BMG has set up a new neighbouring rights service as its music portfolio enters a new phase.
A press release said the service is designed to allow artists to “capitalise on one of the music industry’s least understood revenue streams”. Its first clients are The Who’s Roger Daltrey and UK hitmaker Jonas Blue.
BMG has collected a label share of neighbouring rights since it was established in 2008 and will now provide the same service to recording artists.
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 neighbouring rights service. We believe there is a substantial opportunity to increase artist income in this fast-growing area.”
Jonas Blue said: “We’re thrilled to partner with the team at BMG for the next phase of my neighbouring 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.”
There is a substantial opportunity to increase artist income in this fast-growing area
Ben Katovsky, BMG
BMG’s neighbouring rights team will be responsible for ensuring each artist’s repertoire is registered accurately with collective management organizations (CMOs) in around 40 countries across the world, tracking income and ensuring faster royalty payments.
BMG’s VP, operations strategy, David Miller will lead the new team and said that the company has already identified artists who stand to increase their income by more than 50%.
Miller said: “There are some really great national performing rights agencies, but international performance is highly variable. The best analogy is probably music publishing. Collection societies provide the backbone of collections, but publishers still add significant value.
“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.”
The expansion comes after BMG moved into artist management in a partnership with Shelter Music Group. It now offers seven different services to artists, including publishing, recordings, production music, film and books.
Ben Katovsky added: “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 neighbouring rights, but we certainly plan to be the best.”
BMG’s Alistair Norbury appears in the new edition of Music Week, out now.
FOLLOW 
