THE WORLD'S NO. 1 MUSIC PUBLISHER
Sony/ATV Music Publishing is the leading music publisher with a catalogue of more than 3 million copyrights, ranging from songs by some of the greatest music legends of all time to contemporary hits by many of today’s biggest superstars.
Sony/ATV Music Publishing is the world’s No. 1 music publishing company with a network of 37 offices in 29 cities and 22 countries across the globe.
Headquartered in New York, the company was set up in 1995 as a joint venture between Sony Corporation and Michael Jackson and now owns or administers more than 3 million copyrights, including those from such iconic music catalogs as Jobete/Motown, Famous Music, Leiber & Stoller and Mijac Music. It became a solely-owned Sony company in 2016.
Since 2012 Sony/ATV has administered EMI Music Publishing, further extending the reach of the songs, songwriters and artists it represents.
The company is a full-service music publisher with its interests including not only a world-class roster of songs and songwriters, but an industry-leading synchronization operation and production music businesses Extreme and EMI Production Music.
COMPANY HISTORY
Sony/ATV Music Publishing can trace its history back to 1955 when British-based businessman and impresario Lew Grade founded Associated Television (ATV). In 1957 ATV acquired Pye Records, at the time one of the three major record companies in the U.K. alongside EMI and Decca Records.
Out of the ATV acquisition ATV Music Publishing was then created to exploit the catalog of songs written by artists on the Pye Records label and for the themes to Independent Television Corporation and ATV programs. Under Grade, ATV Music Publishing’s acquisitions included in 1968 Northern Songs, which had been set up five years earlier to look after songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
The ATV song catalog, including Northern Songs, was eventually acquired in 1985 by Michael Jackson and was then merged in December 1995 with Sony Music Publishing to form Sony/ATV Music Publishing. It became a solely-owned Sony company in 2016. Since 2012 Sony/ATV has administered EMI Music Publishing, making it the world’s leading music publisher based on market share.
COMPANY ROSTER AND SONG CATALOG
Sony/ATV’s catalog of more than 3 million songs includes some of the most iconic and celebrated compositions of all time.
Among the countless highlights are classic movie songs and themes including "Over The Rainbow", "Moon River", "Singin’ In The Rain", "The James Bond Theme", "The Pink Panther Theme", "Rocky", "The Mission Impossible Theme" and "Theme From New York, New York", while the many standards it represents include "Blue Moon", "Happy Days Are Here Again", "I Left My Heart In San Francisco", "Moonlight Serenade", "Stardust", "The Nearness Of You" and "That Old Black Magic".
Sony/ATV covers every era and genre of popular music, including the copyrights of some of the most famous and successful songwriters and artists of all time, such as The Beatles, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Carole King, Kraftwerk, Joni Mitchell, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Queen, The Rolling Stones, Depeche Mode, Sting, Hank Williams and Stevie Wonder.
Its ever-growing list of chart-topping artists, writers and producers includes Avicii, The Chainsmokers, Drake, Calvin Harris, Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga, P!nk, Shakira, Ed Sheeran, Sia, Sam Smith, Stargate, Taylor Swift, Walk The Moon, Kanye West and Pharrell Williams.
SYNCHRONIZATION
Sony/ATV is the industry leader in music synchronization with a global operation providing free creative, music supervision and licensing services to content producers in the advertising, TV, film, video game, stage, karaoke and merchandising communities.
The company’s synchronization department comprises around 125 music professionals worldwide, all with an obsessive knowledge of popular music and years of experience in music supervision, production and licensing. They are on hand to create expert, customized song searches tailored to meet any creative, demographic or budgetary need.
The department’s executives also act as the production liaison between Sony/ATV songwriters and artists and the creative community to create original, custom music content for projects of all types. They have the means and the knowledge to satisfy any creative music need.
With an experienced, award winning sync team and more than 3 million songs in the catalogue, we’re sure to have the right music for your commercial, film, trailer, video game, TV show, or any other project that requires that perfect song.
Working with some of the most iconic songs of all time, as well as the best new talent writing and recording today, we have unparalleled access to the very best music from any era and in any genre. Just browse through our website, or contact us and let our team of experienced music supervisors help you discover the right song for your next project. If you already know what you’re after, then just email us on the link below. Creative, FAST and innovative, we make music licensing as easy as it should be.
ADMINISTRATION
Sony/ATV’s administration services utilize a worldwide network of local creative and admin teams, giving its clients both global reach and the personal touch. Our songwriters and their representatives are able to obtain administrative support in their own territory directly from local admin staff, all of whom are experts in their field, have a passion for the music they represent and are able to utilize their close relationships with the relevant societies and their colleagues around the world to accurately register songs and collect royalties.
Underpinning all of this is the company’s royalty portal SCORE, which is powered by Sony/ATV’s industry-leading TEMPO system and offers a state-of-the-art, global centralized database, highly accurate, transparent data from more than 30,000 income sources globally and unrivalled royalties analysis by song title, income source and time period.
DIGITAL
Sony/ATV is at the forefront of the digital music space and has taken the initiative in licensing its repertoire on behalf of its songwriters to the full range of new and established digital services.
Sony/ATV has entered into direct deals around the world with virtually all of the significant digital music services including Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, Deezer, Google Play, YouTube and many others.Sony/ATV’s efforts in this area include becoming the first music publisher to enter into a direct deal with Pandora, the world’s leading non-interactive music streaming service. This groundbreaking deal marked a major step in the right direction to ensure fair compensation for songwriters and music publishers for the use of their music on streaming services.
Sony/ATV has also taken an industry-leading position to press for reform of the outdated consent decrees that govern the way public performance licenses are entered into by ASCAP and BMI.
BROADCAST & MEDIA RIGHTS/FILM & TV
Sony/ATV is market leader in Broadcast & Media Rights/Film & TV, delivering music publishing and additional services to broadcasters and producers for film, TV and other media, while providing worldwide expertise to maximise revenue generation and collections.
Its clients range from start-ups to major global groups. They include 20th Century Fox, A+E, All3Media, CBS Television Network, Cinetel, Dreamworks Pictures, Endemol Shine Group, Hit Entertainment, ITV, MGM, MTV Networks, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, Showtime Networks, and Sony Pictures.
PRODUCTION MUSIC
Sony/ATV Music Publishing oversees in Extreme Music and EMI Production Music two of the industry’s leading production music operations.
Extreme Music was co-founded by its CEO Russell Emanuel who is also the co-founder and CEO of The Bleeding Fingers Custom Music Shop, a joint venture with multi-award-winning composer Hans Zimmer and his business partner Steve Kofsky.
Extreme was launched in 1997 with the mantra “Put the music first and the business will follow” and has since built up a roster that includes such iconic names as Quincy Jones, Hans Zimmer, Sir George Martin, Snoop Dogg, Rodney Jerkins, Robbie Nevil, Junkie XL, Hugh Padgham, Boris Blank, Xzibit, Mark Mothersbaugh, Timbaland and Mike “Daddy” Evans.
Bleeding Fingers was launched in 2013 and focuses on creating bespoke show-specific libraries and scores for unscripted, reality, documentary and light drama television productions.
EMI Production Music is home to KPM, the world’s most famous production music library. With more than 60 years of experience delivering successful music creation services for a wide range of media clients and representing more than 40 labels in total, the EMI PM catalogue boasts more than 150,000 titles crossing every musical genre imaginable. It draws from a huge roster of talented writers, many of whom are award-winning composers and producers who have penned No. 1 hits for the likes of Shirley Bassey, Blur, Lana Del Rey and Flo Rida.
SPEAKING UP FOR SONGWRITERS
Sony/ATV Music Publishing occupies a leading role in the music industry, standing up and fighting for songwriter rights under its Chairman and CEO Martin Bandier.
No clearer has this position been underlined than in the U.S. where the company continues to lobby for a reform of the performance licensing landscape to achieve fair market royalty rates for songwriters. This includes its participation in a Department of Justice review of the consent decrees which govern how ASCAP and BMI operate.
AWARDS WON BY THE COMPANY AND ITS SONGWRITERS
Sony/ATV and its songwriters have been the recipients of some of the most treasured honors in music, including Grammy, BRITS, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and Ivor Novello awards.
At the 2016-held Grammy Awards in Los Angeles Sony/ATV songwriters were represented on more than 30 awards, including Taylor Swift who won Album of the Year for 1989 and two other awards, while Ed Sheeran secured his first two Grammy wins, including Song of the Year for "Thinking Out Loud". Among the company’s other winners were Pharrell Williams, Kendrick Lamar collaborator Sounwave and Illangelo who writes with The Weeknd, while Sony/ATV co-publishes Record of the Year "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars.
Sony/ATV’s signings have this past year also received industry awards from around the world, including at the BRIT Awards in the U.K., the Echo Awards in Germany and the ARIA Awards in Australia.
Sony/ATV and its songwriters have further been honored countless times by U.S. performance rights societies ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. This includes the company being named Publisher of the Year at the 2016 BMI Pop Awards, while in the same year being crowned Publisher of the Year at ASCAP, BMI and SESAC’s respective Latin Music Awards. It also won BMI’s Country Publisher of the Year title for an unprecedented 15th consecutive time.
As the world’s No. 1 music publisher, Sony/ATV provides a full range of market leading services, including synchronization, administration, film & TV and production music as well as taking a prominent role standing up and fighting for songwriter rights under its Chairman and CEO Martin Bandier.
