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PRIMARY WAVE MUSIC ACQUIRES LEGENDARY PRODUCER AND
MUSIC MANAGER JON LANDAU’S MUSIC RIGHTS
New York, NY (August 15, 2024) – Primary Wave Music, the leading independent publisher of iconic and legendary music in the world, announces today their acquisition of Jon Landau’s producer royalties and neighboring rights royalties. Terms of the deal will see the publishing giant acquire the legendary music producer and manager’s rights across his incomparable 55 years in music. As a producer, Landau has worked with artists including Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Browne.
Landau’s work as a music critic led him to his long-time relationship with Springsteen. In 1974, while writing for the Boston alt-weekly The Real Paper, he reviewed a performance by Springsteen declaring that night “I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen.” He began working with Springsteen the next year, co-producing Born To Run. His work on Born To Run solidified their relationship, which has been described as one of the most successful and creative partnerships in this history of music. Landau would go on to not only manage Springsteen but co-produce many of his critically acclaimed albums over the years including The River, Darkness on the Edge of Town, The Promise, Born in the U.S.A., Live 1975-1985, Human Touch, Lucky Town and Tracks. He worked with Jackson Browne on his fourth studio album, The Pretender. The album reached the Top 5 on the Billboard 200 chart, was nominated for a Grammy, has been certified multi-platinum, and was included on Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list.
Of the deal, Landau said, “I thank all at Primary Wave for recognizing my contributions over the last fifty years and look forward to having an ongoing and productive relationship with them.”
On behalf of Primary Wave, President of Global Synch Marty Silverstone said “We’re honored to be partnering with Jon Landau and all of the legendary music he helped shape. He’s an influential figure in music, and we’re proud to welcome him to the Primary Wave family.”
The transaction between Landau and Primary Wave Music was facilitated by David Simone and Winston Simone.
Born in New York City in 1947, Jon Landau moved to Lexington, Massachusetts at age 12 with his music-loving family. His father had an expansive collection of jazz 78s, his mother adored opera, his own passion for music exploded around age 4, and by age 7 he was playing guitar. His passion for writing began in 10th grade at Lexington High School where he received encouragement from his English teacher to pursue his writing further. While attending Brandeis University, he played guitar in a band but would soon shift his focus to writing about music rather than playing it. Landau’s career as a music journalist included bylines in Crawdaddy and The Boston Phoenix, and in 1967 he became the lead writer for newly established bi-weekly Rolling Stone, a position he held for a decade during the legendary early years of the magazine.
Landau’s very first work as a producer was on the pre-punk classic Back In the USA by the MC5, who will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. His work as manager for Shania Twain in the 1990s contributed to establishing her as the biggest female artist of her generation and her Landau-managed 1997 album Come On Over remains the highest-selling studio album of all time by a solo female artist, with over 40 million copies sold worldwide. Landau has also worked with Natalie Merchant, Train, Alejandro Escovedo, Livingston Taylor and many others. In 2020, Landau was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame receiving the Ahmet Ertegun Award for Lifetime Achievement.
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