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Business News Deals Labels & Publishers
LA publisher buys early TVT Recordings
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 7 April 2010
A library of pre-1994 master recordings originally owned by US label TVT have been bought by LA-based music publishing firm Bicycle Music. The hoard includes the TV theme collections that gave TVT its name, plus, perhaps most interestingly, the debut album from Nine Inch Nails, ‘Pretty Hate Machine’.
The collection of 700 master recordings were subject to a long-running legal dispute between TVT and Prudential Securities Credit Corp that began in 2003, the latter taking ownership of the masters after the former defaulted on loan agreements with the finance firm. TVT argued that the credit company was abusing the two firms’ original agreement in order to seize control of the masters.
But the courts generally sided with Prudential in the dispute, and a spokesman for Bicycle Music said they had done due diligence prior to acquiring the masters and were happy the credit firm’s ownership of the tapes could no longer be disputed. Of course, the rest of TVT has since gone out of business, with TVT Records being bought via the bankruptcy courts by digital distribution firm The Orchard.
It is thought Bicycle will now instigate some re-releases of the catalogue they have acquired, including the aforementioned NIN debut. It’ll be interesting to see what Trent Reznor has to say about that.
