BMG To Acquire Sanctuary Records

BMG Buys

Music rights management company BMG has signed a binding agreement to acquire SANCTUARY RECORDS from UNIVERSAL MUSIC. The proposed sale, which is subject to regulatory approval by the EUROPEAN COMMISSION (EC), is part of a series of divestments mandated by the EC following UNIVERSAL's purchase of EMI RECORDS.

BMG CEO HARTWIG MASUCH said, "We are delighted to have won the opportunity to work with the exceptional line-up of artists in the SANCTUARY catalog. We have made no secret of our ambition to create a new force in the music industry focused on delivering service and revenue to artists. We believe this deal will be good news for those artists, good news for our partners particularly in the independent sector and good news for the music industry as a whole."

The SANCTUARY catalogue includes over 170,000 recordings from labels such as BRONZE, CREOLE, IMMEDIATE, JET, TRANSATLANTIC, TROJAN, SUGARHILL, PYE and SOLAR, among them:

* BLACK SABBATH -- rights to 19 albums, including Paranoid, Master of Reality;
* MOTÖRHEAD -- albums including Ace of Spades, No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith, Overkill with cumulative worldwide sales of over 30 million
* IRON MAIDEN -- U.S. rights to their first 13 albums including The Number of The Beast and No Prayer For The Dying;
* THE KINKS  -- 17 of their albums and hits such as ‘You Really Got Me’, ‘All Day And All Of The Night’, ‘Waterloo Sunset’ ‘Sunny Afternoon’, ‘Lola’ and ‘Dedicated Follower of Fashion’;
* URIAH HEEP -- including albums such as Look at yourself, The Magician’s Birthday, Salisbury which together have sold over 30m copies

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