Sony/ATV buys EMI

Last Friday, the Federal Trade Commission approved the purchase of one of the two music-world giants by another giant. As a result, an investment group consisting of Sony, the Michael Jackson Foundation, David Geffen, and two other companies—by paying $2.2 billion—bought EMI’s publishing rights to add them to the Sony/ATV publishing rights collection. From now on, this investment group will manage EMI through the large Sony/ATV company, the world’s biggest music publishing company. With this deal, 1.3 million audio and video works from EMI flowed into Sony/ATV’s vault, bringing the number of works whose publishing rights are held by this company to more than two million. EMI had the catalogs of some of the most successful artists in the music industry, such as Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Norah Jones, Alicia Keys, Pink, Rihanna, Usher, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Justin Bieber, One Direction, and Amy Winehouse—now all of them are managed by Sony and the Michael Jackson Foundation. Motown’s catalog from the 1960s, along with classic films, are also among the works transferred from EMI to Sony/ATV. Some of these classic films date back to the 1920s. The massive Sony/ATV company is jointly owned by Sony and the Michael Jackson Foundation. The company was formed in 1995 through a joint investment by Michael and Sony. Sony/ATV is now a blend of Motown’s catalog and, among others, Michael Jackson’s songs from his childhood, Michael’s own work from his solo career, the Beatles catalog, and also Elvis Presley, the Rock ’n’ Roll king, songs by the most successful artists across all eras, American classic films, and other audio and visual products. The CEO and chairman of Sony/ATV, listing their success in acquiring artists’ publishing rights over nearly two decades, said: "Through our joint investment with the Michael Jackson Foundation in Sony/ATV, Sony has now become the largest music publishing company in the world." Source: eMJey / NY Times