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Australian bank buys into Sheryl Crow catalog
08/20/2009 10:00 AM, Reuters
A fund run by a group 50 percent owned by Commonwealth Bank of Australia has acquired the music publishing catalog of U.S. singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow, behind hits "All I Wanna Do" and "Everyday is a Winding Road." The deal by Ireland-based First State Media Group Ltd. (FSMG) is the latest foray by financial and media firms into music publishing rights, seen as a reliable source of revenue generated when songs are played on the radio, in films and elsewhere. Dutch pension fund ABP was estimated to have paid around $200 million for the Rodgers & Hammerstein catalog of songs in April while private equity firm Pegasus Capital paid an estimated $55 million for Spirit Music Group, a song publisher with rights to artists from Frank Sinatra to Madonna. The recorded music business, by contrast, has shrunk steadily in recent years due to internet piracy and the ascendancy of digital music. Through its deal with Crow, the terms of which were not disclosed, FSMG adds 153 songs released by the singer between 1993 and 2008 and also secures publishing rights to her next two albums. FSMG said it had made music copyright investments of over $150 million since it was launched in October last year. (Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Steve Addison)
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