Spirit Music Group has acquired the production music divisions of Alan Ett Creative Group (AECG), including the Opus 1 Music Library, The Music Collective and Audio Horizons companies – and launched Spirit Production Music.
Spirit has tapped Alan Ett to lead the new division, which will be based in Los Angeles. Through the deal, Spirit will acquire over 150,000 production music tracks and will represent over 40 unique music libraries.
According to Spirit, the new division will ‘encompass high quality custom music services and library music and will cull tracks from Spirit Music Group’s top roster of contemporary talent and top names in in the Film/TV and Trailer world as well as new and emerging artists’.
Employees from both AECG and Spirit Music Group will be part of the new organization.
“This is a major step for Spirit,” said David Renzer, Chairman, Spirit Music Group.
“With Opus 1, The Music Collective and Audio Horizons, Alan Ett has built a vibrant ecosystem of companies focused on production music services able to provide high quality custom music/scoring, to quality vocal music as well as providing global administration services to various film/tv production companies.
“Joining forces with Alan to create Spirit Production Music gives us the optimum platform to enter the production music space – and one that we plan to aggressively build on. Our aim is to continue to expand with an impressive array of services to all music users – be they television production studios, film companies, trailer music users, digital services, corporate entities, or advertising agencies.”
Also being announced today is the appointment of AECG founder Alan Ett to lead the new initiative as CEO, Spirit Production Music under a long-term employment agreement.
Ett has composed and produced thousands of hours of music for television, video, film, commercials, and DVDs. In addition, he helped devise the first shock mounted 20MB hard disc, the A-O20, and served as a consultant with the Roland Corporation on the development of the first MIDI software, the MPS (Music Processing System).
A faculty member of Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music, Ett was co-founder of what has emerged as the Berklee Jazz Choir and Vocal program.
The many boards on which Ett serves include the Board of Directors for the non-profit Artist House Music, the Board of Trustees of the Society of Singers, and the Board of Trustees of The New England Conservatory of Music, as well as the Advisory Board for the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
Ett will be based in Los Angeles and will directly report to David Renzer.
“We’re not content to rest on the successes of our catalog. Being an independent publisher gives us a great advantage – we’re focused, we move swiftly, and we’re determined to make our presence felt in the marketplace.”
David Renzer, Spirit Music Group
“Alan’s dedication and vision in the production music space throughout his accomplished career is unparalleled,” said Jon Singer, COO/CFO, Spirit Music Group.
“He is the right leader to continue to serve this phenomenal group of writers and team of professionals. I’m very excited about the future of our production music division as it expands on our Spirit heritage of hard-driving, entrepreneurial, service-and-results-oriented roots.”
Said Alan Ett: “Spirit has become an unstoppable force in music publishing and I’m thrilled to be joining forces with David Renzer, Jon Singer and the Spirit Music Group team. The launch of Spirit Production Music brings together extraordinarily creative and dedicated companies and I’m honored to continue to serve the composers and staff of Opus1, The Music Collective, and Audio Horizons. We are determined to build upon the success of these entities and to make Spirit Production Music the premiere destination for music services.”
David Renzer has history with production music: among the initiatives launched under his leadership during his tenure as Worldwide Chairman and CEO, Universal Music Publishing Group was the acquisition of FirstCom, KillerTracks, APM, Bruton & Chappell, and BMG’s library assets along with the re-branding of its production music division, Universal Publishing Production Music.
The creation of Spirit Production Music marks the latest in a series of significant acquisitions and initiatives by Spirit.
In July of 2014, Spirit Music Group acquired Cal IV Entertainment, marking the company’s first presence on Nashville’s Music Row and bringing 25 #1 copyrights and top 10 singles into its repertoire.
In August of 2015, Spirit continued its aggressive global expansion by partnering with B-Unique (home of James Bay and John Newman) and establishing a UK presence with the opening of a new London-based office and a roster of UK writers such as Johnny McDaid and Johnny Coffer (Rag’n’Bone Man, Ed Sheeran, Robbie Williams).
In January 2016, Spirit continued to expand its footprint thought a deal with Frank Rogers, bringing another 40 #1 hits along with a roster of top artists and writers.
And In April 2016, Spirit established Spirit Music Latino in partnership with successful Latin music label and publisher Sunflower Entertainment Group.
“We’re not content to rest on the successes of our catalog. Being an independent publisher gives us a great advantage – we’re focused, we move swiftly, and we’re determined to make our presence felt in the marketplace,” added David Renzer. “We want to give our songwriters every opportunity to maximize their earnings and we’re working on big deals to ensure that happens.”
Spirit’s repertoire includes songs recorded by artists such as Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Santana, The Beach Boys, Barbra Streisand, Gladys Knight, Alice Cooper, Chicago, Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Eagles, Brad Paisley, Chaka Khan, Anita Baker, The Go-Go’s, Madonna, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Mariah Carey, Jay-Z, Ricky Martin, Keith Urban, Usher, Dido, Jewel, Jason Aldean and Mary J. Blige.
The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in London, Los Angeles, Nashville and the Netherlands.
Spirit is a portfolio company of Pegasus Capital Advisors, the New York-based private equity fund manager founded in 1996.
