River House Artists and Sony Music Publishing have partnered to sign Nashville favorite Neil Medley to a worldwide co-publishing agreement. Known for writing hits like “Tailgate Blues” by Luke Bryan, “Wasn’t That Drunk” by Josh Abbott Band, featuring Carly Pearce, “Made For You” by Jake Owen and more, the country hitmaker’s work has topped the Billboard Country Airplay and Mediabase chart as well as the top 10 on Billboard’s Canada Country airplay chart.
Though his previous work is not included in the agreement, the duel companies will partner with Medley on all works made moving forward during the term of the deal. According to the songwriter, he is “confident” the duel companies will be great partners to him. “River House Artists is one of the most respected publishing and artist development companies in Nashville. Their track record, combined with Sony’s horsepower and industry-wide reach, is an ideal situation,” Medley says.
Zebb Luster, vice president and general manager of River House Artists adds “We are thankful he has trusted us to help him continue to grow as a writer, and we look forward to landing many more hits together.”
Sony Music Publishing has been focused on increasing royalty transparency for their signed talent over the last few years, but on Sept. 27, the company unveiled new developments to its system. SMP’s SCORE, a royalty portal dedicated to providing real-time earnings updates for signees, is adding new features for the company’s newly rebranded Visual + Media Rights division (FKA Broadcast & Media Rights).
With the new updates, this division, which represents film and television studio clients, will now have multiple avenues to revenue data, including breaking it down by production, episode, song, income type, and territory. Clients will also have enhanced access to global work registration, alerts to highlight any missing details for productions or songs.
SCORE will also allow its users to input more production details.
Universal Music Publishing Germany and Electric Feel Europe have teamed up to sign Berlin-based songwriter and producer, Sonus030, to a worldwide publishing deal.
One of the first joint signees for the two companies, Sonu Lal (better known as Sonus030) has produced and written for some of Germany’s hottest rap talents, like Bonez MC, Capital Bra, and more. He also has featured on Bausa’s 100% album and released a collaborative album with UFO361 last year.
According to managing director of UMPG Germany / svp of UMPG Austria & Switzerland, Thomas Vidovic, Sonus030 is “one of today’s most important producers and an absolute exceptional international talent.”
CTM Outlander, an independent entertainment firm headquartered in the Netherlands, has acquired the boutique New York-based publisher one77 Music. With over 2,000 songs in its catalog, one77’s repertoire includes works performed by Demi Lovato, Madonna, Martina McBride, John Legend, Carrie Underwood, Josh Groban and more.
Notable writers included in the one77 catalog are Toby Gad and production duo Mike & Keys, and Rodrick Doss.
Along with news of the one77 deal, CTM Outlander has also acquired the total interests in Swedish songwriter, Markus “Mack” Sepehrmanesh. “We are very happy with this new music publishing catalog addition [of one77 music] and a further involvement in Mack’s successful career,” says CTM Outlander CEO André de Raaff.