The market for composers’ copyright for film and television continues to heat up.
Just yesterday (March 22) Multimedia Music, a company specializing in catalogs of film and TV music rights, additionally raised 100 million dollar investment bring the company’s total funds raised to date are US$200 million.
Born in the UK last month State-of-the-art media music (CEMM) $100 million secured with funding from a group of banks led by Pinnacle Financial Partners to increase its cash reserves to invest in music for film, television, video games and more.
This new $100 million raise comes after a year in which the company invested $125 million raised in a first round, to acquire film and television music rights.
CEMM has now announced the acquisition of what it calls a “large film music catalogue” from British media company First Score Music Ltd.
CEMM states that the acquisition gives it full mastering and publishing rights to more than 75 “premium” soundtracks.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but a source tells MBW the deal was in the high seven figures.
The transaction includes master and publishing rights to a collection of film scores, including the score for director Taika Waititi’s upcoming sports comedy drama Next goal wins with Michael Fassbender and the score for the upcoming animated version of George Orwells animal farm by Andy Serkis.
Next goal wins includes a score by Academy Award and Emmy winner Michael Giacchino, who composed themes for Up, The Incredibles, The Batman And Lost.
These themes are among the “75+ premium film scores that Cutting Edge is acquiring, expanding its catalog of media music.
“This acquisition brings Cutting Edge Media Music closer to its long-term goal of becoming the world’s leading media music publisher and service provider.”
philip moross, top group
“Imaginarium has a great creative and commercial relationship with Cutting Edge,” said Jonathan Cavendish of Imaginarium Productions, producer of Serkis’ animal farm Animation.
“It’s incredibly important for us to have partners in the music space who are as knowledgeable, creative and smart as Cutting Edge’s Philip Moross and Tara Finnegan.”
As part of the agreement, CEMM will also purchase film scores from composers such as Carter Burwell, Christophe Beck, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Volker Bertelmann, John Debney, Benjamin Wallfisch, Andrew Lockington, David Newman, Rachel Portman, Mychael Danna, Craig Armstrong, David Buckley and Harald Closer .
“This acquisition brings Cutting Edge Media Music closer to its long-term goal of becoming the preeminent media music publisher and service provider in the world,” said Philip Moross, CEO and founder of Cutting Edge Group, parent company of CEMM.
Tara Finegan, COO of Cutting Edge Group added, “Through CEMM and its divisions such as Lakeshore Records, CEMM can continue to invest in production and offer a range of music services, including the release of the best original scores and the release of the best soundtracks.”
“We have followed the development of First Score Music for some time and are delighted to add this world-class catalog of independent film music to the Cutting Edge Media Music portfolio.”
tim hegarty, top group
“We have been following the development of First Score Music for some time and are pleased to add this premier catalog of independent film music to the Cutting Edge Media Music portfolio,” added Tim Hegarty, head of mergers and acquisitions at Cutting Edge Group. who represented CEMM in the transaction.
The acquisition is CEMM’s latest investment since raising $100 million from a group of banks led by Pinnacle Financial Partners last month. In 2022, CEMM invested $125 million in buying film and TV music rights.
Almost a month ago, the company agreed to the creation of one strategic music project with Village Roadshow entertainment group (VREG) covering the latter’s past and future music publishing assets, soundtrack album releases and music monitoring services.
The deals come as music rights companies double their investments in copyrights for film and television music.
Shortly after CEMM announced its funding round, Multimedia Music, also active in this space, announced that it had closed one eight figure deal to acquire the music publishing and music mastering rights from the entire film music library from STX entertainment.
The transaction includes music for film titles such as Bad mothers, The gentlemen, Den of Thieves, Greenland And The foreigner and music by composers such as Hans Zimmer, Cliff Martinez, Marcelo Zarvos, Hauschke, Chris Lennertz, Andrew Lockington, Clinton Shorter and Nicholas Britell.
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