{"id":98166,"date":"2021-01-26T13:41:07","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T13:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?post_type=companies&#038;p=98166"},"modified":"2023-07-18T09:13:28","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T08:13:28","slug":"concord","status":"publish","type":"companies","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/companies\/concord\/","title":{"rendered":"Concord"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Concord is a music rights company headquartered in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. In addition, the company runs offices in Nashville, New York, London, Berlin and Miami.<\/p>\n<p>Concord is majority-owned by a pension fund, Michigan Retirement Systems, that has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pionline.com\/article\/20190429\/PRINT\/190429867\/michigan-retirement-likes-the-sound-of-its-concord-music-stake\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">invested more than $1 billion<\/a> into the music company. The firm is minority owned by members of its management.<\/p>\n<p>Concord generated around $500 million annually, as of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/pro\/features\/concord-keeps-spending-100-million-plus-on-music-deals-whats-its-strategy-1052933\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">August 2020.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Concord Music Group was formed after Concord Records acquired Fantasy Inc in 2004. Concord Music Group shortened its name to Concord in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>The modern-day Concord was effectively formed in 2015 when the firm <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concord-music-group-merges-with-bicycle-raises-100m\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">merged<\/a> with The Bicycle Music Company to form Concord Bicycle Music.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Concord has three primary operating divisions: Concord Recorded Music, Concord Music Publishing, and Concord Theatricals.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h6>Concord: Notable acquisitions<\/h6>\n<p>In both music publishing and recorded music, Concord has build its portfolio via a series of acquisitions:<\/p>\n<ul><li>Concord Records, originally established in 1973, acquired Fantasy Inc in 2004 for a deal the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eastbaytimes.com\/2004\/12\/03\/concord-records-buys-fantasy-inc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hollywood Reporter suggested was worth north of $80 million.<\/a> Fantasy was the owner of both the Prestige catalog, and the post-Atlantic Stax Records catalog.<\/li><li>In 2005, Concord <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-2005-dec-21-et-quick21.4-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">acquired<\/a> Telarc International, a Cleveland label with more than 1,000 jazz, classical and blues recordings, for an undisclosed sum.<\/li><li>Concord <a href=\"https:\/\/bluegrasstoday.com\/rounder-acquired-by-concord-music-group\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">acquired<\/a> Rounder Records in 2010, with a catalog of over 3,000 recordings. Concord said at the time that the combination of Rounder&#8217;s masters &#8220;with Concord Music Group\u2019s rich catalog of more than 10,000 master recordings strengthens Concord\u2019s status as one of the world\u2019s most significant independent record companies&#8221;.<\/li><li>In March 2013, Concord itself was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20130325006106\/en\/Investor-Group-Led-by-Wood-Creek-Capital-Acquires-Concord-Music-Group\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">acquired<\/a> from Village Roadshow Entertainment Group by Wood Creek Capital, an investment manager. This acquisition brought now-Concord CEO, Scott Pascucci, to the music company.<\/li><li>In July 2014, Concord announced the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/concord-music-group-acquires-famed-717250\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">acquisition<\/a> of the Vee-Jay Records catalog, which included over 5,000 master recordings from the likes of Little Richard, John Lee Hooker, and Jimmy Reed.<\/li><li>In April 2015, Concord <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concord-music-group-merges-with-bicycle-raises-100m\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced its merger<\/a> with The Bicycle Music Company to form Concord Bicycle Music. Prior to merging with Concord, Bicycle \u2013 owned by investor Steve Smith \u2013 had completed over 100 publishing and master recording catalog deals of its own, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/completemusicupdate.com\/article\/bicycle-buys-wind-up-catalogue\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">acquisition<\/a> of Wind-Up Records in 2013.<\/li><li>In May 2015, Concord announced a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concord-acquires-wind-up-and-fearless-after-100m-investment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">double acquisition<\/a> of two independent record labels \u2013 Vanguard and Sugar Hill \u2013 from Welk Music Group. Concord also announced the raise of $100 million in capital for further acquisitions.<\/li><li>In the same month (May 2015), Concord announced another <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concord-acquires-wind-up-and-fearless-after-100m-investment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">double acquisition<\/a>, this time of Fearless Records and Wind-Up Records.<\/li><li>In October 2015, Concord acquired an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/razor-tie-forms-new-company-with-concord-bicycle-music\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">undisclosed stake<\/a> in record label Razor &amp; Tie. Concord later <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/articles\/business\/8094871\/concord-music-razor-tie-acquires-label\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fully acquired<\/a> Razor &amp; Tie in 2018.<\/li><li>In 2016, another double label acquisition arrived, with Concord buying both\u00a0Americana\/folk\/blues\u00a0specialist\u00a0<a class=\"link-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concord-bicycle-music-buys-again-in-double-label-acquisition\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">HighTone Records<\/a> and the recorded music assets of Bandit Records.<\/li><li>In June 2017, Concord made its biggest acquisition yet: the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concords-500m-purchase-of-imagem-marks-the-birth-of-a-major-player-in-music\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">buyout<\/a> of Netherlands-based Imagem for a sum believed to be in excess of $550 million. The deal saw Concord ingest 250,000-plus copyrights from Imagem, taking Concord\u2019s publishing catalog above 380,000 works.<\/li><li>In July 2017, Music Business Worldwide revealed that Concord had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concord-buys-yet-multi-million-dollar-deal-warner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">acquired various assets<\/a> from Warner Music Group as part of divestments from WMG following its own acquisition of Parlophone Label Group.<\/li><li>In September 2017, Concord <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concord-acquires-savoy-label-group-3000-recordings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced the acquisition<\/a> of over 3,000 recordings as part of a buyout of the Savoy Label Group.<\/li><li>Across the course of 2018, Concord acquired movie soundtrack and score label <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concord-music-buys-movie-music-label-varese-sarabande\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Var\u00e8se Sarabande,<\/a> UK independent label<a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concord-music-buys-uk-based-label-independiente\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Independiente<\/a>, and theatre publisher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concord-music-buys-theatre-publisher-and-licensor-samuel-french-launches-concord-theatricals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Samuel French<\/a>. The year also saw Concord <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concord-acquires-independent-latin-music-company-fania\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">acquire the storied Latin music label, Fania Records,<\/a> and its sister music publishing company.<\/li><li>In February 2018, Concord confirmed the acquisition of the Tams-Witmark <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concord-music-acquires-tams-witmark-music-library\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">musical theater library<\/a>, containing over\u00a0120 titles from acclaimed writers such as Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Cy Coleman, and Jule Styne.<\/li><li>In September 2019, Concord <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concord-buys-rock-label-victory-records-and-sister-company-another-victory-publishing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced the acquisition<\/a> of rock label Victory Records and its sister publishing company, Another Victory.<\/li><li>In December 2019, Concord <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concord-acquires-historic-classical-music-publisher-sikorski\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced the acquisition<\/a> of historic classical music publisher, The Sikorski Music Publishing Group.<\/li><li>2020 brought two huge acquisitions to the Concord stable, both of which reportedly cost over $100 million apiece. The first saw Concord <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concord-buys-majority-stake-in-pop-publisher-pulse-in-100m-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">buy a majority stake<\/a> in Los Angeles-based music publisher, Pulse Music Group. Then, in August 2020, Concord Music Publishing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concord-music-publishing-acquires-imagine-dragons-catalog-in-100m-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced the acquisition<\/a> of the Imagine Dragons catalog. MBW reported that Concord acquired the writer\u2019s share of the band&#8217;s catalog, in addition to a co-publishing share, in perpetuity.<\/li><li>In addition, in October 2020 it emerged that Concord had acquired a catalog from Spirit Music Group that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/spirit-music-group-sells-b-unique-catalog-to-rival-concord-for-strategic-one-time-tax-reason\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">encompassed publishing rights<\/a> originally developed by B-Unique.<\/li><\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h6>Concord operating divisions<\/h6>\n<ul><li><strong>Concord Recorded Music<\/strong> is made up of five sub-labels:\u00a0Concord Records, Fantasy Records, Fearless Records, Loma Vista Recordings and Rounder Records. Its historical recordings are looked after by its internal Craft Recordings team, which includes imprints such as Fania, Independiente, Milestone, Musart, Nitro, Pablo, Prestige, Riverside, Savoy, Specialty, Stax, Telarc, Var\u00e8se Sarabande, Vee-Jay and Wind-up. Concord Recorded Music is also home to kids\u2019 music brand, KIDZ BOP. Concord&#8217;s master recording portfolio contains more than 16,000 active albums.<\/li><li><strong>Concord Music Publishing<\/strong> represents over 400,000 copyrighted works. In addition to an array of contemporary hitmakers, Concord Music Publishing is home to classical music publisher, Boosey &amp; Hawkes.<\/li><li><strong>Concord Theatricals<\/strong> is comprised of the catalogs of R&amp;H Theatricals, Samuel French, Tams-Witmark and The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection. Concord Theatricals&#8217; services include theatrical licensing, music publishing, script publishing, cast recording and production.<\/li><\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h6>Universal Music Group relationship<\/h6>\n<p>In December 2020,\u00a0Concord <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/concord-and-universal-music-group-renew-global-distribution-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced<\/a> that it had renewed its global distribution agreement with Universal Music Group (UMG), continuing a partnership that had run unbroken for 15 years.<\/p>\n<p>Under the new contract, UMG will\u00a0physically and digitally distribute releases from Concord\u2019s frontline labels, led by Chief Label Executive Tom Whalley, and catalog projects led by Chief Catalog Executive Sig Sigworth, including recordings from Craft Recordings, Fantasy Records, Fearless Records, Loma Vista Recordings, Rounder Records, Concord Jazz and the No.1 children\u2019s brand, KIDZ BOP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The modern-day Concord was effectively formed in 2015 via the merger with The Bicycle Music Company<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":143211,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-98166","companies","type-companies","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/companies\/98166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/companies"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/companies"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/companies\/98166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}