We've had a rollercoaster of a year so far and it doesn't seem to be coming to a pause anytime soon. Our most exciting update to kickstart the month of May is our sub-publishing deal with Standard Music Library in the United Kingdom!
With this being our very first sub-publishing deal, we're very much looking forward to learning more about the library music landscape, as well as the endless supply of new music that is now available to our clients in Africa. To get a glimpse of the history of Standard Music's track record in the sync world and where they are today, we asked Imran Ali, the resident Music Consultant to give us an overview.
"My very first thought when discovering the library was that Brian Eno, Delia Derbyshire, & Sir George Martin were 3 iconic names in music and Standard works by all of them! It is a privilege to represent a company with a history and legacy as rich as this one. Over the years, the standard of music (excuse the pun) has remained consistently high.The additions of Cinetiks, Picture Box, Musica Britannica and All Music Gallery mean that we have a wide variety of music that can fit into any brief! We continue to have a relationship with ITV and see our music getting used in a variety of UK shows from Love Island (S14) to Emmerdale, thanks to our amazing Sub Publisher network. We’ve seen music placed all over the world and in recent years, our most exciting sync is in the Palme d'Or winning film Triangle Of Sadness. No pressure Nikilitha!"
As the newest member on the team, Imran's experience in the music business began in 2021 working in Royalties at WCM before moving into music licensing at Sky Studios. "Joining Standard was a great opportunity for me to bring together all the knowledge I have accumulated over the years, from studying film to working as a videographer and more recently at a major broadcaster. My favourite part of the job is pitching. Finding a hidden gem in our catalogue that can transform an advert or scene in a film gives me the best feeling in the world!"
We also managed to speak to Howard Price, who is the Head of Media at Bucks Music Group on how he feels about this new sub-publishing deal. "We’re very excited for this new partnership and opportunity with Nikilitha and Kopton Music. We’re really impressed with her energy and initiative and see the relationship as a fantastic opening for us across Africa." Standard Music is the Production Music Library of Bucks Music Group which is one of the UK’s leading and longest running international, independent music publishers.
Standard Music Library was formed in 1968 by David Platz, founder of Bucks Music and the father of current MD Simon Platz. Standard was founded in partnership with the UK’s main commercial broadcaster ITV, leading to the Standard Music Library copyrights becoming synonymous with British television. The Library has continued to evolve with trends in music and content. The Library includes the labels Cinetiks, Picture Box, Musica Britannica and All Music Gallery with further potentially to be added. All Music Gallery provides recordings of many of the music recognisable out of copyright classical pieces by composers including Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Vivaldi and Wagner.
So you may be wondering how this changes the way that we license music to our clients. Well, in short, our clients now have a LOT more options. Think of our music as two catalogues; the Commercial music catalogue and the Production music catalogue.
Our Commercial music catalogue comprises of the independent musicians and composers who have either been scouted by our A&R division or have been selected from previous music submission periods. This is independently-made music from artists around the world, that is licensed to clients at flexible rates. This also includes music that is customised for specific projects.
Our Production music catalogue on the other hand, is licensed at fixed rates and these rates are in line with the Capasso rate card. This means that anyone wanting to licence music from the Standard Music catalogue in Africa, has to come to us!
All in all, we're very excited about this new venture, as it has opened up a lot of sync possibilities for the agency with LOADS of new music at our disposal. This is the scoop for now, but keep your eyes on this blog and all our social media platforms to stay up to date with the home of sound!
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