New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Sony/ATV
Music Publishing has broadened its partnership with singer-songwriter
Lenka to jointly release her brand new studio album.
The new collaboration represents another phase in a near decade-long relationship between the company and
Lenka with Sony/ATV now not only undertaking its traditional role as her music publisher, but handling her master rights as well. The result is Lenka's fourth studio album The Bright Side, which will be released on June 16 via her own record label Skipalong Records and Sony/ATV's label Hickory Records. It will be distributed by Sony Music's RED Distribution network.
The decision to allow
Lenka and Sony/ATV to work in this new way is the logical next step in a union that since she first signed to the music publisher in 2007 has led to her becoming one of the synch world's most in-demand songwriters and artists. Amazon Kindle, Coca-Cola and Microsoft are among a number of top companies and brands to have utilized her music in ad campaigns via deals struck by Sony/ATV, while several songs on the new album were originally conceived and recorded under Sony/ATV's watch specifically for synchronization purposes. These include the song "Unique", which has already been used in a Dr. Pepper commercial, "We Are Powerful", used by JC Penney, and "It Gets Better", which featured in a Wendy's campaign.
Sony/ATV Co-President, U.S.
Danny Strick said: "Sony/ATV is excited to be taking this innovative approach with
Lenka whose music has long been hugely popular with brands, TV shows and filmmakers. The new partnership perfectly illustrates how the company's A&R and synch teams can effectively combine to create new opportunities for our songwriters."
Sony/ATV Vice President, Commercial
Music John Campanelli, who provided strong creative input into the project, said: "This is a really special partnership Sony/ATV has struck with Lenka. Our synch department has had such incredible success with her in the past and is receiving widespread interest for this new album."
Lenka said: "One of my favorite things as an artist is when my music is given a new life in a screen project. So it's been really exciting to work with Sony/ATV over the years giving my songs life again and again. I also love to write to a brief and get inside the head of a character or the theme of a show, so a lot of my new material has been born out of that process. Now to have my wonderful publishers step in and help release the new album, it just feels like a really good partnership and a natural fit."
Lenka's manager Ron Shapiro said: "Lenka has had a stunningly successful global relationship with Sony/ATV for years as her publisher and recently enjoyed an expansion of that partnership with a unique master deal for synch licensing. Once she got control of her global recording career, we could think of no better support than to have Sony/ATV once again widen the scope of their involvement in her business, and they enthusiastically re-activated Hickory Records to release The Bright Side. In today's music world, it is immensely gratifying to work with a publisher in such a multi-dimensional way."
Born in New South Wales, Australia,
Lenka initially achieved popularity on Australian TV on a variety of programs, including the ABC-TV drama series GP and as host of Cheez TV. She served as the lead singer of Australian rock band Decoder Ring for two albums before relocating to the U.S. to launch a solo career that began in 2008 with the international hit "
The Show", which she co-wrote, and debut album Lenka. She went on to score a series of other self-penned hits around the world, including "
Trouble Is A Friend" and "
Everything At Once", while issuing a further two albums, Two (2011) and
Shadows (2013).
Her music has particularly resonated in the synch world with songs by her having been used in campaigns by brand such as Coca-Cola ("Everything's OK", Don't Let Me Fall", "
The Show"), Crate & Barrel ("
The Show") and Microsoft Windows 8 ("
Everything At Once") as well as in TV shows including Grey's Anatomy ("
Everything At Once", "Live Like You're Dying" and "
Trouble") and Ugly Betty ("The Show) plus movies like Moneyball ("
The Show").
Lenka's new album follows a period in which she has been writing music specifically for film and TV, resulting in some of the songs on The Bright Side having unusually already been used in campaigns prior to winning a commercial release. The album's first single "
Blue Skies" was produced by Damian Taylor (Arcade Fire, Bjork, The Killers), while she has also worked on this project with songwriter-producers Chris Braide (Lana Del Rey, Sia), Tim "
One Love" Sommers (B.o.B., Eminem) and Dan Romer (Ingrid Michaelson, Greg Laswell).
The release of the album will also mark the return of Hickory Records, which was founded in 1954 by legendary Nashville music publisher Acuff-Rose and had success with acts including Donovan, Don Gibson and The Newbeats prior to its closure in 1979. Its catalog was acquired by Sony/ATV in 2002 as part of the publisher's purchase of Acuff-Rose and it enjoyed a revival with American Idol finalist
Elliott Yamin whose self-titled 2007 album reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart in the States and was certified gold status for 500,000 U.S. sales by the RIAA. It also signed second season American Idol winner
Ruben Studdard.
