NEW YORK, NY (EverGreen Copyright Acquisitions) - EverGreen Copyright Acquisitions, LLC, a full-service global music publishing company, has been formed by music industry veterans Joel A. Katz,
David K. Schulhof, and Richard W. Perna with financial backing from Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking (LEH).
The Company officially debuts with the announcement of five completed acquisitions, including the purchase of the Rykomusic assets and Warlock Music catalog (featuring the major works of Nick Drake), the Teddy Riley catalog, the Audigram catalog (including a number of works by J.J. Cale), the Bill Monroe Music catalog, and the Matt Slocum catalog.
"We are excited to announce the formation of EverGreen Copyrights, a full-service music publishing company," said Katz, one of the world's leading entertainment attorneys. "We have already acquired a great set of assets, and we look forward to continuing our growth. We feel we will be a value-added partner for writers, independent publishers and consumers of music alike."
Katz is a co-founder, investor and non-executive partner of EverGreen Copyrights and the global chair of the international entertainment practice at the law firm of Greenberg Traurig, LLP, as well as co-managing shareholder of the firm's Atlanta office. The firm's client list includes some of the world's most popular entertainers (including George Strait, B.B. King, Sheryl Crow, Jimmy Buffett, Josh Groban, India.Arie, Kenny Chesney, Willie Nelson, James Brown, Big & Rich and Alan Jackson), music producers, music publishers, concert promoters and Fortune 500 companies such as Nokia, Microsoft, Coca- Cola and Clear Channel. Katz also serves as general counsel for The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS), the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (LARAS), and as special counsel to the Country Music Association (CMA).
EverGreen Copyrights will be based in Nashville, Tenn. with additional offices in New York. Perna and Schulhof will serve as co-CEOs of the Company. Perna will manage a creative team at EverGreen's Nashville office and will oversee copyright and royalty administration. Schulhof will manage EverGreen's New York office and oversee the company's global motion picture, TV and advertising department and creative affairs.
"Our administrative infrastructure is in place, and we have opened our offices in Nashville and New York," said Perna. "We have strong financial backing from our major equity investor, Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking, and are excited about this partnership."
Prior to co-founding EverGreen, Perna served as the COO of Hamstein Music Group for more than 15 years and built the company into one of the most successful independent music publishing companies in the world. He also currently serves as secretary/treasurer of the NARAS.
Prior to co-founding EverGreen, Schulhof was the vice president of Motion Picture Music for Miramax Films, overseeing motion picture music and soundtracks for Miramax and Dimension Films, where he served as executive producer on more than 100 soundtracks.
Schulhof said that EverGreen Copyrights now has a wide range of more than 15,000 copyrights spanning a diverse set of genres. "We believe we have assembled an extremely credible catalog of quality copyrights which are strong in synchronization and are favorites of film/TV music supervisors," said Schulhof. "We are actively pursuing additional acquisitions, joint ventures and partnerships."
The Company will be present at MIDEM this year.
