One of the fastest-growing entities in the modern music business, the highly acquisitive Concord Bicycle Music, has scored another coup.
Concord, backed by Wood Creek – an investment manager with over $2.5 billion in committed capital – merged with independent publisher The Bicycle Music Company in April last year.
At the same time, it raised $100m to help expand its market presence.
Since then, it’s gone on a bit of a spending spree, snapping up the likes of Fearless Records and Wind-Up Records and signing a worldwide JV with US indie Razor & Tie.
Just last month, Concord licensed the global recorded rights to R.E.M’s classic ‘Warner Bros’ catalogue – a deal executed under the nose of the major label which helped make the band’s name.
Now Bicycle Music has entered into exclusive worldwide publishing agreements with the Estate of George Harrison, which MBW believes was previously administered by Wixen.
The deal includes the Harrisongs catalogue, as well as the works of Dhani Harrison.
The agreement covers George Harrison’s songs from the Beatles’ “White Album” (1968, featuring “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”), “Abbey Road” (1969, featuring “Something” and “Here Comes The Sun”) and “Let It Be” (1970), as well as solo albums such as “All Things Must Pass” (1970, featuring “My Sweet Lord” and “What Is Life”) and “Living In The Material World” (1973, featuring “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)”).
It also includes later albums such as “Dark Horse” (1974), “Extra Texture” (1975), “Thirty Three & 1/3” (1976), “George Harrison” (1979), “Somewhere In England” (1981, featuring “All Those Years Ago”), “Gone Troppo” (1982), “Cloud Nine” (1987) ,“Brainwashed” (2002, featuring “Stuck Inside A Cloud”) and Harrison’s contributions to The Traveling Wilburys “Volume 1” (1988, featuring “End of the Line” and “Handle With Care”) and “Volume 3” (1990).
Harrison’s solo material was finally licensed for use on streaming services such as Spotify in October last year – two months before The Beatles catalogue also arrived on these platforms.
“We are happy to embark on this new partnership with bicycle music and we are excited that bicycle is enthusiastic about such a wide variety of music.”
Olivia Harrison
“Dhani and I are happy to embark on this new partnership with Bicycle Music,” says Olivia Harrison, “and we are excited that Bicycle is truly enthusiastic about such a wide variety of music.”
“I could never have imagined growing up on the songs of George Harrison that I would someday have the privilege and responsibility of caring for these enduring works,” said Bicycle CEO, Jake Wisely. “These songs are a music publisher’s dream.”
Bicycle said the Harrison estate had selected it to handle the Beatle’s songs ‘to bring new creative opportunity and its diligent administration to the catalogue’.
The arrangement puts Bicycle SVP of Creative, A&R and Sync, Michael Pizzuto, at the helm of a cherished legacy of songs.
“It’s an honor of the highest order to be working creatively with a musical legacy so profoundly influential and intimate to me,” said Pizzuto.
“Beyond George’s most loved and well known hits there is a deep well of magic in the catalog, songs that so vividly reflect the light and shade of George’s mystical spirit and pop sensibility.
“It’s also exciting to be working with Dhani on his eclectic body of work as well as future projects.”
George Harrison scored music for the film Wonderwall (1968), and Dhani now carries that torch, having scored the 2012 film Beautiful Creatures with his band thenewno2.
In addition to thenewno2, Dhani has recorded as Fistful of Mercy with Ben Harper and Joseph Arthur, releasing the 2010 album, “As I Call You Down” on Dhani’s own Hot Records Ltd.
His further film and television scores include The Divide, Seattle Road and Learning To Drive.
At over 400 songs, Bicycle’s oversight also includes certain songs of Ravi Shankar and Dark Horse Records artists Attitudes, Splinter and the Stairsteps, as well as the scores to various films produced by Harrison.Music Business Worldwide
