Warner/Chappell Music, the global music publishing arm of Warner Music Group Corp., has acquired Groove Addicts Production Music Library. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Per the agreement, the Groove Addicts Production Music Library catalog will be exclusively marketed and licensed by Non-Stop Music, an Emmy Award-winning production music company and a division of Warner/Chappell Music since 2007.
Not part of the Warner/Chappell deal is Groove Addicts’ longstanding original music and sound design business, which has been rebranded under the GrooveWorx banner and will continue to create custom scores for commercials, TV shows and other forms of content under the aegis of its president Dain Blair. Maintaining its state-of-the-art recording studio and offices in Santa Monica, Calif., GrooveWorx will build on a Groove Addicts’ track record of creating custom music and sound for hundreds of national television commercials (GE. Mountain Dew, Dr Pepper, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Pepsi, Levi’s, AT&T, Coca-Cola, et al), radio and TV station and network branding IDs and promos, and TV shows such as Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Deal or No Deal, Super Nanny, The Goode Family and Tattoo Highway.
GrooveWorx will also update the Groove Addicts Music Library over the next three years for Non-Stop through top drawer composers, compositions and production.
Inventory infusion
Via Groove Addicts Production Music Library, Non-Stop gains an inventory of more than 44,000 songs and cues. Over the years, the Grooove Addicts Library has provided production music for all media including film, TV, Internet and corporate clients worldwide. Groove Addicts has licensed more than 1,300 cues from its trailer libraries for assorted feature films, among the most recent and upcoming being Alice in Wonderland, Avatar, Clash of the Titans, Cop Out, District 9, Inglourious Basterds, Invictus, Nightmare on Elm Street, Prince of Persia, Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, Star Trek and Wolverine.
In a separate transaction, Warner/Chappell has also acquired London-based Carlin Recorded Music Library (CRML). Non-Stop will also handle marketing and licensing for the CRML catalogs.
Dave Johnson, chairman/CEO of Warner/Chappell Music, said, “The acquisitions of Groove Addicts and CRML further expand our global presence in a fast growing, high margin segment of the music publishing business and provide many more opportunities to showcase the songs in the Warner/Chappell catalog on a wide array of music platforms and services. Together with Non-Stop Music, these valuable libraries will strengthen our standing in the production music business and allow us to offer the music licensing community an even broader and deeper range of music from our catalog.”
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More