Neighbours, the legendary, long-running Australian soap that launched the careers of Kylie Minogue, Margot Robbie, Guy Pearce and many others, has tapped BMG as its exclusive music partner, Billboard can reveal.
Through the new arrangement via its sister company, the series producer Fremantle Media, BMG will provide repertoire from both its publishing and recordings rosters, and from its specialist BMG Production Music library.
The Neighbours brand has been “synonymous with Australian music export for a very long time,” says Heath Johns, managing director of BMG Australia. The music company’s executives across its recording and publishing activities will work closely with the Neighbours and Fremantle teams “to ensure that music becomes an even more critical part of the show’s success around the globe,” he adds.
With this deal, BMG succeeds Mushroom Music Publishing, which served as exclusive music supplier to the popular drama since its debut on TV screens more than 33 years ago.
BMG established a presence in Australia back in 2016 when the company acquired the iconic indie Alberts. Under this new arrangement, a string of domestic BMG Australia signings, from Winston Surfshirt to Running Touch, San Cisco, Montaigne, Felix Riebl, Washington and Eves Karydas, plus BMG international writers and artists George Ezra, Jesper Lindell, Graham Candy and Jack Savoretti, have had their music synced in Neighbours.
Neighbours has been a daytime staple in homes across the U.K. and Australia since it first broadcast back in March 1985, and is soon to clock up its 8,000th episode. The series provided a launch pad for the stellar pop career of ARIA Hall of Famer Kylie Minogue, whose most recent album Golden was released through BMG in April and topped the album charts in the U.K. and Australia.
Since late 2008, CEO Hartwig Masuch has built Bertelsmann Rights Management (BMG) into one of the largest music companies in the world (BMG claims to be the world’s fourth biggest music publisher), and today it represents over 2.5 million songs and recordings.
BMG’s catalogue “is one of the most dynamic and contemporary in the world and we are thrilled to partner with them,” notes Jason Herbison, executive producer of Neighbours, in a statement. “Music is a key part of our story telling. Ramsay Street has never looked or sounded better”.