IMAGEM MUSIC SIGNS GENESIS AND PHIL COLLINS
19-10-2009 @ 15:21
Imagem Music has entered into a long-term, exclusive administration agreement with the members of Genesis, Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford as of 1st July this year and will represent the catalogues of Genesis, Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford including Mike & The Mechanics.
Genesis have sold more than 150 million albums worldwide and have enjoyed several top 10 hits in US including a #1 with “Invisible Touch”. Mike & The Mechanics also reached #1 in US with “The Living Years”.
In addition to the above and in a separate deal with Philip Collins Limited, Imagem Music has also bought a 50% share of the copyrights in the entire Phil Collins catalogue. This catalogue contains 8 #1 hits in US and UK including “Against All Odds”, “Sussudio”, “One More Night”, “Two Hearts”, “Another Day In Paradise”, “Easy Lover” and the iconic “In The Air Tonight”. Phil has sold over 100 million albums worldwide has been awarded 7 Grammys, 1 Academy Award and 2 Golden Globes.
André de Raaff, CEO of Imagem Music worldwide: “We are extremely proud that Tony, Phil and Mike have chosen us for their music publishing activities throughout the world. We feel that they are among the great writers and have written many outstanding songs which will live forever. Their catalogues are a great addition to the wonderful portfolio of Imagem. We are not only proud to be the #1 independent music publisher in the world only two years since we started the company, but we are also a new kind of music publisher. We can prove to anyone that we have the best creative teams and that we are the most efficient rights manager in music publishing. The rights of Tony, Phil and Mike will be loved and nourished."
John Minch, CEO of Imagem UK and Director Business Development and Digital of Imagem International: “We invest in gold standard music copyrights and we are thrilled to have persuaded Genesis and Phil to come to us. We can offer all the creative flair, passion and enthusiasm of the very best independent with the financial muscle professionalism and global strength of a worldwide music publishing group. The Genesis management team took a long hard look at what we are building here and really liked what they saw. This is a very exciting time for us.”
Phil Collins: “I am delighted and excited to be entering into this new partnership with Imagem and Boosey & Hawkes for the future, and look forward to working closely with them to get the best from all the songs that I’ve written over the years, along with any future projects I may enter into.”
Tony Smith, Manager of Genesis and Phil Collins: “I am delighted to have been able to conclude this deal with Imagem. We have been researching many of the major music publishing houses over the last 18 months or so to find the right company to represent the catalogue for the future, as we recognize that there are many challenges for music publishers in the ever changing music industry, we were keen to find a company that would approach the issues of the decreasing physical market while embracing the challenges of maximizing the opportunities available to music copyrights in the digital and synchronization arena, as well as recognizing that a large part of future income will be generated from these uses and that of performances. We think we have found the right combination of outstanding administration abilities and forward thinking partners in Imagem and Andre De Raaff, John Minch and their creative teams. ”
About Imagem Music Group:
Founded in 2008 by ABP, one of the world’s biggest pension funds, in conjunction with Dutch independent publisher/media company CP Masters BV, Imagem Music began by acquiring music publishing rights in a number of catalogs sold by Universal Publishing as a requirement of its acquisition of BMG Publishing - Zomba UK, Rondor UK, 19 Music and 19 Songs, plus the greater part of the BBC Music catalogue and European rights to the Zomba US catalogue - as the first step in becoming one of the most dynamic new players in music publishing.
The subsequent acquisition of Boosey & Hawkes - with its rights to Copland, Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff and others and its established international publishing infrastructure, with own offices in London, New York, Berlin and The Netherlands – has provided Imagem Music with an administrative backbone as well as expanding the group’s musical offering into classical and jazz.
Earlier this year, the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization has been added to Imagem Music. RHO represents a wide variety of entertainment copyrights and over 200 writers and does not only represent works by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, but also Irving Berlin, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Adam Guettel, Sheldon Harnick, Lorenz Hart, Jerome Kern, Stephen Schwartz, Kurt Weill, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and many others. RHO founders Richard Rodgers (composer; 1902-79) and Oscar Hammerstein II (lyricist/librettist, 1895-1960) created the most beloved musicals such as Oklahoma! Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music.
www.imagemgroup.com