Dave Stewart signs deal with BMG
Dave Stewart has signed a deal with BMG forging an agreement that will embrace not just music, but book and TV content and a string of other projects.The wide-ranging deal has been made possible by BMG being owned by global media business Bertelsmann. It will also utilise “Stewart’s skills as a creative entrepreneur to generate new synergies between BMG’s sister companies,” according to the firm.
Under the agreement, BMG will exclusively administer music publishing rights to Dave Stewart’s solo work including his work with fellow BMG writer Mick Jagger (Old Habits Die Hard on the Alfie soundtrack), Superheavy (Miracle Worker), No Doubt (Underneath It All), Eurythmics (I’ve Got a Life), Stevie Nicks (In Your Dreams) and Joss Stone (Karma), as well as his future work.
The deal includes songs he has co-written with artists on his own label such as Thomas Lindsey, The Lake Poets, Hollie Stephenson and Shel, and the latest single by his daughter Kaya Stewart In Love With A Boy.
BMG will also administer rights in all contestants’ songs from the forthcoming prime-time NBC songwriting talent show Songland, created by Dave Stewart and executive-produced by Stewart and The Voice producer Audrey Morrissey.
Meanwhile, New American Library, a division of sister Bertelsmann company Penguin Random House, will publish Dave Stewart’s autobiography next year.
Stewart will also record a live concert programme for Berlin Live, BMG’s collaboration with pan-European cultural television broadcaster Arte.
Creative social network Talenthouse, in which Dave Stewart is the creative director and investor, is working with BMG to create new remixes of tracks from the seminal Trojan Records reggae catalogue as well as working on a documentary for label.
Stewart will also act as a brand ambassador for BMG, responsible for driving new business opportunities both to BMG and its sister Bertelsmann companies.
BMG EVP international writer services Thomas Scherer said: “Dave Stewart is not only one of the supreme writers, artists and producers of the past three decades, he is a polymath active right across the entertainment industry with a unique ability to tap into the zeitgeist and to communicate with fellow artists. We are delighted he has decided to partner with BMG.”
Dave Stewart said: “BMG takes music publishing on to a new level. It’s creative, transparent and fair and no other music company can offer a multi-platform deal like this. Many companies talk about synergy, but few have pulled it off. BMG is a new company with a new approach, but at heart it’s a music company which really understands artists.”
BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch said: “Dave Stewart’s enormous range of accomplishments is a reminder that in our connected world, music no longer exists in its own self-contained bubble. With the backing of Bertelsmann, BMG is committed to helping artists and writers capitalize on the vast number of opportunities now open to them.”
Source: Music Week
