THE BUSINESS OF MUSIC www.musicweek.com

SYNC

05

Warner/Chappell on winning the BBC Olympic theme contract with Elbow

ANALYSIS

14

We investigate how the UK industry has started 2011’s final quarter

4 8

7 7 6 1 3 6

7 7 6 6 6 9

9

02.12.11 £5.15

RESEARCH

16

The BPI’s Innovation Panel reveals some surprising results on music consumption

EXCLUSIVE: SONY/ATV HAS NO INTENTION OF DITCHING CLASSIC BRAND FOLLOWING TAKEOVER

EMI Publishing name going nowhere

“It’s too good a brand to make disappear” MARTY BANDIER, SONY/ATV

BUSINESS n BY PAUL WILLIAMS

Agreat dynasty of British music publishing is to remain – if only in name.

Sony/ATV chairman and CEO Marty Bandier has exclusively told Music Week he plans to retain the EMI Music Publishing name following his company’s $2.2 billion (£1.4bn) takeover of the division.

Sony/ATV led a consortium also including Mubadala Development Company, the Blackstone Group and David Geffen in acquiring the publishing giant, which Bandier led for 17 years before joining the rival major publisher as chairman and CEO in 2007.

“The EMI brand will be maintained,” Bandier told Music Week in his first press interview since he beat rival bidder BMG Rights to the deal.

“It’s too good a brand to make disappear. We have got… to figure out how it all will be structured, but clearly that brand will stand as will Sony/ATV’s.”

While the deal now awaits regulatory approval, Bandier said he was looking forward to being “reunited with the songs, the songwriters and the people of a company that I feel very responsible for helping build”.

In the interview he talked about how the winning consortium was put together, including bringing in his longtime friend David Geffen, and how Sony/ATV and the other players deliberately kept a low public profile as BMG appeared to the outside world to be the hot favourite to secure the deal.

“We had enough synergies that we felt our pricing was correct so we never once doubted we were going to get it and we never said a word to anyone – anyone – outside a handful of the circle of people who worked on the transaction of where we thought we were in terms of the deal,” he said.

Read Music Week’s full interview with Marty Bandier on pages 12 and 13.

Music Week Awards 2012: reborn this way

The Music Week Awards 2012 will take place on Thursday, April 26 at The Brewery in central London, with a number of changes designed to deliver deserving winners across fewer categories – and provide a night for the entire industry to celebrate its achievements.

The biggest categories remain in place, including the hugely renowned Strat award, but some have been trimmed, others merged. The overarching idea is to increase the prestige attached to winning – and get away from any sort of ‘school sports day’ approach.

THE EVENT INFO & CONTACTS Date Thursday, April 26 Venue The Brewery (right), Chiswell Street, London – EC1Y 4SD Nominations Lobbying starts now. Simply email your suggestion(s) to mwawards@intentmedia.co.uk. The nominations do not close until February 17 – so plenty of time. Voting Certain categories will be voted on through partnerships with appropriate trade bodies and specialist constituencies. The Independent Record Company and Sales Team of the Year, for example, will be decided on in association with Record Store Day and ERA, respectively. The majority of categories, however, will be judged by a panel of industry experts drawn from all quarters.

This will also make for a shorter, snappier ceremony and leave more time for networking. (Be honest, have you ever been to an awards do where you came away thinking, “If only there’d been just a few more categories…”?)

Another major policy shift sees the MWAs become free to

Tables and tickets Please contact Lucy.Wilkie@intentmedia.co.uk or call her on 020 7226 7246 Sponsorship opportunities Please contact Darrell.Carter@intentmedia.co.uk or call him on 020 7354 6000

enter – and simpler. To nominate yourself (a colleague, a client or even a rival), email mwawards@intentmedia.co.uk. No need for any presentations; we should know your business and if we don’t, we’ll make it our business to find out.

Five finalists will be announced in each category early next year. From there, selected awards will be voted on by specialist constituencies, but in the main the winners will be decided by an expanded panel of industry executives across all sectors.

These are the industry awards – and the aim is for them to be decided by as large and wide a cross-section of the industry as possible.

CATEGORIES

Live Music Venue Music & Brand Partnership Manager of the Year A&R Award Publisher of the Year Independent Publisher High Street Retail Brand Online Retail Brand Independent Retailer Non-Retail Digital Music Service Radio Station Radio Show TV Show Featuring Music Distribution Team Sales Team Catalogue Marketing Campaign Artist Marketing Campaign PR Campaign Independent Record Company Record Company The Strat