London based licensing company Ricall, which offers pre-licensed music catalogues to film, TV and advert producers, has entered into a distribution deal with SonyBMG, the first major label partnership for the firm.
The new deal will help Ricall in their bid to be a one stop shop for producers looking for 'synch rights', that is to licence music for use in their film, TV or advertising projects. The Ricall model means producers have a wide choice of tracks which they can use without having to enter into prolonged specific deals with content owners for each separate track and project. Ricall has already licenced catalogues owned by 150 other labels and publishers, meaning it represents some 25,000 copyright holders in total. The addition of the SonyBMG catalogue will provide a considerable boost. For the major, the deal should boost their income from the increasingly lucrative synch rights sector.
Confirming the new deal, SonyBMG's Peter Leggatt told reporters: "Synch licences are becoming an increasingly important source of revenue for the music industry, and we know that with Ricall we have an expert partner that will be able to help us capitalise on the increasing number of licensing opportunities that exist in today's multimedia, multi-channel world".