Music Publishing News Roundup 5.25.2015: Downtown • Sony Music • BMI vs. Pandora • More
Downtown Music Publishing's acquisition of Eagle i-Music, the battle with The Verge over Sony Music's leaked contract with Spotify and BMI's win over Pandora dominate the music publishing news this week.
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Downtown Music Publishing has acquired Eagle-i Music, a london based music publisher. In this deal, Downtown has acquired catalogs from Deep Purple, Jeff Healey, and Brian Jonestown Massacre. They have also acquired Eagle-i’s neighboring right and production library which they will be integrated into general operations of the business. Eagle-i’s co-founder, Roberto Neri has now been named managing director of Downtown UK.
Sony Music and Spotify have forced removal of their contract from a recent publication. The document was leaked earlier this week with major news outlets such as Billboard, The Wall Street Journal, and New York Times covering the story. The Verge, who also covered the story managed to leak the document and was quickly forced to remove the contract by attorneys of Sony Music citing “a copyright claim”.
The BMI vs. Pandora court battle resolved last week in BMI’s favor and the music publishing community feels it is a very positive step in the right direction. Although, a success, the publishing community wants to continue to fight for fair compensation for rights holders. Read more about certain views from the publishing community as well as details in regards to this ongoing issue.
