Bertelsmann: Back in the music business with the marketing of rights

Bertelsmann is getting back into the music business. After ending its collaboration with electronics giant Sony at the beginning of October and thus leaving the music industry, the media group is now focusing on the music rights business. The new subsidiary BMG Rights Management will manage and market the rights of artists and authors to the titles, said Managing Director Hartwig Masuch on Tuesday. The new company is based on music catalogs with more than 200 European artists that Bertelsmann secured in contract negotiations with Sony. These include the Scorpions, Nena, Die Prinzen and 2Raumwohnung.
BMG Rights Management intends to fully enter the music industry in 2009, focusing on online and mobile platforms, recording companies as well as film, television and advertising producers. With around 30 employees, the company currently occupies less than one percent of the market through its catalogs and is initially concentrating on Western Europe and later on the USA.