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27.04.12MusicWeek 3
TAKE THAT, ROBBIE WILLIAMS, PRODIGY SONGS UP FOR GRABS IN DIVESTED VIRGIN CATALOGUES
Sony/ATV forced to offload classics to gain EMI Publishing purchase
PUBLISHING BY PAUL WILLIAMS
R
obbie Williams’ Angels and Take That’s Back For Good are among songs
that the Sony/ATV-led consortium will have to divest to gets its $2.2bn (£1.4bn) takeover of EMI Music Publishing past European regulators. The European Commission
last week gave its approval of the deal surprisingly quickly - but with strict conditions that the buyers dispose of four song catalogues in addition to a dozen contemporary Anglo- American songwriters. These will comprise Virgin
UK, Virgin Europe and Virgin US from the EMI side of the business and Famous Music UK, which was acquired by Sony/ATV in May 2007 as part of its buyout of Famous Music. This was one of the first big deals overseen by Marty Bandier in his role as Sony/ATV chairman and CEO, having joined the publisher after 17 years running EMI Publishing. Music Week understands there
has already been significant interest in acquiring the catalogues – especially Virgin, which contains some of the greatest and most successful songs of all time. These include Robbie
Williams’ share of early solo hits such as Angels, Let Me Entertain You and No Regrets, all written with Guy Chambers.
Take That, third party: A buyer must now be found for shares in classic Take That and Robbie Williams songs
“The Virgin UK catalogue includes Gary Barlow’s Take
The Virgin UK catalogue
includes Gary Barlow’s Take That hits during the band’s first run, among them Back For Good, Pray and A Million Love Songs. Liam Howlett-penned
Prodigy compositions such as Firestarter and Breathe are also housed here, as well as the likes of The Drugs Don’t Work and Sonnet, penned by Richard Ashcroft for The Verve. Publishing rights to a number
of the biggest hits enjoyed by Virgin Records before Richard Branson sold the record and publishing companies to EMI in 1992 are also likely to tempt potential buyers. These include Culture Club hits Do You Really
Want To Hurt Me and Karma Chameleon, stakes in Human League classics including Don’t You Want Me, Heaven 17’s Temptation, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s Enola Gay, XTC’s Making Plans For Nigel and even Monty Python classics such as Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life and The Lumberjack Song. Virgin US’s catalogue includes
Lenny Kravitz’s Fly Away and songs by Ben Harper. Famous UK houses compositions by the likes of The Kooks and Placebo. The consortium, which is
headed by Sony/ATV partners Sony Corporation and the Michael Jackson estate but also
includes the Mubadala Development Company, will not have to dispose of any of these catalogues until after the EMI Publishing deal is completed. Regulators in various territories, including the US and Australia, are still examining the buyout. The disposal programme is
similar to what Universal Music Publishing had to undertake to win EC approval for its €1.63bn Euros (£1.3bn) takeover of BMG Music Publishing. The catalogues in question in
that deal sold in 2008 to a new company, which eventually launched as Imagem. However, the Sony/ATV-led consortium also finds itself in
That hits - among them Back For Good and A Million Love Songs - as well as Liam
Howlett-penned Prodigy songs such as Breathe and Firestarter and Richard Ashcroft’s
compositions for The Verve”
new territory as it will further have to let go of 12 current Anglo-American writers from across EMI and Sony/ATV to deal with regulatory concerns about the new combined entity’s domination of chart hits. The names of the writers have
not been revealed, but these disposals would include their recent and future musical works. Sony/ATV declined to comment on the matter.
VIEWPOINT ‘THE EC DIDN’T TAKE A BLIND BIT OF NOTICE OF INDEPENDENT CONCERNS’
nigel elderton EUROPEAN PRESIDENT, PEERMUSIC
Nigel Elderton on the EC approval process for the Sony/ATV buyout of EMI Publishing:
“Clearly as an independent publisher peer has been concerned to ensure that consideration has been given to market dominance of the
new Sony ATV/EMI entity - and in particular how this might affect the emerging online market in terms of fees, competition and access to repertoire. “As you will be aware the EC
published an exhaustive list of questions which we and others were compelled to respond to which required a great deal of management time both for me and my colleagues. It would
appear, if the initial reports are to be believed, that virtually none of our concerns have been taken on board nor our suggested remedies in terms of divestment of repertoire which could serve to allay many of our concerns. “If the initial reports are true it
does beg the question as to why the EC bother to engage with us if they don’t take a blind bit of notice of the opinions and
concerns that we have expressed. “Having been involved in a
similar process with the Universal- BMG acquisition and divestment of catalogues it seems to me that those responsible within the EU for overseeing such mergers and acquisitions of IP rights have failed to learn the lessons of the past when considering the value (and lifespan) of the repertoire being offered for disposal.”
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