NEW YORK (BMG
Music Publishing/ www.bmgmusicsearch.com) - 2005 was another banner year in BMG
Music Publishing's 18-year history. With another strong fiscal year and some of the year's biggest albums from superstars including Coldplay, Robbie Williams, Mariah Carey,
Peter Maffay and
Kelly Clarkson, the world's largest independent music publisher performed very well.
'There has not been a lot of positive news coming out of the music industry this year but BMG
Music Publishing can report some of its strongest revenues in the company's history,' said Nicholas Firth, Chairman and CEO, BMG
Music Publishing Worldwide. 'Our songwriters
Coldplay and
Robbie Williams had the biggest selling albums of their careers. We enjoyed growth across all of our business lines and we continued to plan for the future by expanding our foothold in the digital arena.'
BMG
Music Publishing enjoyed some of the biggest success stories of 2005.
Coldplay went straight to number one in 27 countries with their third album "X&Y" (EMI), selling nearly eight million copies worldwide. Another U.K. artist, superstar Robbie Williams, was number one in 18 countries including the U.K., Germany, France and Italy with his sixth solo album "
Intensive Care" (EMI). As a result of these and other success stories, BMG
Music Publishing was named U.K. Publisher of the Year by ASCAP/PRS for the second consecutive year.
In the U.S., BMG
Music Publishing's artists sold in the millions with double album sets from
Nelly and Zomba's R.
Kelly and, in Germany, the company had huge hits with number one releases from
Rammstein and
Peter Maffay. BMG's writers also contributed songs on some of the year's biggest albums including releases from
Mariah Carey (her BMG-penned hit 'We Belong Together' was number one in the U.S. for 14 weeks),
Black Eyed Peas,
Kelly Clarkson, Crazy Frog,
James Blunt, Il Divo, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, Amel Bent, Ana Carolina, Schnappi, Nena and
Christina Stuermer.
BMG
Music Publishing's success reaches far beyond pop music – the company is number one in Contemporary Christian/Gospel, number one in Production
Music and is a leader in Classical music. BMG is also strong in film/TV. Major brands licensing BMG-published music in 2005 included Pepsi, SAAB, Gap and Chevrolet. The company's music appeared in many of the year's biggest films including "King Kong," "The
Dukes of Hazzard," "Yours Mine and Ours," "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Fantastic Four" and "Vera Drake."
With each of its business lines experiencing steady growth, BMG
Music Publishing continued its diversification strategy in 2005 with the completion of many deals in key areas. Furthering its TV interests, BMG
Music Publishing acquired the music catalogue of BBC Worldwide and entered into a subpublishing agreement with children's programmer Entertainment Rights. On the creative front, the company added chart-topping hitmakers Per Magnusson (Britney Spears, Il Divo) and Stephen
Duffy (Robbie Williams) to its catalogue of over one million copyrights and renewed a long-term deal with
Eurythmics founder Dave Stewart.
BMG
Music Publishing thrives in large part due to its many revenue streams. Furthering its expansion in digital media, BMG
Music Publishing signed a deal with SONY BMG in 2005 to license its music to a wide range of digital music products and services in the United States and Canada. Products covered under the new deal include DualDisc; mobile music offerings such as master ring tones, and ring back tones; as well as digital video distribution, including the exhibition of music videos in linear programming and video-on-demand (VOD) services, and video downloads.
BMG
Music Publishing anticipates another strong year in 2006 with upcoming releases from some of the company's biggest global sellers including Maroon5,
Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Joss Stone, Yellowcard, Chingy, Rosenstolz, PUR,
Peter Maffay,
Alanis Morissette and Keane.
With wholly-owned offices in 31 countries around the world, BMG
Music Publishing (www.bmgmusicsearch.com) is the world's largest independent music publisher and the third largest music publisher among all music publishers. BMG
Music Publishing's songwriters including Coldplay, Justin Timberlake, Maroon5, Nelly, R. Kelly, Robbie Williams, Linkin Park,
Christina Aguilera, Limp Bizkit, Britney Spears, Chingy, Korn,
Joss Stone and Keane. BMG
Music Publishing is a unit of Bertelsmann AG, one of the world's leading media companies.
