Yet Another BMG Acquisition: Chrysalis Music Publishing
We were welcomed back from Thanksgiving this morning by the news that German media conglomerate BMG Rights Management is buying the Chrysalis Music Publishing catalog for a grand total of £107.4 million (or $168.6 million USD). Wow!
We’d like to say we didn’t see this coming, but we had a feeling this would happen after BMG snapped up Evergreen Copyrights, Stage 3 Publishing and Cherry Lane Music (Elvis, anyone?) in rapid succession earlier this year. According to Billboard Magazine, this acquisition probably makes BMG the world’s fourth-largest music publisher by global market share.
In addition to being the home of writers like Debbie Harry of Blondie, Chrysalis is also the home of some well-loved music execs like Jeff Brabec and Jessica Hobbs. We think that if BMG is lucky/savvy, they’ll hang onto the executive talent that has been looking after these copyrights for the past few years.
Martin Scorsese Involved in Legal Dispute Over Rare Jimi Hendrix Track
Reuters reports that Martin Scorsese, Jimi Hendrix’s estate and a saxophonist named Lonnie Youngblood are involved in a legal dispute over the rights to a song called “Georgia Blues.”
Hendrix was a member of Youngblood’s band in the mid-1960s before hitting it big on his own. The pair reunited in 1969 to record “Georgia Blues,” which was used in Scorsese’s 2003 PBS special The Blues.
The track was also released on the album Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Jimi Hendrix. Youngblood sued Hendrix’s estate, Scorsese and MCA Records earlier this year, claiming the song was released without his permission.
- Martin Scorsese Involved in Legal Dispute Over Rare Jimi Hendrix Track