lawsuit, calling Spotify’s move “improper.” Meanwhile, the MLC also sued Pandora, which it alleges was not paying royalties properly or on time. The MLC additionally decided to audit all of the streaming services earlier this year.
The MLC differs from other collection societies in a number of ways, one of which being that the streaming services, not the songwriters and publishers, pay for its operational costs. While much has been said about DiMA and the streaming services’ position on the MLC and the MMA, the trade organization has largely remained quiet in the press.
To better understand the streaming services’ position, Billboard spoke with DiMA’s president/CEO Graham Davies to help balance the record. “The whole industry has benefited from the success of putting right what was a failing market prior to the MMA,” Davies says. “We are robust in defending the MMA. We’re only five years in. We’ve got some things to resolve, but we can do those while working with the MLC.”
What are a few things you think the MLC has done well in its first five years of operation?
The services have worked with the MLC and the publishers to get this thing up and running within the allotted time and that is remarkable and amazing. To me, that is absolutely a key success. That has also meant that the MLC has been able to get the licenses going and get the money flowing, which is something that the services greatly benefit from and appreciate.
Another aspect that I think is positive is that they have made their database available and accessible to everyone. That is something which we’ve started to see other societies around the world now looking into doing and realizing how important that is. The data the whole industry works on has significant problems, but it’s essential. I think the fact that the MLC was obligated to open up its database has enabled visibility as to what the data issues are and it’s helped us all to start to clean it up.
You have submitted comments during the re-designation process, detailing your perspective on what could be improved at the MLC. What are the main concerns you have?
We started out with three themes: transparency, efficiency, neutrality. I think they remain our key themes. I think transparency and efficiency kind of go together in that the services have met all of the funding requirements of the MLC to get it up and running. In the next phase, we want to see more transparency behind the MLC’s investments and how that will turn into increased efficiency. By the end of the year, the services will have invested $200 million in the MLC since the beginning, both in terms of startup and operating costs. So how will that turn into the MLC being a state of the art, efficient operation that is cost effective for the next five years? We’re asking questions about that. When you’ve got royalties at stake, how much is it sensible to spend to pay that out? Again, these are very common baseline metrics that sit within any collecting society. We would love to have that information now going forward, so we can just be really sure that the funding requests are appropriate.
You submitted comments on behalf of both DiMA and the digital licensee coordinator (the DLC), which is also being re-designated. For those who are unfamiliar, what is the relationship between the DLC and DiMA?
Where the MLC and the DLC differ is that there’s not a requirement for the DLC to exist, whereas there is a requirement for the MLC to exist — the blanket license cannot be administered without an MLC. The DLC is there primarily as an interface on operational matters between the service community and the MLC. While DiMA has six members, the DLC has many more members of the service community involved. DiMA administers the DLC, so the running of the DLC is done by DiMA, and we have a cost charge for the time we spend on doing the DLC.
You’ve mentioned that the last five years of the MLC have been a “startup phase” and you’d like it to be more efficient in the future. What areas do you think the MLC is potentially overspending or inefficient?
The areas we want to point to come into our other theme of neutrality as well. Others have claimed that we have said that the MLC should not be able to undertake enforcement, and that’s absolutely not true. Obviously, we have raised issues about what the budget should be and how the MLC goes about undertaking litigation. In terms of other areas of cost efficiency, we’ve also asked, what is the balance between how much time and effort [the MLC] is spending to try and pay out their royalties? We should look at that. We’ve also raised questions around how much outreach and education activities are appropriate. For us, I think in most areas, it comes down to understanding in more detail — what’s the plan? Why spend that amount? We’d also like more detail in the area of outsourcing and contracts the MLC has started.
As we’ve seen in the last six months or so, the MLC has started to play a role in enforcement, and that means, essentially, that if the streaming services are paying for the MLC, and then the MLC files a lawsuit against a streaming service, then streaming services are paying for litigation or auditing against themselves. We’ve seen that now with Pandora and Spotify. Do you believe that the MLC has a definite enforcement authority?
We’ve been clear that there is a required undertaking for enforcement, particularly for the section 115 license and making sure our services are paying appropriately. There is auditing ability as well. We totally understood that that was part of the accepted rules. What we have said is that there has to be some process for resolving conflicts prior to jumping to litigation. Litigation is very expensive. It was a feature of the pre-MMA period that we want to avoid.
We think there has to be a role for the Copyright Office on issues which are contentious, where the interpretation of law is the issue. If it’s purely an enforcement of the defined section 115 and the operation of that, that’s what we would deem to be enforcement and that’s within the general operation of the MLC. But if we are in an environment where the MLC has an ability to spend whatever it likes on whatever litigation it wants to, we do not believe that is the intention of this construction.
This is also where we have neutrality concerns. Within our comments, we have flagged areas where we believe the MLC has not acted in a neutral way, whether that’s in relation to how they handled issues with the service community or in relation to the songwriters.
What would you ideally want to see the MLC do if a situation arose where they felt like a streaming service wasn’t doing things by the book, rather than going to litigation?
We would expect there to be a pre-litigation dispute mechanism, and for that to be codified as a process whereby the MLC can state its position and then the service is able to respond to that. If it is a dispute within the grounds of normal enforcement, then the MLC will have exhausted that process first and then can proceed with enforcement. When it’s something which is an interpretation of the statute or the law, then we are proposing that at the end of that dispute mechanism, it is then referred to the Copyright Office because they are the ones that have this oversight, rather than jumping to enforcement in the court of law.
No one is able to change any part of what the MMA already states during this re-designation, so is this proposed change even possible?
Our interpretation is that the MMA doesn’t give the MLC the ability to go beyond its enforcement into interpretation of law. Referring back to the Copyright Office’s recent ruling with termination rights — you can see that the Copyright Office will take on a clear oversight role. In our view, we just need to use the Copyright Office in the correct way.
This isn’t about changing the MMA. Actually, we would argue we just want the MLC to operate within the direction of the law. The MMA is about [section 115 of U.S. Copyright Law]. That’s clear. Moving beyond 115 into interpreting the boundaries of 115 and 114 is not what the MMA provides them the scope to operate within. For those situations, they should go to the Copyright Office for review.
Recently, you took issue with the NMPA and their initial comment that said that “Congress did not intend for the MLC to be neutral when it comes to protecting the interest of copyright owners.” Can you tell me more about your view on that statement?
The MMA was not a one-sided piece of legislation. It wasn’t made to serve just one constituency. I think part of its success was the fact that it actually brought all sides of the industry together. It had something that was supported by all sides. If we were to follow that argument and say the MLC only exists for the rightsholders and should pay no regard to what the service community thinks or feels or has a view on, well, then why have the service community pay for the operating costs of this and have the service community in an observer role on the board?
This is not a rightsholder-owned collective, which exists all around the rest of the world. Those organizations do not have any involvement of the licensees in the operation. The services just pay their license and that’s their level of involvement. I just think we’ve got to remember that the construction of the MLC was deliberately not like that from the start. The service community does have a vested stake in the running and the operation and the costs of the MLC because that’s what all parties agreed on.
Other collecting societies are able to advocate on behalf of their owners. PRS for Music, for example, will advocate on a particular issue. It’s really clear within the statute, however, that the MLC is not able to advocate. If it wasn’t expected to be neutral, then why can’t it advocate?
The text of the MMA never uses the word “neutral.” Are you saying you want this addressed in the law in some way?
The interpretation is in the structure. The MMA did say that the MLC is not allowed to advocate, ergo it cannot be partial to one particular stakeholder group. We’re not trying to rewrite the MMA; we’re happy with it. We just think that at this point in the evolution of the organization we need to temper some of the biases. I think we’ve been pretty consistent in saying the MLC has started to become too one-sided. I don’t think that’s good for the songwriters — it’s been really interesting to see the range of voices in the comment period [that also question The MLC’s neutrality]. We are suggesting a governance review.
Do you think a re-designation every five years is not enough on its own?
I think it’ll be interesting to see what the re-designation process brings forward from the Copyright Office. Maybe the Copyright Office leans in on governance and says, “We’ve heard enough, and we can come forward with ideas.” But the re-designation process is a different thing than a governance review, which would bring in a special team to actually dig into governance-related issues and bring forward recommendations and proposals that could then be implemented. It would be something more specific and something the MLC could just do. You wouldn’t need the Copyright Office to sponsor it, though they could if they wanted to.
Can you elaborate more about how it’s not in the MLC’s interest to be partisan in some of their views?
The services have invested in the MLC on the back of the MMA to make this a success and to enable us to grow the market. And growing the streaming market is in everybody’s interest. So in terms of the MLC carrying the confidence, trust and support of the whole industry, we’re all invested in that objective. We feel there’s nothing to be gained from the MLC acting in too partisan a way. The terminations situation is case in point. It’s not helpful because it ends up in a process, royalties get delayed. Anything that avoids litigation is good to us. We think these are all very sensible things which will hopefully make for a smoother running MLC over the next five years.
Doug Collins, co-author of the MMA, recently wrote a guest column with Billboard that says that DiMA and the services “want to give equal weight to the opinions of digital companies as well as the rights of songwriters.” He also said that The MLC is an institution that was not supposed to be neutral. What is your reply?
To the first point, DiMA and the DLC have not advocated for changing the board of the MLC. I don’t think it’s correct that we are advocating for any change. The quote was implying that we would have, what, 30% representation on the MLC board? I don’t know where he is going with that. We’ve been advocating for the MLC running in the way we believe it should be. Doug is right — as you said earlier, he didn’t put the word “neutral” into the MMA, but I think there are many references to improving the system for all stakeholders. It’s also not said in the MMA that the organization is supposed to be entirely partial to the interests of one stakeholder group, right?
Another issue we have raised is the licensing of public domain works. This is another example of where the MLC should act in a neutral way by not charging the services for a license on public domain works. Some of the services, especially the smaller ones or ones like classical streaming services, are really struggling, having to pay money on works which went out of copyright 200-300 years ago.
There’s a growing distrust of streaming services among people in the music publishing business, particularly because of the recent Spotify bundling feud. I’m wondering, given the NMPA and songwriter groups have been very outspoken against the things that streaming services are doing right now, do you think that it will be more difficult to work together in positive ways?
There are clearly some disputes. The MLC launched two rounds of litigation, and the NMPA has launched a lot more. It feels like a moment in time, rather than something that can be characterized as, “the streaming services are to be distrusted.” That’s not my perspective on the music industry. In the publishing industry, there are disputes and disputes will be resolved. There is always an element of tension in pricing. I can’t think of any other area of licensing where there is not a period of tension, a period where rightsholders are looking to maximize the value of the rights they have and the users are on the other side of that [wanting low prices].
Kobalt has elevated Bob Bruderman to the role of Chief Digital Officer, the company announced today (July 24). In the new role, he will continue to lead overall global digital strategy for Kobalt, including commercial partnerships with companies such as Amazon, Apple, Meta, Pandora, Snap, Soundcloud, Spotify, TikTok and YouTube, among others. He will also […]
Warner Chappell Music has entered an agreement to jointly administer the majority of the music library of Analog Metaverse, a rights management company founded by producer-songwriter Salaam Remi. The publishing catalog is anchored by Remi’s list of credits, including the debut singles of Amy Winehouse and Miguel, respectively, and one of Alicia Keys‘ best-known songs, plus also includes works by songwriters Dennis Brown, Don Blackman, Bobby “Digital” Dixon and Terri Walker.
Remi co-wrote and produced much of Winehouse’s 2003 debut, Frank, including her debut single “Stronger Than Me,” which won an Ivor Novello Award in 2004, and produced roughly half of the late neo-soul icon’s global breakthrough, 2006’s Back to Black. He also got in on the ground floor of Miguel, co-writing and producing his lead single “All I Want Is You,” featuring J. Cole, and notably co-wrote and co-produced Keys’ 2012 hit “Girl on Fire.”
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Analog Metaverse said its catalog features more than 2,000 songs, though it’s unclear how much is included in this joint administration deal. Financial details of the partnership were not disclosed. Remi’s team at Analog Metaverse includes Kwame Kandekore as head of legal and business affairs and Josephine Westphal, vp of royalties and administration.
“I’ve personally known Salaam for more than three decades, and it’s such an honor to be entrusted to shepherd not only his own life’s work, but that of legends like Dennis Brown,” said co-chair and CEO Guy Moot. “Carianne [Marshall, WCM Co-Chair/COO] and I are very intentional about the catalogs we work with and really think about how we can grow and tend to them, both today and for the years to come.”
Moot said he sensed a “lot of synergy” between WCM’s approach to asset management and Analog Megaverse’s mission — “it’s great to be joining forces to help writers and their estates realize their full potential.”
Remi added: “Having the benefit of being a songwriter and publisher myself, I fully understand the importance of having partners who not only appreciate the wonderful creations of the icons from the last few generations but also can help us carry them into the future.”
The Analog Metaverse pair-up follows on the heels of WCM’s publishing administration deal with Tom Petty’s estate covering the “vast majority of songs” dotting the late artist’s catalog.