BERLIN (CelebrityAccess) – BMG has announced the launch of a new neighboring rights service. The expansion into neighboring rights arrives just four months after BMG moved into artist management in a partnership with Shelter Music Group.
According to a press release from the company, the service is designed to allow artists to “capitalize on one of the music industry’s least understood revenue streams”.
BMG has collected its own label share of neighboring rights since it was established in 2008. Now it will offer the same service to recording artists.
Headed by BMG’s VP, operations strategy, David Miller, the company’s neighboring rights team will be responsible for ensuring each artist’s repertoire is registered accurately with collective management organizations (CMOs) in approximately 40 countries globally, tracking income and ensuring faster royalty payments. According to Miller, BMG has already identified artists who stand to increase their income by more than 50%.
The company’s first clients are The Who’s Roger Daltrey and UK DJ and producer Jonas Blue.
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 neighboring rights service. We believe there is a substantial opportunity to increase artist income in this fast-growing area.
“Neighboring rights brings to seven the number of distinct services BMG now offers to artists, alongside music publishing, recordings, production music, film, books and management. 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 neighboring rights, but we certainly plan to be the best.”
Miller added: “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.”
Jonas Blue said: “We’re thrilled to partner with the team at BMG for the next phase of my neighboring rights collection. They have shown a considerable depth of understanding in this field, and I’m absolutely confident they will use their absolute best endeavors to be the best most efficient and pro-active team to handle this important side of our global business.”
