Enjoy a snippet from the article below:
…the company that arguably started the trend is Primary Wave, which launched when Courtney Love arranged a deal with them for a slice of Kurt Cobain’s publishing catalogue way back in 2006. Deals with the likes of Styx, Disturbed and Alice Cooper have followed, accompanied by some innovative commercial partnerships. Kurt got his own Converse sneakers, while Alice now has hot sauce and hamburger lines.
“Our competitors simply don’t do these things,” says Primary Wave CEO Larry Mestel. “And that’s the biggest reason why artists are looking to sell to, or partner with Primary Wave.”
Larry explains that he’s only in “the icon and legend business” and that rock and metal catalogues “tend to hold up over time extraordinarily well”. But he insists artists always remain in charge of how their songs are used.
“We give artists complete control in saying no,” he says. “We have a track record of being artistically friendly, of increasing the value of the catalogues and the partnerships we’ve entered into. Our best references are our artists.”
However, Larry warns that not every company coming into the market may be so respectful. Primary Wave has been backed by financial giants BlackRock, but while they, Blackstone (which has invested in Hipgnosis) and KKR may sound like metal bands, bankers and rock stars make for an unlikely alliance. After all, financial institutions wouldn’t invest billions unless they were confident of getting even more back.
“It should be a concern to the artist community, because some people have no creative sensibility or marketing or brand sensibility,” Larry says.