TOKYO — Japanese media conglomerate Fujisankei Communications Group is acquiring the foreign catalog of Tokyo-based music publisher Shinko Music.
Fujisankei affiliates Fuji Television and music publisher Fujipacific Music are establishing a joint venture, Fuji Music Partners, to buy the 70,000-song catalog. Shinko is the Asian (excluding China) subpublisher for many foreign standards, including “Over the Rainbow,” “Moonlight Serenade” and “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.”
The amount Fuji Music Partners will pay for the Shinko catalog was not disclosed; however, Fujisankei says it is investing a total of ¥6.35 billion ($59.3 million) in the new company.
“The catalog we have acquired is a wonderful library including hits and standards in American pop music from an 80-year period spanning the 1910s to the ’80s,” says Fujipacific Music president Ichiro Asatsuma in a statement. “It is nothing short of miraculous that we were able to add this library to our catalog.”
Shinko chairman Shoichi Kusano comments, “We believe that the transfer of our foreign music catalog to a mass-media organization like Fuji TV and Fujipacific, where it will be used multi-laterally and multi-directionally, is something that is required in this era.”
