NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Anthem Music & Media Group, a new music publishing organization with more than a century of media and entertainment experience among its management team, has opened with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Incorporated in August 2006, the company already boasts more than 4,000 song titles from dozens of well-known songwriters and artists, including the recently acquired catalog of The Bicycle Music Company, the well-respected independent publishing house established more than 30 years ago.
At its core, Anthem focuses its business practices on the traditional music distribution platforms long synonymous with the proliferation of music including CDs, DVDs, broadcast television, film and advertising. But the Anthem team also boasts the diversity, vision and foresight to integrate each of the rapidly expanding conduits for commercial development of popular songs, which now include the Internet, mobile communications and gaming industries.
“Technological change, economic uncertainty and corporate instability drove the modern musicbiz into short term decision making, in so doing short-circuiting our industry’s artist development process," said Anthem Chief Executive Officer, Steve Smith. "Anthem’s managers and investors take the longer view…that the ultimate value creation inspired by talent affiliated with our company is a process that unfolds over an enduring relationship between writer and publisher, not just a series of opportunistic ‘buys and sells’. It is Anthem’s mandate, our mission, to insure that we are nimble, aggressive, innovative and sensitive to any and all market conditions.”
Based in Los Angeles, Smith is chairman of Sound Investors, which recently contributed its ownership of Bicycle Music in the formation of Anthem. Smith has also served in executive capacities with SFX Entertainment and Clear Channel Entertainment, where he was chief operating officer and was also a partner and president of the Album Network group of companies for two decades.
It is the company’s approach to doing business, with its streamlined and integrated executive team, experienced in positioning companies to succeed in the ever-changing world of music and media that most clearly defines Anthem. Anthem is a full-service organization, deeply engaged with its clients and creatively exploiting its diverse catalog.
The company’s New York-based executive roster includes Anthem President and Chief Creative Officer Allan J. Tepper and Chief Investment Officer Roger Miller, CFA. Tepper’s recent positions include vice president, Creative Services at MPL Communications, and a similar post at Warner/Chappell. “We are excited to introduce Anthem at a time when music publishers are expected to think and work outside the narrow parameters of their conventional role,” Tepper said. “Count on Anthem to demonstrate its ability to increase the popularity and earnings of the proven standards in its catalog, but also to inspire and nurture the hits of tomorrow. We’ve assembled a seasoned team of artist development and royalty collection professionals, financed by independent investors with the confidence to let the music people run the show.”
Miller was most recently assistant vice president, Performing Rights at BMI, where he managed international royalty distributions of $200 million annually, co-managed domestic distributions of over $450 million annually, was in charge of the international administration of the company’s seven million song catalog, and managed several of the company’s key high net worth accounts. “The expansion and convergence of media on a global scale have spawned an insatiable demand for new content, which has resulted in more opportunity for songwriters and publishers than ever before,” Miller observes. “Combining its unique capital structure with our team’s genuinely proactive and client-friendly approach to music publishing, Anthem will seize these opportunities, enjoy rapid growth of its catalog and create exceptional value for its writers and investors in the process.”
Anthem’s New York team also includes Vice President, Business Development Steven Salm, who was North American Business Development manager for IBM’s Digital Music Group, focusing on anti-piracy technology. Prior to working at IBM, Salm developed a music royalty financing program, “Fast Forward Financing,” creating genre-specific valuation models to help predict future income. He was also a reporter for MTV.
Anthem’s Los Angeles team also includes Anthem Vice-President, Business Affairs Jake Wisely and Anthem Vice-President, Creative Jon Rosner. Wisely has been co-president of Anthem’s Bicycle Music subsidiary since 2004 and is responsible for catalog acquisition, new signings and administration of acquired rights. Rosner brings 10 years of recognized leadership in creative services and administration as co-president of Bicycle Music, which includes signing and securing recording contracts and collaborations for Anthem’s writers, as well as the representation of Neil Diamond’s Diamondsongs catalog for creative business development and film/television exploitation.
Anthem catalog highlights include: The Dave Peverett catalog of rock standards by Foghat; The country-pop classic “Let Your Love Flow,” written by Larry Williams, popularized by the Bellamy Brothers and dozens of other performers globally; Ice Cube’s “You Can Do It” and “Roll All Day;” Jose Gonzalez (as a solo act and with Zero 7 and Junip); Dave Frishberg (Tony Bennett, Diana Krall, Jamie Cullum); Jack Blades (Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, Cher, Damn Yankees); Michael Brook (“An Inconvenient Truth”, “Who Killed The Electric Car”, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan); Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel, The Postal Service, Figurine): Kelly Keagy (Night Ranger); Linus of Hollywood (Size 14, Kaela Kimura, Tim Burgess, The Charlatans); Larry Tee (RuPaul, Avenue D, Princess Superstar); breakout bands: A Change of Pace and The Classic Crime: and Kool Keith (Ultramagnetic MCs, The Prodigy, Mike Patton and Peeping Tom). — Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen
