28 January 2008
Peermusic announces pan-european licensing partners
Peermusic, the global independent music publisher, today announced that it has reached agreements with the MCPS-PRS Alliance and the Spanish society SGAE to represent its repertoire for Pan-European online and mobile licensing from the first of January 2008. SGAE will represent its Latin-American repertoire and The Alliance Peer’s Anglo-American repertoire.
“We had welcome expressions of interest from several very competent societies”, said peermusic CEO, Ralph Peer. “At the end of the day we decided to align our initial online licensing agreements with two of the best along cultural lines for these two very important segments of our repertoire. Furthermore the Alliance and SGAE are among the more technologically advanced societies and are working together to provide us with a singular data protocol which will ease our administrative issues considerably. The administrative dimension is a very important part of any Pan-European licensing decision as it invokes novel requirements demanding new data structures. We are pleased that both societies are members of online consortia (CELAS and Harmonia) which will afford them additional technology and broader reach.”
The Alliance’s CEO, Steve Porter, commented “We are really excited and proud to be representing peer’s Anglo-American repertoire 
across Europe for online and mobile. This partnership represents a major step forward in the licensing of music rights in Europe that will benefit both those who wish to use music and those who create music.”
Eduardo Bautista, CEO of SGAE, stated "The investment that SGAE has been making in technological innovation and its role as the leading management body for the Latin music repertoire have made it possible for us to establish an international alliance that is crucial in guaranteeing on-line distribution of music. SGAE is very proud to manage the latin music repertoire of Peermusic, one of the most important of the world".
Pictured (from L-R): Steve Porter, Ralph Peer, CEO of
Peermusic and Enrique Loras, General Manager SGAE
Mr. Peer continued “peermusic has developed an important continental repertoire over our 80 years. The online licensing for this segment of our repertoire remains in the hands of the societies with whom the composers are affiliated. This gives us the opportunity to work with all of these societies in licensing and collection as the online world becomes of greater importance in the mix of sources of income.”
-Ends-
PRESS CONTACTS:
peermusic Spain
Diana Capasso
+34 91 702-3010, dcapasso@peermusic.com
peermusic UK
Catrina Naylor
+44 (0)20 7404-7200, cnaylor@peermusic.com
The MCPS-PRS Alliance
Adrian Crookes
+44 791819 4151, adrian.crookes@mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk
SGAE
Sergio de la Marca
+34 (0) 679 470 322, sdelamarca@sgae.es
NOTES FOR EDITORS:
Peermusic
Founded by Ralph S. Peer in 1928, peermusic is a global network of music publishing companies operating from 35 offices in 28 countries. With well over a quarter of a million titles in the company’s catalogue, and songs that vary from country, blues, jazz and pop to latin, classical and rock ‘n’ roll, peermusic is the largest privately owned company of its kind in the world. www.peermusic.com
SGAE
SGAE, with more than 90,000 members, has 20 offices and a 200 national representative network. It is a leading entity of Latin repertory and holds representation agreements with more than 160 societies worldwide. Also is the first all around the world authors society to have been granted, by the international competency organization the quality certificates for management procedures (ISO: 9002) (ISO 9001: 2000, in 2001). SGAE manage more than 5 millions and way of works. www.sgae.es
The MCPS-PRS Alliance
MCPS and PRS work together in an operational alliance, the MCPS-PRS Alliance. Together, they are one of the world’s most efficient combined rights collecting operations. MCPS-PRS has succeeded in its goal to offer its members more money, more often and at less cost, whilst ensuring its customers are provided with the most efficient means by which they can use music. www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk