Turns out that BMG and KKR’s rights acquiring joint venture acquired itself some John Legend rights last year. And why the hell not?
BMG and investment firm KKR - who previously collaborated on the launch of the current iteration of BMG back in 2008 - announced a new JV last March via which they planned to enter the ‘let’s grab some heritage artist catalogues’ frenzy. A deal with ZZ Top was then announced last month.
The earlier deal with not-really-a-heritage-artist Legend, seemingly completed in September, was spotted by the Wall Street Journal in a regulatory filing. It covers rights and royalties stemming from songs written between 2004 and last year. Both KKR and BMG each took a 50% stake in the catalogue.
BMG already provided publishing administration services to Legend and - according to WSJ - has also secured a new deal with the musician in that domain too.