NEW YORK, NY (March 13, 2017) – Spirit Music Group has formed a new division, Spirit Production Music, and has acquired the production music divisions of Alan Ett Creative Group (AECG), including the prestigious Opus 1 Music Library, The Music Collective and Audio Horizons companies, it was announced today by David Renzer, Chairman, Spirit Music Group and Jon Singer, COO/CFO, Spirit Music Group. Spirit has tapped Alan Ett to lead the new division, which will be based in Los Angeles.
Through the deal, Spirit will acquire over 150,000 high quality production music tracks and will represent over 40 unique music libraries. The newly formed Spirit Production Music division will encompass high quality custom music services and library music and will cull tracks from Spirit Music Group’s top roster of contemporary talent and top names in in the Film/TV and Trailer world as well as new and emerging artists. Employees from both AECG and Spirit Music Group will be part of the new organization going forward.
“This is a major step for Spirit,” said David Renzer. “With Opus 1, The Music Collective and Audio Horizons, Alan Ett has built a vibrant ecosystem of companies focused on production music services able to provide high quality custom music/scoring, to quality vocal music as well as providing global administration services to various film/tv production companies. Joining forces with Alan to create Spirit Production Music gives us the optimum platform to enter the production music space – and one that we plan to aggressively build on. Our aim is to continue to expand with an impressive array of services to all music users — be they television production studios, film companies, trailer music users, digital services, corporate entities, or advertising agencies.”
Also being announced today is the appointment of AECG founder Alan Ett to lead the new initiative as CEO, Spirit Production Music under a long-term employment agreement. With a prolific career encompassing creative, production and technical skill, Ett’s entrepreneurship and involvement in the music industry is far-reaching. He lived in Europe for four years as a concert artist before moving to Los Angeles to begin writing for TV and film. He has composed and produced thousands of hours of music for television, video, film, commercials, and DVDs. In addition, he helped devise the first shock mounted 20MB hard disc, the A-O20, and served as a consultant with the Roland Corporation on the development of the first MIDI software, the MPS or Music Processing System. He completed his undergraduate work in music at The University of Miami and the Master of Music at New England Conservatory. A faculty member of Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music, Ett was co-founder of what has emerged as the internationally significant Berklee Jazz Choir and Vocal program. The many boards on which Ett serves include the Board of Directors for the non-profit Artist House Music, the Board of Trustees of the Society of Singers, and the Board of Trustees of The New England Conservatory of Music, as well as the Advisory Board for the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. Ett is a member of BMI, ATAS and NARAS. Ett will be based in Los Angeles and will directly report to David Renzer.
“Alan’s dedication and vision in the production music space throughout his accomplished career is unparalleled,” said Jon Singer, COO/CFO, Spirit Music Group. “He is the right leader to continue to serve this phenomenal group of writers and team of professionals. I’m very excited about the future of our production music division as it expands on our Spirit heritage of hard-driving, entrepreneurial, service-and-results-oriented roots.”
“Spirit has become an unstoppable force in music publishing and I’m thrilled to be joining forces with David Renzer, Jon Singer and the Spirit Music Group team,” said Alan Ett. “The launch of Spirit Production Music brings together extraordinarily creative and dedicated companies and I’m honored to continue to serve the composers and staff of Opus1, The Music Collective, and Audio Horizons. We are determined to build upon the success of these entities and to make Spirit Production Music the premiere destination for music services.”
The deal marks Spirit’s first foray into the production music space, although its executive leadership has already overseen some of the top production music entities in the world. Among the initiatives launched under Renzer’s leadership during his tenure as Worldwide Chairman and CEO, Universal Music Publishing Group was the acquisition of FirstCom, KillerTracks, APM, Bruton & Chappell, and BMG’s library assets along with the re-branding of its production music division, Universal Publishing Production Music which grew into one the global leaders in production music encompassing such libraries as Atmosphere, Bruton, Chappell, Chronic Trax, EVO, FirstCom, KillerTracks, MasterSource, Network Music, OneMusic, Galerie, Koka Media, Match Music, UBM, RCAL, and Vitamin A.
The creation of Spirit Production Music marks the latest in a series of significant acquisitions and initiatives by this independent music publishing operation. In July of 2014, Spirit Music Group acquired Cal IV Entertainment, marking the company’s first presence on Nashville’s Music Row and bringing top writers and 25 #1 copyrights and top 10 singles into the fold. In August of 2015, Spirit continued its aggressive global expansion by partnering with B-Unique (home of James Bay and John Newman) and establishing a UK presence with the opening of a new London-based office and an impressive roster of UK writers such as Johnny McDaid and Johnny Coffer (Rag’n’Bone Man, Ed Sheeran, Robbie Williams). January 2016, Spirit continued to expand its footprint thought a deal with Frank Rogers, bringing another 40 #1 hits along with a roster of top artists and writers. In April 2016, Spirit established Spirit Music Latino in partnership with successful Latin music label and publisher Sunflower Entertainment Group.
“We’re not content to rest on the successes of our catalog. Being an independent publisher gives us a great advantage – we’re focused, we move swiftly, and we’re determined to make our presence felt in the marketplace,” added David Renzer. “We want to give our songwriters every opportunity to maximize their earnings and we’re working on big deals to ensure that happens.”
As the premier global independent music publisher, Spirit Music Group’s roster features some of the most legendary names in popular music. Its repertoire includes songs recorded by artists such as Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Santana, The Beach Boys, Barbra Streisand, Gladys Knight, Alice Cooper, Chicago, Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Eagles, Brad Paisley, Chaka Khan, Anita Baker, The Go-Go’s, Madonna, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Mariah Carey, Jay-Z, Ricky Martin, Keith Urban, Usher, Dido, Jewel, Jason Aldean and Mary J. Blige; and the breakthrough work of newer artists such as James Bay, John Newman, Chris Stapleton, and Sam Hunt, to name a few. The company also publishes the complete catalogs of such icons as Pete Townshend, Marc Bolan, Boz Scaggs, The Marshall Tucker Band, Toto, Billy Squier, Graham Nash, Joe Walsh, Charles Mingus, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Henry Mancini, and T.Bone Burnett.
ABOUT SPIRIT MUSIC:
Spirit Music Group, founded in 1995, is one of the world’s leading independent music publishers, owning and/or managing more than 75,000 songs spanning seven decades and every musical genre. The company’s repertoire reflects some of the most beloved songs and songwriters of all time, including hits by Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Elvis Presley, Dion, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Santana, The Beach Boys, Barbra Streisand, Gladys Knight, Alice Cooper, Pure Prairie League, Chicago, Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Eagles, Brad Paisley, Chaka Khan, Anita Baker, The Go-Go’s, Madonna, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Mariah Carey, Jay-Z, Ricky Martin, Keith Urban, Usher, Dido, Jewel, Jason Aldean and Mary J. Blige; the complete catalogs of such iconic songwriters and writer/artists as Pete Townshend, Marc Bolan, Boz Scaggs, The Marshall Tucker Band, Toto, Billy Squier, Graham Nash, Joe Walsh, Charles Mingus, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Henry Mancini, T.Bone Burnett, Rick Nowels, C&C Music Factory; and the breakthrough work of such newer artists as James Bay, John Newman, Chris Stapleton, Sam Hunt, Scissor Sisters, Matt & Kim, Kodaline, Zooey Deschanel, Eric Paslay, and Big Data.
Spirit has earned a strong reputation as an aggressive royalty administrator and a peerless promoter of its songs into film, television and advertising productions as well as a wide range of new media. In recent years, Spirit has helped transform the publisher’s role beyond royalty collection and song promotion to proactive career and legacy partnership by creating and executing marketing plans to revitalize its clients’ songs and expand their brands.
Spirit Music Group is headquartered in New York with offices in London, Los Angeles, Nashville and the Netherlands. Spirit is a portfolio company of Pegasus Capital Advisors, the New York-based private equity fund manager that has been providing creative capital and strategic solutions to growth companies since 1996.
ABOUT AECG:
Founded in 1991 by Alan Ett, the AECG group of companies is focused on providing its clients with musical services including library music, custom scoring, music supervision, cue sheet preparation, and more.
Opus 1 is a premier international production music entity representing over 40 unique music libraries from around the world (including the prestigious Audio Horizons catalog from the United States, Musique & Music from France, FM Records from Italy, YB Music from Brazil, Emergency Production Music from the UK, 101 Production Music from Australia and many more) and 28 international catalogs in the US and a worldwide network for licensing. Its music ranges from fully orchestrated classical masterpieces to authentic international ethnic music to the most cutting-edge contemporary beats and sounds. Music from the Opus 1 libraries can be heard in a multitude of productions ranging from recent theatrical releases (Miracles From Heaven, Our Brand Is Crisis, Nightcrawler), to major network television programs (Silicon Valley, Criminal Minds, CSI, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Big Bang Theory) and national advertising campaigns (General Motors, American Express, Domino’s).
The Music Collective is a full service music production company, providing a full suite of music services, including custom scoring, music supervision, music editing, music mastering, as well as licensing and clearance to the entire production community. The company has strong international relationships, resulting in global reach and representation for the music of its composers.
Audio Horizons is a music royalty administration company providing sub-publishing services to multiple foreign catalogs and specializes in representing television and film related catalogs and the collection of performance royalties for broadcasts worldwide for composers and publishers.
Media contact:
Heather Glenn
Black Market Creative
310.765.1927 x707
