BMG and German collection society GEMA have signed a new three year deal covering the licensing of digital services in the EU for the rights company’s US and UK songwriters.
The agreement with GEMA, one of Europe’s biggest collection societies, will see BMG continue to license its Anglo-American repertoire to digital services across Europe through GEMA subsidiary ARESA.
It means digital services can secure licences to reach 531m people across 38 countries in a single agreement.
BMG rival Kobalt launched its own rival to ARESA earlier this week, offering publishing companies the chance to enjoy direct digital collection across the world from a single CMO, AMRA.
ARESA is a so-called ‘Option 3 vehicle’, based on a recommendation from the European Commission designed to increase competition among collection societies.
Under an Option 3 structure, publishers withdraw the European licensing of Anglo-American repertoire to digital services from individual collection societies and centralise them under one roof.
Since it began licensing European rights through ARESA in July 2012, BMG has licensed more than 40 significant digital services across Europe, including iTunes, Spotify) and YouTube.
ARESA currently represents rights in over 900,000 songs by Anglo-American writers, including such hits as:
• ‘All Of Me’ co-written by BMG writer John Legend (performed by John Legend);
• ‘Try’ written by BMG writers busbee and Ben West (performed by Pink, pictured);
• ‘Locked Out Of Heaven’ co-written by BMG writer Bruno Mars (performed by Bruno Mars);
• ‘One Way Or Another’ by BMG writers Nigel Harrison and Deborah Harry (performed by Blondie, One Direction);
• ‘Budapest’ by BMG writers George Ezra and Joel Pott (performed by George Ezra).
BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch said, “BMG is determined to ensure songwriters are able to make the most of the revenue opportunities of the digital age. That means having a lean and efficient licensing operation and a state-of-the art administrative back-end.
“The combination of ARESA’s nimble licensing team and GEMA’s significant infrastructure is a significant benefit to our writers, and the ability to license access to more than half a billion people in a single deal is a big plus for licensees.”
Harald Heker, Chairman of GEMA’s Executive Board, said, “The combination of BMG, one of the world’s fastest-growing international music publishers, and GEMA, one of the world’s most successful collection societies in terms of per capita collections, is a powerful one. We are able to offer a level of speed, transparency and efficiency which would otherwise simply be impossible.”
BMG SVP Business & Legal Affairs Goetz von Einem said, “There are significant benefits in aggregating rights through ARESA. We get greater transparency. We can enforce more consistent data standards. And we can account more quickly to our songwriters.”
GEMA Director Broadcasting and Online Thomas Theune said, “We are delighted to extend our successful collaboration with BMG, delivering value for their songwriter clients, simplifying the licensing process and helping support the development of the digital music business in Europe.”Music Business Worldwide
