Seeker Music, the new music rights and publishing company headed up by hit songwriter Evan Bogart, has acquired the catalogs of two pop songwriters.
The first of those deals is with John Ryan (40+ One Direction songs, Maroon 5, John Legend) and the second is with Jon Bellion (Miley Cyrus, Camila Cabello, Eminem).
Separately, Seeker has acquired select catalogs from two of its fellow songwriter-helmed music companies: Family Affair Productions (Julian, Damon and Peter Bunetta), and Kara DioGuardi’s Arthouse Entertainment.
The Family Affair deal includes their share of John Ryan’s publishing as well as their share of publishing rights from another hit songwriter, Teddy Geiger, while the Arthouse deal includes that company’s share of Jon Bellion’s publishing.
Led by CEO Evan Bogart, a chart-topping songwriter himself (Beyoncé’s Halo, among others), Seeker says that it only “signs catalogs of songs that Bogart and his team are incredibly passionate about, genuine personal fans of, and for which they see intrinsic creative opportunity”.
The Seeker/Family Affair deal also includes their share of Teddy Geiger’s publishing rights, adding songs including Shawn Mendes’ In My Blood, Stitches, There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back, Caroline Polachek’s So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings, etc) to Seeker’s catalog.
Other songwriters’ catalogs that Seeker has acquired include Mozella (Wrecking Ball), Ruth-Anne Cunningham (JoJo’s Too Little Too Late, Britney Spears’ Work Bitch) – who both also helped write some of One Direction’s biggest hits – and Sam Watters (Jordin Sparks’ Battlefield).
Jon Bellion has co-written hits for Eminem and Rihanna (The Monster), Maroon 5 (Memories), Camila Cabello (Shameless, Liar), Miley Cyrus (Midnight Sky, Prisoner), and seven of the tracks on Justin Bieber’s 2021 album Justice (incl. Holy).
He has released two albums under his own name, 2016’s The Human Condition, which reached the Top 5 on the Billboard 200 and included Top 20 hit All Time Low, and 2018’s Glory Sound Prep, which included collaborations with Grammy-winning producer Quincy Jones, Roc Marciano, RZA, B.Keyz and Travis Mendes.
Kara DioGuardi, who separately, alongside partner Stephen Finfer, brokered a deal to sell Arthouse’s share of Bellion’s catalog to Seeker (in addition to the deal between Seeker and Bellion himself), has known and collaborated with Bogart for almost two decades.
“Evan is a multi-hyphenate whose accomplishments as a Grammy-award winning songwriter, creator, and businessman make his company the perfect home for an Arthouse song acquisition.”
Kara DioGuardi
Dioguardi said: “Evan is a multi-hyphenate whose accomplishments as a Grammy-award-winning songwriter, creator, and businessman make his company the perfect home for an Arthouse song acquisition.
“We are fortunate to have found a partner in Evan, as his passion for songs and songwriters is unparalleled. We know he will treat these compositions as if he wrote them himself.”
“These songs, and songwriters, haven’t just soundtracked my life (and everyone else’s) this past decade, they’ve defined what modern-day pop music sounds like.”
Evan Bogart
Bogart added: “These songs, and songwriters, haven’t just soundtracked my life (and everyone else’s) this past decade, they’ve defined what modern-day pop music sounds like.
“Getting to work with such influential songs – ones that will continue to define what pop music will be for years to come – is an opportunity that we at Seeker couldn’t be more excited about.”Music Business Worldwide
