LOS ANGELES/BERLIN, 22 JUNE 2015 – Musician, songwriter and creative entrepreneur Dave Stewart has reached a wide-ranging agreement with Bertelsmann-owned new model music company BMG which will embrace not just music, but book and TV content and a string of other innovative projects.
The deal plays to BMG’s strength as the only music company to be integrated into a full-service global media business. It will also utilize Stewart’s skills as a creative entrepreneur to generate new synergies between BMG’s sister companies.
Under the multi-faceted deal:
BMG will exclusively administer music publishing rights to Dave Stewart’s solo work including his work with fellow BMG writer Mick Jagger (the Golden Globe-winning ‘Old Habits Die Hard’ on the Alfie soundtrack), Superheavy (‘Miracle Worker’), No Doubt (‘Underneath It All’), Eurythmics (‘I’ve Got a Life’), Stevie Nicks (‘In Your Dreams’) and Joss Stone (‘Karma’), as well as his future work;
This includes songs he has co-written with artists on his own label such as Thomas Lindsey, The Lake Poets, Hollie Stephenson and Shel, and the latest single by his daughter Kaya Stewart ‘In Love With A Boy’, named this week as the hottest new record at US Pop radio;
BMG will administer rights in all contestants’ songs from the forthcoming prime-time NBC songwriting talent show Songland, created by Dave Stewart and Executive-produced by Dave Stewart and The Voice producer Audrey Morrissey;
New American Library, a division of sister Bertelsmann company Penguin Random House will publish Dave Stewart’s long-awaited autobiography next year;
Dave Stewart will record a live concert programme for Berlin Live, BMG’s collaboration with pan-European cultural television broadcaster Arte;
Creative social network Talenthouse, in which Dave Stewart is the Creative Director and investor, is working with BMG to create new remixes of tracks from the seminal Trojan Records reggae catalogue as well as working on a documentary for this iconic Label.
Stewart will act as a brand ambassador for BMG, responsible for driving new business opportunities through his extensive network, both to BMG and its sister Bertelsmann companies.
BMG EVP International Writer Services Thomas Scherer said, “Dave Stewart is not only one of the supreme writers, artists and producers of the past three decades, he is a polymath active right across the entertainment industry with a unique ability to tap into the zeitgeist and to communicate with fellow artists. We are delighted he has decided to partner with BMG.”
Dave Stewart said, “BMG takes music publishing on to a new level. It’s creative, transparent and fair and no other music company can offer a multi-platform deal like this. Many companies talk about synergy, but few have pulled it off. BMG is a new company with a new approach, but at heart it’s a music company which really understands artists.”
BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch said, “Dave Stewart’s enormous range of accomplishments is a reminder that in our connected world, music no longer exists in its own self-contained bubble. With the backing of Bertelsmann, BMG is committed to helping artists and writers capitalize on the vast number of opportunities now open to them.”
BMG is an international company focused on the management of music publishing and recording rights. BMG’s services cover the entire range of rights administration, development, and exploitation, placing the needs of songwriters and artists at the heart of its business model. Since its launch in 2008, BMG has established a presence in eight core music markets and now represents the rights to around 2.5 million songs and recordings, including the catalogues of Chrysalis, Bug, Virgin, Mute, Sanctuary, Primary Wave and Talpa Music, as well as many prominent artists and songwriters attracted by its service-orientated model. BMG is a wholly-owned subsidiary of international media company Bertelsmann, whose group interests embrace broadcasting and TV production (RTL Group), books (Penguin Random House) and magazines (Gruner + Jahr), media services (Arvato) and print (BePrinters). In the United States of America and Scandinavia the company trades under the name BMG Chrysalis, in Benelux under the name BMG Talpa Music.
Acclaimed songwriter, musician and Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart is recognized as one of the most respected and accomplished talents in the music industry today with a music career spanning three decades and over 100 million album sales.
Stewart co-wrote and produced each Eurythmics album in his world-famous duo with Annie Lennox, and has also produced albums and co-written songs with Tom Petty, Gwen Stefani, Jon Bon Jovi, Stevie Nicks, Bryan Ferry, Katy Perry, Mick Jagger, Sinead O’Connor, Joss Stone and many others. His work has garnered numerous awards including UK Best Songwriting and Producing Awards, a Golden Globe, and Grammy Awards along the way.
Beyond his creative work as a musician, Stewart is a renowned film & TV producer, author, photographer, and entrepreneur. Most notably, Stewart co-founded the innovative startup FAB, a mobile financial management platform for the creative community, and IDEAS BRITAIN, an app-based innovation competition where disruptive business ideas are crowd sourced and paired with industry mentors.
Along with co-author Mark Simmons, Stewart released The Business Playground: Where Creativity and Commerce Collide, a highly regarded business tome now available in fifteen languages.
“Captain Dave is a dreamer and a fearless innovator, a visionary of high order, an explosive musician, deft guitar player, innately recognizes the genius in other people and puts it into play without being manipulative..”- Bob Dylan
“When I met Dave in September of 2000, he talked for 12 hours about the impact of digitalization on the production and distribution of media. As a banker, I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about – nor did anyone else. Over the next five years, we all found out” – Michael Philipp, Former Chairman and Executive Board Member of Credit Suisse Europe, Middle East And Africa
“Dave is a creative genius.” – Simon Fuller, Founder and CEO of 19 entertainment (Creator of American Idol)
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