22 January 2007
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For immediate release
EMI, GEMA, MCPS-PRS Alliance cement licensing partnership
A one-stop shop for the licensing of online rights moved a step closer today when EMI Music Publishing (EMI) and two of Europe’s largest collecting societies formalised their collaboration.
EMI will work with the UK’s MCPS-PRS Alliance and Germany’s GEMA who will exclusively clear the rights of EMI’s Anglo-American songs across Europe for online and mobile usage.
Having all EMI’s Anglo-American songs available in one place for licensing represents a significant move towards truly pan-European licensing.
The partnership was first announced in January 2006 following the European Commission giving the go-ahead for such collaboration in its Recommendation on the future of online licensing in Europe, published in October 2005.
Now, the relationship has been formalised with documentation signed at MIDEM.
Roger Faxon, co-CEO of EMI Music Publishing, said: ‘It is a very exciting day for EMI Music Publishing and our songwriters. We are extremely pleased to be joining with GEMA and the Alliance in this initiative. It 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.
Harald Heker, the Chairman of the Board of GEMA, said: ‘We are excited about having established in cooperation with our partners, MCPS-PRS-Alliance and EMI Music Publishing, a future-oriented, pan-European online licensing system. This will guarantee efficiently the protection of rightholders in the digital networks.’
Crispin Evans, General Counsel of the MCPS-PRS Alliance said: ‘We are thrilled that this exciting initiative is moving forward so positively and are delighted to be working with EMI and GEMA on this. We will now start providing solutions for major online customers to meet their pan-European needs.’
- Ends -
CONTACTS
EMI Music Publishing:
Janice Brock: jbrock@emimusicpub.com
GEMA:
Dr Hans-Herwig Geyer hgeyer@gema.de
+49 (172) 83 19 726
MCPS-PRS Alliance:
Adrian Crookes/Dorota Nosowicz +44 (0)20 7306 4230
press@mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk
NOTES FOR EDITORS
The MCPS-PRS Alliance and GEMA will license EMI’s online and mobile rights for Europe through a back-office joint venture company.
EMI
EMI Music Publishing, a unit of Britain’s EMI Group PLC, is the world’s leading music publisher with more than 1 million songs in its catalogue. It represents many of the top songwriters, producers and artists in the industry today, including James Blunt, Alicia Keys, Sting, Kanye West, Gorillaz, Usher, Jermaine Dupri, Sean ‘P.Diddy’ Combs, and Enya.
In addition, EMI Music Publishing owns the copyright to some of the world’s best loved classic songs including ‘New York, New York’, ‘Santa Claus Is Coming To Town’, ‘Singin’ In The Rain’, and the song voted the “song of the century”, ‘Over The Rainbow’.
www.emigroup.com
The MCPS-PRS Alliance
MCPS and PRS are the UK not-for-profit collecting societies that ensure composers, songwriters and publishers are paid royalties when their music is used: from live performance to TV and radio, CDs to DVDs, downloads, streams and everything in between. Royalties create a future for music by supporting creators while they continue to write. MCPS and PRS are committed to delivering maximum royalties and world-class service. They work together in an operational alliance to get the best value for the music use of composers and songwriters everywhere. The Alliance is committed to working with partners throughout Europe and the world to build new platforms that simplify the licensing music.
www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk
GEMA
In Germany, GEMA is a non-profit organization that represents the copyrights of more than 60,000 members (composers, lyricists and music publishers) as well as of over 1 million rights owners from all corners of the world. With an income of EUR 852 million (in the financial year 2005), it is one of the largest authors’ societies in the world for works of music and the oldest authors’ and publishers’ society in Germany.
www.gema.de