LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) — Universal Music Group (UMG) and WTSL, the Silver Lake-backed investment firm launched by WME co-founder Patrick Whitesell announced a new joint venture to expand opportunities for music in film, fashion, consumer products and other areas.
The deal will leverage UMG’s extensive catalog to create new opportunities for UMG’s artists and artist estates in areas outside of the traditional realms of recorded music and music publishing, the two companies said.
Those areas include film, television, fashion, consumer products, brand collaboration and brand creation, and other intellectual property (IP) ventures, according to the two companies.
Additionally, the J.V. will seek to expand opportunities from one-off licensing deals nto owned, repeatable, equity-driven ventures.
“This is about building the future of artist IP with the scale and ambition it deserves,” said Whitesell. “Universal Music Group represents the most powerful collection of music and artists anywhere in the world. Together, we’ll explore new ways to extend that cultural force into every dimension of entertainment and consumer life—creating lasting business value while keeping music at the center.”
Sir Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO of UMG said, “We exist at the center of a vibrant ecosystem of partners from the worlds of technology, brands, retailers and media who recognize the power of our artists to shape culture globally. With this new venture we will be able to leverage Patrick’s deep experience in successfully creating non-traditional business models with world-class IP to accelerate the expansion and monetization of our ecosystem to the benefit of our artists and partners.”
