Fatboy Slim’s multi-million selling catalogue of recordings has been snapped up by BMG as part of an acquisition of British indie dance labels Skint Records and Loaded Records.
Brighton-based Loaded was founded in 1990 by JC Reid and Tim Jeffery. Sister label Skint emerged in 1995 as Damian Harris joined the group – spearheading the ‘Big Beat’ sound with albums from Fatboy Slim (aka Norman Cook), Lo Fidelity Allstars and Bentley Rhythm Ace.
Skint and Loaded own rights to 2,500 tracks and have generated sales of more than 10 million albums and 15 million singles.
BMG’s acquisition includes worldwide rights excluding North America to five Fatboy Slim albums including modern classic You’ve Come A Long Way Baby, which achieved platinum status in the US and UK and featured the Number One single ‘Praise You’.
The Skint catalogue also includes hits from the likes of Xpress 2, whose ‘Lazy’ reached number two in the UK charts and Freemasons who scored six Top 20 hits including ‘Uninvited’.
BMG Chrysalis UK EVP Alexi Cory-Smith said, “Skint and Loaded are among the most influential and successful UK independent labels and we are delighted to add them to our growing international catalogue of recordings. There is significant potential in particular in the peerless Fatboy Slim catalogue and we will ensure it gets the attention it deserves.”
JC Reid says, “We’re really proud of the legacy of the Skint and Loaded labels, the last 24 years have been exhilarating and we’re now looking forward to new challenges”.
This latest acquisition adds to BMG’s growing position in the dance and EDM genres.
In January 2013 BMG acquired the master rights catalogue of legendary US label Strictly Rhythm including rights to Reel 2 Real’s ‘I Like To Move It’, Ultra Naté’s ‘Free,’ and Josh Wink’s ‘Higher State Of Consciousness’. In February 2014 BMG acquired Talpa Music, the Benelux-based music publisher with rights to songs by the likes of Afrojack, Fedde Le Grand, Giorgio Tuinfort, Laidback Luke, Mr. Probz and Nicky Romero.Music Business Worldwide
