The Stones pick BMG for neighbouring rights collection

By Emmanuel Legrand

The four living members of The Rolling Stones – Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood – have signed a deal with BMG for the global collection of their neighbouring rights.

  Meanwhile songwriters Jagger and Richards have extended their long-term agreement with BMG for the global representation of their music publishing catalogue. The publishing deal with Jagger and Richards covers all of the works written by the duo. 

  BMG is directly responsible for publishing all of the songs written by The Rolling Stones songwriting team since 1983, and handling Jagger and Richards's shares of their pre-1983 copyrights which are represented by ABKCO (1963-1971) and EMI Music Publishing (1971-1983).

Dream clients

  Bertelsmann-owned BMG also represents much of the recorded music catalogue of Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and drummer Charlie Watts.

  "If you are in the business of selling services to artists and songwriters, these are the kinds of client you dream of attracting," said BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch. 

  BMG launched its neighbouring rights division six months ago to capitalise on this growing music market segment. Neighbouring rights are related to the public performance of recordings. They are collected by rights organisations such as PPL in the UK, GVL in Germany, SENA in the Netherlands, SoundExchange in the USA, among others.