BMG has set up what it describes as a ’boutique’ neighboring rights service and its first clients are UK DJ and producer Jonas Blue and Roger Daltrey (pictured), founding member and lead singer of the legendary rock band The Who.
The expansion into neighboring rights comes just four months after BMG moved into artist management in a partnership with Carl Stubner’s Shelter Music Group.
Neighboring rights – also known as performance rights – are paid in much of the world when a recording is played to a live audience or on the radio or in the US when a recording is played on a non-interactive streaming service such as Pandora.
Total performance rights payments are worth more than $2.7bn a year and have grown by an average of 7% a year over the past five years.
BMG has collected its own label share of neighboring rights since it was established in 2008. Now it is to offer the same service to recording artists.
Heading the new service is VP Operations Strategy David Miller, who says that the company has already identified artists who could increase their international income by as much as 50%.
Miller’s team will be responsible for ensuring each artist’s repertoire is registered accurately with collective management organizations (CMOs) in around 40 countries, tracking international income and ensuring faster royalty pay-through.
The deal with Roger Daltrey means BMG now represents his interests when his work is performed – including classic recordings by The Who such as My Generation, Pinball Wizard and Who Are You, in addition to his own solo work.
Meanwhile, with Jonas Blue BMG is representing performing rights in hit recordings such as Perfect Strangers, Polaroid and Rise.
“We are delighted to welcome Jonas and Roger as we further extend our service offering to artists by offering a bespoke neighboring rights service. We believe there is a substantial opportunity to increase artist income in this fast-growing area.”
Ben Katovsky, BMG
BMG COO Ben Katovsky said, “We are delighted to welcome Jonas and Roger as we further extend our service offering to artists by offering a bespoke neighboring rights service. We believe there is a substantial opportunity to increase artist income in this fast-growing area.”
“There are some really great national performing rights agencies, but international performance is highly variable,” David Miller said. “The best analogy is probably music publishing. Collection societies provide the backbone of collections, but publishers still add significant value.”
Added Katovsky: “Neighboring rights brings to seven the number of distinct services BMG now offers to artists, alongside music publishing, recordings, production music, film, books and management.
“We are committed to bringing our signature approach of fairness and transparency to all of our clients’ service needs.
“We don’t aim to be the biggest in neighboring rights, but we certainly plan to be the best.”
“Our mission is to maximize the value of each and every copyright, ensuring all our artists benefit from one of the worldwide recording industry’s fastest-growing income streams and receive all payments promptly and accurately.”
David Miller, BMG
David Miller added: “Our mission is to maximize the value of each and every copyright, ensuring all our artists benefit from one of the worldwide recording industry’s fastest-growing income streams and receive all payments promptly and accurately.
“Importantly we try to make the deal process swift and easy for potential clients, coming to the table with an offer within five business days from receiving information about the deal.”
Jonas Blue said: “We’re thrilled to partner with the team at BMG for the next phase of my neighboring rights collection.
“They have shown a considerable depth of understanding in this field, and I’m absolutely confident they will use their absolute best endeavours to be the best most efficient and pro-active team to handle this important side of our global business.”
Music Business Worldwide
