STARTING OVER Bertelsmann Launches Music Rights Management Unit T

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BMG Rights Management's catalog includes recordings by THE SCORPIONS and German pop singer NENA (inset).

GLOBAL BY WOLFGANG SPAHR STARTING OVER Bertelsmann Launches Music Rights Management Unit T

HAMBURG -Four years ago, Bertelsmann Music Group became rection, you have to look at the underlying quality of the catalog the past 20 years" dur- half of Sony BMG, a record company whose combined global and ask, 'Are they really going to be able to leverage this into the ing his tenure at BMG market share should have challenged the might of Universal really attractive areas of synchronization ?' " Yau says. Music Publishing. Music Group. Bertelsmann has not yet disclosed all the names of the But others remain

In mid -October, German media giant Bertelsmann AG un- artists involved, but Billboard has learned that they include skeptical. Heinz Can - veiled a new music company with far more modest ambitions. the Scorpions, Paolo Conte, Sylvie Vartan, Nena, Yves Mon - nibol, managing di- Bertelsmann announced the launch of tand, Gilbert Becaud and Mecano. rector of independent Berlin -based BMG Rights Management "The computer games industry is bigger label 105 Music (Annett Louisan, Ina Müller), says the model may Oct. 14, 10 weeks after the conglomerate than Hollywood these days, so that would well benefit veteran acts with deep catalog to be mined, "but it re- sold its 50% stake in the Sony BMG joint be a natural market to develop," Yau says. mains to be seen whether it will be able to attract new [up -and- venture to Sony Corp. The new company "However, games developers tend to de- coming] acts." will begin operations in January, part of its mand music that's a bit more up to date Although BMG has global rights to the recordings, sources parent's greater focus on service businesses. than, say, a 30- year -old Scorpions track." confirm its operations will initially be confined to Europe. Bertelsmann sources say the company is Despite such misgivings, Scorpions man- "It sounds as though Europe might be a bit of an experiment," initially expected to generate annual sales of ager Peter F. Amend says the band is "an- Yau says. "If it does well, roll it out on a global scale. Then add to 50 million ($64 million) by exploiting and marketing music rights ticipating very good service" in terms of transparency and the content through acquisition -and start signing up writers for from European acts across the continent. accounting accuracy for the three mid -'70s albums now with BMG. publishing. That would be the sensible thing to do." "We see bright prospects for business devoted to managing Amend is also enthused by the appointment of Masuch, who he and exploiting such rights," Bertelsmann CFO Thomas Rabe says. says "had been focusing on the interests of artists and authors for Additional reporting by Tom Ferguson in London. Former BMG Music Publishing Germany CEO Hartwig Ma- such will head the new company. Masuch describes his role as "creating an attractive package of services for creative people and copyright holders." STILL STANDING BMG Japan Forges On Sources say BMG will set up a publishing arm in May 2009 to sign writers and buy catalogs. (Bertelsmann sold BMG Music BMG may be re- emerging in Europe, but Sakuma, a Sony representative insists sales while enhancing sales of estab- Publishing to Universal parent Vivendi in September 2006.) How- in Japan it never went away. BMG Japan "will remain independent in lished Japanese artists. ever, BMG will initially only exploit master recording rights for In the rest of the world, Sony Music terms of being a company." Avril Lavigne was Japan's highest - material cherry- picked from the Sony BMG catalog. and BMG became one company in SMEJ, with its main offices in the com- selling international artist last year, Individual artists' deals vary, but they will be broadly subject 2004, but they remained separate en- paratively down -at- the -heel Ichigaya while sales of local singer/songwriter to the same duration and territory conditions that applied at Sony tities in Japan. Even now, the BMG of- district, operates sev- Kazumasa Oda's com- BMG. BMG Rights Management's 30- person staff in Berlin, Am- fices in Tokyo's trendy Aoyama district, eral other subsidiaries pilation "Jiko Best" sterdam, Madrid, Paris, Milan and London will exploit the record- surrounded by boutiques and night- as stand -alone labels, climbed toward the 3 ings through synch licensing deals with advertisers, film studios, clubs, stand alone as the last vestige of including Ki /oon and million -unit mark, ac- broadcasters and digital media companies. The actual recordings the once -mighty BMG empire. Defstar Records. BMG cording to the label. will be distributed by Sony. While fully owned by Sony Music En- Japan's stand -alone Japanese chart -top- BMG Rights Management will start with a repertoire of only tertainment Japan, BMG Japan remains status reflects its suc- pers like Misia, Shikao 8,000 tracks from about 200 artists, which raises questions about operationally separate. Although BMG cess in recent years in Suga and Seamo also how eager media outlets will be to license music from the corn - Japan president Daniel DiCicco was re- maintaining robust in- call BMG home. pany, says London -based analyst Patrick Yau of Canaccord Adams. placed Oct.20 by Sony insider Mamoru ternational repertoire -Rob Schwartz "Although in principle they seem to be moving in the right di-

8, 16 I BILLBOARD NOVEMBER 2008