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Saban Music Group allies with Universal on marketing and distribution
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 10 January 2020
The recently launched Saban Music Group yesterday announced a marketing and distribution alliance with Universal Music which, the two companies said, will be “structured to reflect today’s everchanging global music landscape”. Which sounds like fun.
SMG was launched last year by US-based media mogul Haim Saban, who is best known for his many TV ventures and most commonly linked to the Power Rangers franchise. When launching the business last July, Saban said he was pumping $500 million into the venture, which would both sign new artists and buy-up existing music companies and catalogues.
The first acquisition actually pre-dated that announcement, Saban having already bought Latin music focused Talento Uno whose boss, Gustavo Lopez, is now heading up SMG. He previously spent two decades working for Universal, so the fact his new company has allied with the mega-major on distribution isn’t surprising.
The new global deal is mainly with Universal’s label services division Caroline, although SMG will also have access to other parts of the major in some territories.
Confirming the deal, Universal Music big cheese boss man Lucian Grainge said: “Haim has a proven track record of creating world-class entertainment. We’re looking forward to working with his team at Saban Music to bring groundbreaking new artists and music to fans around the globe”.
For his part, Saban said that Grainge had “built the number one music company in the world with an unprecedented streak of artist development”, and therefore “there is no better home for our artists and their music”.
Meanwhile Lopez chipped in: “It’s exciting to once again work with UMG, my home for more than 20 years. We’re looking forward to working with Sir Lucian’s record-breaking and industry-leading teams”.
