Hartwig Masuch
CEO
BMG
Twitter: @bmgrm
POWER MOVE: Adding label assets to a publishing portfolio of around 1 million copyrights.
THE RUNDOWN:A music industry veteran who has virtually seen and done it all, Hartwig Masuch seems to be a man in a hurry, even today. That’s because he’s the executive tasked with restoring German media giant Bertelsmann (along with private equity partner KKR) back to the top of the music business through his handling of BMG.
“The strategic objective of our shareholders is to close in on the three majors,” he says. During the last two years, BMG has focused mainly on publishing assets, picking up small to midsize song catalogs, including Bug Music and Cherry Lane, and most recently the Rosetta catalog divested by Sony/ATV. Masuch says his publishing division now has around 1 million copyrights.
Lately, BMG has also started acquiring recording assets, including Mute Records (home to Depeche Mode), although just hours after the Power 100 issue of Billboard was printed, his tag-team bid with Sony to acquire the Parlophone Label Group from Universal was topped by Warner Music.
BMG’s interest in label assets isn’t contrary to its original mission, when it relaunched in 2008 with KKR. “It was always the plan from day one to service clients out of one house for all types of rights, be it masters or song publishing.”
