French music publisher is sold off

French music publisher is sold off

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norman lebrecht

November 24, 2016

One of the best-known names in French music, Le Chant du Monde, has been sold to the multinational Music Sales Group.

The disposal is part of the reorganisation of Harmonia Mundi after its sale last year to PIAS.

Le Chante du Monde holds copyrights in works by Honegger, Milhaud (pictured), Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Khachaturian as well as many living French composers.

roman-milhaud

Comments

  • Zorro says:

    This is tragic. Another publisher is eaten by the Music Sales monster, who is nothing else than a profit-seeking merchant ! I know a few living composers whose catalogs have been discarded since Music Sales bought off their publishers (Alphonse Leduc, for instance). They do nothing, just sit there and wait for the royalties to come in. Despicable.

    • Will Duffay says:

      On the plus side, perhaps the publications will be more sensibly priced and no longer printed on bad paper. (I’m making a generalisation about French publishers here – I don’t know about Le Chant du Monde in particular.) The Music Sales page does make mention of a handful of unknown composers, so perhaps your fears about new music will be unfounded.

      • Love Groove Music Publishing Company BMI USA says:

        Message from Love Groove Music Publishing Company BMI USA: Acquire
        copyright registration and process your songs through a performing rights organization, such as ASCAP, BOM SESAC
        and PTS. Then these issues wouldn’t come back to haunt you later.

        FOR LICENSING, CONTACT THE PUBLISHER BY EMAIL: lovegroovemusicbmi@gmail.com

    • Ruben Greenberg says:

      There were a number of small French publishers that were bought up by big companies like Boosey and Hawkes. Not only do these companies do nothing to promote the catalogues of these small companies they have bought up, if you want to buy a piece, they won’t make it available to you. Even if you’re willing to pay the (high) price, they won’t bother with you as it isn’t profitable for them. Thus, I can only agree with you. These big companies bury fine music in unmarked graves.

      • John Borstlap says:

        That is why many composers nowadays publish their own works. Often, middle-size big publishers get into trouble because of the large overhead, rising rents of offices, shrinking markets, and then they decide to be absorbed by a bigger brother. But small publishers with low overhead and being well-adapted to modern IT, can thrive. I hear via-via that quite some composers in Germany are unhappy because their (big) publishers do nothing at all in terms of promotion, and some of them (composers) withdraw their work and do it all by themselves. But it has to be added that, for the publishers, to promote contemporary music has become very difficult and very time-consuming, with only a very limited result, so it is not always possible to put salaried people on that track. When resources get scarce, contemporary music gets even more risky than it already was since Schoenberg.

        • Calvin Hodge Lake says:

          Message from Love Groove.Music Publishing Company BMI USA. Music publishing is a very complex business in the music industry, especially in the U.S. individuals, whether they publish their own songs or not in most cases sell ut their catalogs for economic reasons. Eight months ago, Michael Jackson’s Estate sold its catalog for US $750 Million, co-Publishing catalog of songs with Sony Publishing Company, also owned the Beatles’ songs catalog when Michael Jackson bought ATV in 1 985, when he earned $100 Million from the 1982 Thriller Album… There are many songwriters and composers who party and smoke up their money have sold off their copyrights to keep up their lifestyles. .The founder of Love Groove.Music Publishing Company BMI USA, who was inspired by Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff of Philadelphia International Records would like to own the songs catalog Publishing of songs performed by the O’jays, Billy Paul, Teddy Pendergrass to name a few. Mighty Three Music Publishing Company BMI 30 years ago was bought for U.S. $18 Million. Money talks. The money to be made in music publishing is a very valuable asset in the long run that reaps huge profits.

  • Calvin Hodge Lake says:

    Message from Love Groove.Music Publishing Company BMI USA. Music publishing is a very complex business.

    Many independent publishers have over the. years become sell-outs because of economic reasons or do not wish to continue administering catalogs of songs.

    Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records sold Jobete Music Publishing Company BMI or ASCAP USA for over US $300 Million to EMI. Michael Jackson’s estate eight months ago sold 50% co-publishing stake to Sony for US $750 Million Dollars. So some of the comments may not be accurate statements in regard to entities that decide to sell out their music publishing catalog. Do you have a hit catalog of songs for sale?

    Love Groove.Music Publishing Company BMI USA would like to purchase Mighty Thee Music Publishing Company BMI catalog of songs that were written by Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff of Philadelphia International Records, who inspired the founder of Love Groove.Music Publishing Company BMI USA to pursue sogwriting/publishing in 1973 before arriving in the U.S. in 1979… Money Talks.

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