Concord (entertainment company)
Concord is an American independent creative rights company that develops, manages and acquires sound recordings, music publishing rights, theatrical performance rights and narrative content. It is a private company, funded by long-term institutional capital and members of Concord's management team.
Company type
Entertainment
Concord Records
(1973–2004)
Concord Music Group
(2004–2015, 2015–2019 as subsidiary of Concord Bicycle Music)
Bicycle Music Company
(1974–2015)
Concord Bicycle Music
(2015–2019)
2015
700
Concord Label Group
Concord Music Publishing
Concord Theatricals
Concord Originals
Concord holds rights to more than 1.2 million[2][3] songs, composed works, plays, musicals and active recordings.[4][5]
Headquartered in Nashville with additional offices in Los Angeles, New York City, London, Berlin, Melbourne and Miami and staff in Auckland, Sydney, Toronto and Tokyo, Concord's repertoire is licensed in virtually every country and territory worldwide.[6]
History[edit]
Auto dealer and jazz enthusiast Carl Jefferson started the Concord Jazz record label in 1973. He sold the label to Alliance Entertainment in 1994.[7] In 1999, film/television producer Norman Lear and entertainment executive Hal Gaba purchased the company (Concord Jazz and Concord Records) after Alliance filed for bankruptcy.[8]
In 2004, Concord Records acquired Fantasy, Inc., owner of Prestige, Fantasy, Milestone, Riverside, Specialty, and the post-Atlantic Stax catalog. Concord then combined with Fantasy to form the Concord Music Group.[9] Several label acquisitions and partnerships followed including Telarc (2005)[8] and Rounder Records (2010).[10]
In 2013, Concord Music Group was acquired by an investor group led by Wood Creek Capital Management and Sound Investors, LLC.[11] Many of the same investors also owned a majority interest in independent music publisher Bicycle Music Company.[12]
Concord Music Group merged with Bicycle Music in 2015 to become Concord Bicycle Music.[13] As Concord Bicycle Music, the company acquired Razor & Tie, Vanguard Records, Sugar Hill Records, Wind-up Records, Fearless Records,[14][15] and Musart Music Group including its Edimusa publishing arm (2016).[16]
In 2017, Concord Bicycle Music purchased European-based publishing company Imagem Music Group.[17] After acquiring two theatrical licensing companies, Tams-Witmark Music Library and Samuel French in 2018, the company formed its own Theatricals division.[18]
The company changed its name to Concord in early 2019.[19][20]
On April 26, 2021, Concord acquired Downtown's copyrights consisting of 145,000 owned and co-published copyrights for $300 million.[21]
In late 2021, incoming interest prompted Concord majority owner, the Michigan State Retirement System, to consider a sale of its stake in the company. "We got some very strong bids, and we passed on all of them," commented current Concord CEO Scott Pascucci. Pascucci reported that Concord received several bids that were "extremely aggressive" but none that were "extraordinary plus."[22]
In September of 2022, Concord purchased the publishing and recorded music catalogues of Tony Banks, Phil Collins, and Mike Rutherford, as well as the publishing and recorded music catalogue from their years in the band Genesis.[23]
Concord successfully closed $1.8 billion of senior notes in December 2022, secured by a significant portion of its highly diversified catalogue of sound recordings and songs. It is the largest asset-backed securitization offering of music rights in the industry to date in terms of both size of issuance and number of assets (over one million copyrights). Proceeds from the issuance will be reinvested to support Concord's continued growth in 2023 and beyond.[24]
In September 2023, it was announced Concord had acquired the music publishing catalog of the New York, Nashville, and London-based music publisher, Mojo Music & Media. The catalog includes works of bands such as REO Speedwagon, Kiss, and Cheap Trick.[25]
Additionally in September 2023, Concord made an offer to acquire the entirety of Round Hill Music Royalty Fund (RHM) – the UK-listed fund operated by Round Hill Music. In October 2023, the RHM shareholders approved the acquisition, with over 99% of shareholders supporting the deal.[3]
Divisions[edit]
Concord Music Publishing[edit]
In 2017, when Concord purchased the Imagem Music Group, it tripled the size of its catalog bringing it to nearly 800,000 copyrights. The Imagem purchase also brought classical music publisher Boosey & Hawkes and The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization into Concord Music Publishing. Concord's publishing catalog now includes a vast array of popular music, classical music and many song and stage standards.[26]
As of 2022, Concord Music Publishing's active roster includes The 1975,[27] Glen Ballard,[28] Fiona Bevan,[29] BIA,[30] Jason Robert Brown,[31] Tofer Brown,[32] Daft Punk,[33] Davido,[34] Chase + Status,[35] Cautious Clay,[36] Jacob Collier,[37] Denzel Curry,[38] James Earp,[39] Noah Goldstein,[40] Jasper Harris,[41] Ruston Kelly,[42] Tom Kitt,[43] Hillary Lindsey,[44] Duff McKagan,[45] Lori McKenna,[46] Josh Miller,[47] Justin Parker,[48] Steve Reich,[49] John Adams,[50] Steve Robson,[51] Mark Ronson,[52] Anthony Rossomando,[27] Biff Stannard, Varren Wade,[53] Walshy Fire,[54] Tion Wayne,[27] Eric Whitacre,[55] Oh Wonder[56] and Yola.
Concord Music Publishing's catalog of songwriters and composers includes Benny Blanco,[57][27] Leonard Bernstein[58] Sammy Cahn,[59] Phil Collins,[60] Willie Colón,[61] Aaron Copland,[62] John Fogerty,[63] Marvin Hamlisch,[64] Oscar Hammerstein II,[49] Imagine Dragons,[65] Iron Maiden,[66] Robert Johnson,[67] Cyndi Lauper,[68] Jimmy Napes,[69] Pink Floyd,[70] Sergei Prokofiev,[71] Trent Reznor,[72] Richard Rodgers,[49] Santigold,[73] Joan Sebastian,[74] Pete Seeger,[75] Nikki Sixx,[27] Igor Stravinsky[49] and Ryan Tedder.[73]
In January 2020, Concord acquired a stake in PULSE Music Group, a move into chart-focused A&R.[76] Effective July 2020, Concord will administer the catalog and future signings for PULSE, an additional 10,000 songs.[77] PULSE's current songwriter roster includes James Blake, Cordae, Trevor Daniel, El-P, Brent Faiyaz,[78] FNZ, Tyler Johnson, Kehlani, Bonnie McKee, OG Parker, OZ, Rich The Kid, Starrah, Ty Dolla $ign, and YEBBA.[79] The PULSE roster is credited with over 150 million units of recorded music sales, 10 billion streams and more than 250 Platinum and Gold RIAA certifications.[80]
Concord Music Publishing has also launched the new, Nashville-based talent and creative development venture Hang Your Hat Music, in partnership with GRAMMY®, CMA and ACM awarded songwriter Hillary Lindsey.[81]
In April 2021, Concord acquired the roster and catalogue of Downtown Music Publishing bringing its catalog to nearly 600,000 works.[82]
In August 2022, Concord acquired Australian music publisher Native Tongue, effectively launching Concord Music Publishing ANZ.[83]
Concord Label Group[edit]
Concord Label Group is made up of the original Concord Music Group labels at the time of the Bicycle Music merger (wholly owned Concord/Rounder, Concord Jazz and Fantasy Records), with Easy Eye Sound and Loma Vista Recordings as Joint Ventures.[84] This area of Concord's business also includes its KIDZ BOP brand and its Craft Recordings catalog division. In early 2019, the company opened an office in Miami for Craft Latino Recordings.[85]
Craft represents the many labels for which these artists' originally recorded, including Sugar Hill, Vanguard, Musart, Savoy Jazz, Stax, Vee-Jay, Fania, Independiente and Varese Sarabande.[86] Craft also represents the R.E.M. catalog originally released under Warner Bros. Records.[87]
In September 2022, Concord acquired the assets of L.A. Reid's HitCo Entertainment.[88]
In June 2023, Concord and PULSE Music Group launched a new label, dubbed PULSE Records. The deal builds on a partnership between Pulse and Concord started in 2020 when Concord's music publishing division acquired a stake in Pulse Music Group to form a joint venture that included Concord administering Pulse's catalog and future signings.[89]