Copyrights belonging to composers for film and TV are big business.
Just this week, UK-born Cutting Edge Media Music (CEMM) secured $100 million in financing from a group of banks led by Pinnacle Financial Partners to boost its cash reserves to invest in music for film, television, video games and more.
That new $100 million raise came after a year during which the company invested $125 million, raised in an initial round, to acquire film and TV music rights.
Today (February 16), another company operating in this space, Multimedia Music, has announced that it has closed an eight-figure deal to acquire the music publishing and music master rights from the entire film music library of STX Entertainment.
Included in the deal is the music for film titles such as Bad Moms, The Gentlemen, Den of Thieves, Greenland and The Foreigner and music from composers including Hans Zimmer, Cliff Martinez, Marcelo Zarvos, Hauschke, Chris Lennertz, Andrew Lockington, Clinton Shorter and Nicholas Britell.
The deal does not include rights in any of STX’s current or future films.
Led by industry veterans Phil Hope and James Gibb, Multimedia Music acquires and manages copyrights and income streams from the music featured in film and TV productions.
The company launched in early 2022 with an initial $100 million in funding from Metropolitan Partners Group, Pinnacle Bank and Regions Bank to acquire catalogues of film and TV music rights from production companies, composers and other rights holders.
Since launching just 14 months ago, Multimedia Music says it has deployed over $120 million on acquisitions.
Some of those acquisitions have included:
- The catalog of film composer James Newton Howard (including the film and TV music scores for the Hunger Games trilogy, The Dark Knight, Maleficent, Snow White and the Huntsman, King Kong, I Am Legend, Runaway Bride, Emily in Paris, Pretty Woman, etc.)
- The master and publishing rights to a 48 title film score catalog from Atlantic Screen Music in a “mid-seven figure” transaction that included rights to the scores from films such as 2 Guns, Lone Survivor, The Host, Dredd, Escape Plan, and Broken City, which have grossed hundreds of millions of dollars at the global box office.
Multimedia Music has also acquired music rights and income streams from some of the composers Tyler Bates, David Buckley and Michael Corcoran.
Included in those works from Tyler Bates are the Guardians of the Galaxy and John Wick franchises, Deadpool 2, The Spy Who Dumped Me,, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and TV shows including Californication and The Punisher.
The David Buckley catalog purchase covers all his past works including Nobody, Greenland, Papillon, Jason Bourne, The Nice Guys, The Town, Parker, The Forbidden Kingdom and TV hits The Good Wife and The Lincoln Lawyer, amongst many other titles.
Michael Corcoran is a prominent composer of music for teen and children’s programming and the deal with MMM covers productions featuring his music including iCarly, Victorious, Henry Danger and Liv and Maddie, which MultiMedia Music says are “all shows that play consistently around the world”.
“We are thrilled to have secured this library of music created by some of the industry’s leading composers.”
James Gibb, Multimedia Music
Multimedia Music Partner James Gibb, said: “We are thrilled to have secured this library of music created by some of the industry’s leading composers.
“Over the past 10 years STX have repeatedly produced and released high quality, commercial feature films. Thanks to Jason Markey and the STX team who were instrumental in getting this deal over the line in a very short timeframe.”
Noah Fogelson, CEO of STX Entertainment, added: “The team at Multimedia Music have secured the publishing rights to some of the industry’s leading artists and composers and we know this library will add more value to their growing and impressive portfolio of publishing and master rights.”
Music Business Worldwide