Int’l Power Players: BMG Rights Management

Since launching the company in 2008, Hartwig Masuch has navigated BMG Rights Management’s growth to become the third-largest music publisher in the world, behind Sony/ATV, which also manages the EMI Music Publishing catalog, and Universal Music Publishing Group. But from the get-go, the company also included recorded music in its strategic plans and 2013 was the year the company started busting moves to establish itself as a force to be reckoned with on that side as well. Fred Casimir was recently appointed to head that effort. ”Our biggest challenge is to extend our market position and to replicate the success we have had in publishing,” Casimir says. BMG Artist Services, thanks to the acquisition of the Sanctuary and Mute catalogs, now claims a recorded-music catalog of 200,000 songs. He says the company issued 30 releases in 2013, including Backstreet Boys’ In a World Like This and The Jazz Age by Bryan Ferry, whose song “Love Is the Drug” was picked up for the soundtrack to “The Great Gatsby.” Moreover, Casimir says the company will release more than 50 albums in 2014. —Ed Christman

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