The Jim Henson Company and Spirit Music Form Strategic Joint ...
The Jim Henson Company and Spirit Music Form Strategic Joint ...
The Jim Henson Company and Spirit Music Form Strategic Joint ...
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br />
March 17, 2011<br />
THE JIM HENSON COMPANY AND SPIRIT MUSIC<br />
FORM STRATEGIC JOINT VENTURE<br />
INDIE PUBLISHER’S VENTURE WITH PRODUCTION COMPANY<br />
CREATES INTEGRATED PARTNERSHIP IN FILM/TV/ON-LINE<br />
MUSIC<br />
Los Angeles <strong>and</strong> New York, March 17, 2011 – <strong>The</strong> <strong>Jim</strong> <strong>Henson</strong> <strong>Company</strong>, a long time leader in<br />
family entertainment, <strong>and</strong> <strong>Spirit</strong> <strong>Music</strong> Group, a top independent music publishing company, have<br />
entered into an unprecedented global, multi-year joint venture in which the companies will coown<br />
<strong>and</strong> co-publish songs, scores <strong>and</strong> soundtracks from <strong>Henson</strong>’s future output of new film,<br />
television <strong>and</strong> web-based programming. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Jim</strong> <strong>Henson</strong> <strong>Company</strong> will bring its internationallyknown<br />
br<strong>and</strong>, talent <strong>and</strong> resources to the collaboration <strong>and</strong> <strong>Spirit</strong> will contribute its well-respected<br />
expertise in the sourcing <strong>and</strong> strategic promotion of music. In addition, the parties have entered<br />
into a worldwide administration agreement whereby <strong>Spirit</strong> will administer <strong>and</strong> promote <strong>Henson</strong>’s<br />
extensive back catalog.<br />
<strong>The</strong> venture is unique in that, in addition to aggressively administering <strong>and</strong> re-purposing <strong>Henson</strong>’s<br />
extensive song library <strong>and</strong> related master recordings, <strong>Spirit</strong> creative staff will have an active<br />
presence on the <strong>Henson</strong> Hollywood lot, working in a wide range of areas including helping to<br />
source songs, composers <strong>and</strong> both rising <strong>and</strong> established artists for new projects, developing<br />
strategies to sell music from <strong>Henson</strong> properties via traditional music outlets <strong>and</strong> non-traditional<br />
retail channels <strong>and</strong> contributing to the development of an overall digital sales strategy. In<br />
addition, <strong>Spirit</strong> affiliate companies around the world will contribute both music <strong>and</strong> marketing<br />
ideas for <strong>Henson</strong> projects debuting in their territories.<br />
<strong>The</strong> wide-ranging deals, announced jointly by <strong>The</strong> <strong>Jim</strong> <strong>Henson</strong> <strong>Company</strong>’s President/COO Peter<br />
Schube <strong>and</strong> <strong>Spirit</strong> President Mark Fried, cover <strong>Henson</strong>’s entire media library including such<br />
acclaimed classic films as Labyrinth <strong>and</strong> <strong>The</strong> Dark Crystal <strong>and</strong> television series’ Fraggle Rock,<br />
Farscape, <strong>The</strong> Hoobs, Mopatop’s Shop, Emmet Otter’s Jugb<strong>and</strong> Christmas, Mother Goose<br />
Stories <strong>and</strong> <strong>The</strong> Wubbulous World Of Dr. Seuss. Also included are Sid the Science Kid <strong>and</strong><br />
Dinosaur Train, award-winning children’s television series which debuted in 2008 <strong>and</strong> 2009,<br />
respectively, <strong>and</strong> have become top shows on PBSKIDS®.<br />
In all, the deal encompasses a slate of theme songs, cues <strong>and</strong> scores from more than 50 years’<br />
worth of feature films, television series’ <strong>and</strong> webisodes reflecting thous<strong>and</strong>s of hours of content.
<strong>Henson</strong> has been particularly prolific in recent years, yielding a busy slate of upcoming projects<br />
including a new feature film based on its wildly popular Fraggle Rock franchise, another film retelling<br />
of the classic Pinocchio story to be produced with Guillermo del Toro <strong>and</strong> ongoing<br />
television <strong>and</strong> web productions including Me <strong>and</strong> My Monsters, <strong>and</strong> Wilson & Ditch: Digging<br />
America.<br />
<strong>Spirit</strong>, whose roster reflects some of the most respected songwriters <strong>and</strong> song catalogs of the pop<br />
era, from the st<strong>and</strong>ards of Johnny Burke, Jerry Livingston <strong>and</strong> Alan <strong>and</strong> Marilyn Bergman to the<br />
groundbreaking work of Lou Reed, Charles Mingus, Chaka Khan, Andrea Bocelli <strong>and</strong> the Grateful<br />
Dead, has been an extremely active presence in film <strong>and</strong> television. Over the last year alone, the<br />
company’s creative staff has worked with supervisors, directors <strong>and</strong> producers to place songs in<br />
more than 75 feature films <strong>and</strong> more than 250 network <strong>and</strong> cable television series’ – the best<br />
placement record in independent publishing.<br />
“Studios <strong>and</strong> music publishers have always been fairly arms length in their dealings, <strong>and</strong> for us,<br />
music publishing has historically been a largely passive business. Not anymore. We’re looking<br />
forward to breaking the mold with <strong>Spirit</strong>, leveraging the broad <strong>and</strong> complementary expertise of our<br />
combined staffs to create a robust platform to market our music everywhere our fans are,” said<br />
Schube.<br />
Fried said, “As long time fans of virtually everything <strong>The</strong> <strong>Jim</strong> <strong>Henson</strong> <strong>Company</strong> has dreamed up<br />
these past five decades, we are thrilled to be welcomed to help devise <strong>and</strong> execute a<br />
comprehensive music strategy.” He continued, “This joint venture is a logical extension of the<br />
kind of close collaborative relationships we’ve had with supervisors, directors <strong>and</strong> studios for<br />
many years <strong>and</strong> we’re excited to see how much we can achieve working as insiders from the<br />
same playbook.”<br />
* * *<br />
About <strong>Spirit</strong> <strong>Music</strong><br />
<strong>Spirit</strong> <strong>Music</strong> Group, founded in 1995, is the fastest growing independent music publisher of the<br />
last 15 years, owning <strong>and</strong>/or managing more than 20,000 songs spanning 7 decades <strong>and</strong> every<br />
musical genre. <strong>The</strong> company’s repertoire reflects some of the most beloved songs <strong>and</strong><br />
songwriters including hits <strong>and</strong> gems by Frank Sinatra, Billie Holliday, Elmore James, Elvis<br />
Presley, Charles Mingus, Dion, <strong>The</strong> Beach Boys, B.B. King, Alice Cooper, Pure Prairie<br />
League, Chaka Khan, <strong>The</strong> Go-Go’s, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Barbra Streis<strong>and</strong>, Jay-Z, Ricky<br />
Martin, Usher, Dido <strong>and</strong> Mary J. Blige, the complete catalogs of such iconic writer/artists as<br />
Lou Reed, <strong>The</strong> Grateful Dead, T. Rex, Boz Scaggs, <strong>The</strong> Marshall Tucker B<strong>and</strong>, Billy Squier,<br />
A Taste Of Honey, Andrea Bocelli, Angela Winbush <strong>and</strong> C&C <strong>Music</strong> Factory <strong>and</strong> the<br />
breakthrough work of such newer artists as Scissor Sisters, Smith Westerns <strong>and</strong> <strong>The</strong> Naked<br />
And Famous. <strong>Spirit</strong> also represents the master recordings of such classic labels as Brunswick,<br />
k-Tel <strong>and</strong> Enjoy, <strong>and</strong> buzzing independent labels Fat Possum, Tompkins Square <strong>and</strong> <strong>The</strong><br />
End. <strong>The</strong> company has earned a strong reputation as an aggressive royalty administrator <strong>and</strong> a<br />
peerless promoter of its songs into film, television <strong>and</strong> advertising productions as well as a wide<br />
range of new media. <strong>Spirit</strong> <strong>Music</strong> Group is based in New York with affiliate offices all over the<br />
world. For further information about <strong>Spirit</strong> <strong>Music</strong> Group, go to www.spiritmusicgroup.com<br />
Media contacts:<br />
For <strong>The</strong><strong>Jim</strong> <strong>Henson</strong> <strong>Company</strong>:<br />
For <strong>Spirit</strong> <strong>Music</strong> Group:<br />
Nicole Goldman<br />
Eileen Thompson<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Jim</strong> <strong>Henson</strong> <strong>Company</strong><br />
Rogers & Cowan<br />
Tel 323.802-1608 Tel 310-854-8137<br />
ngoldman@henson.com<br />
eithompson@rogers<strong>and</strong>cowan.com
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Jim</strong> <strong>Henson</strong> <strong>Company</strong> has remained an established leader in family entertainment for over 50 years<br />
<strong>and</strong> is recognized worldwide as an innovator in puppetry, animatronics <strong>and</strong> digital animation. Best<br />
known as creators of the world famous Muppets, <strong>Henson</strong> has received over 50 Emmy Awards <strong>and</strong> nine<br />
Grammy Awards. Recent credits include the Emmy® nominated “Sid the Science Kid,” “Dinosaur Train,”<br />
“Wilson & Ditch: Digging America” <strong>and</strong> “Pajanimals.” Features include “<strong>The</strong> Dark Crystal,” “Labyrinth,”<br />
“MirrorMask,” <strong>and</strong> “Unstable Fables” <strong>and</strong> television productions include “Fraggle Rock” <strong>and</strong> the sci-fi<br />
cult series “Farscape.”<br />
With additional locations in New York <strong>and</strong> London, <strong>The</strong> <strong>Jim</strong> <strong>Henson</strong> <strong>Company</strong> is headquartered in Los<br />
Angeles on the historic Charlie Chaplin lot, complete with soundstage <strong>and</strong> postproduction facilities.<br />
Independently owned <strong>and</strong> operated by the five adult children of founder <strong>Jim</strong> <strong>Henson</strong>, the <strong>Company</strong> is<br />
also home to <strong>Jim</strong> <strong>Henson</strong>’s Creature Shop, a pre-eminent character-building <strong>and</strong> visual effects group<br />
with international film, television <strong>and</strong> advertising clients, as well as <strong>Henson</strong> Recording Studios, one of<br />
the music industry’s top recording facilities known for its world-class blend of state-of-the-art <strong>and</strong> vintage<br />
equipment. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Company</strong>’s <strong>Henson</strong> Alternative br<strong>and</strong> has recently launched the national tour of “Stuffed<br />
<strong>and</strong> Unstrung,” a live puppet improvisational show named one of the top 10 “Best Stage Shows of 2010”<br />
by Entertainment Weekly.<br />
http://www.henson.com<br />
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