In an unusual move that seems intended to eliminate age-discrimination in music releases, BMG, one of the world’s largest music companies, announced Tuesday that it will abandon the “outdated” industry distinction between “frontline” — a.k.a. new releases — and older catalog recordings.
The company, which notes that older catalog recordings account for up to three quarters of revenue in the streaming era, will fully integrate its new release and catalog recordings businesses. It is the first major company in the industry to do so.
CEO Hartwig Masuch, who has led the company since its 2008 relaunch, said, “Music fans demonstrate on a daily basis that they reject the music industry’s outdated privileging of new music over older music. Music is music regardless of its age. Great artists and great music have no expiry date and we believe it is time for the music industry to reflect that.”
The music business has always focused on the new, pouring most of its resources into discovering, developing and breaking new artists. Yet the value of catalog became more apparent in the 1980s, as fans replaced their favorite vinyl albums with CDs, and older material became a booming business, with major labels developing catalog divisions such as Warner’s Rhino and Sony’s Legacy, that focused on reissuing and repacking older material, often in lavish boxed sets. The ongoing popularity of older recordings has only grown in the past four decades, from ubiquitous use in films, television and advertising to unexpected TikTok hits like the organic resurgence of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” on the platform last year.
The business is so focused on the new that releases that are more than 18 months old are considered catalog, with ones that are more than several years old categorized as “deep catalog.” Many have felt that these distinctions have become increasingly outdated as streaming has leveled the playing fields of music categorization.
Since it relaunched in 2008, BMG has focused on established artists rather than newer ones, with a large percentage of even its newly recorded releases coming from familiar faces like Lenny Kravitz, Louis Tomlinson, Bryan Adams, Adam Lambert and Kylie Minogue. Combined with its robust publishing division —a business that relies overwhelmingly on catalog —BMG has built itself into one of the world’s largest music companies by focusing on the not-so-new. The company has used BMG’s global, multi-faceted strength to release not only boxed sets and other reissues from its catalog artists, but books and documentary films, including the David Bowie doc “Moonage Daydream”and the Lewis Capaldi film “How I’m Feeling Now,” currently streaming on Netflix.
Tuesday’s announcement basically codifies that business plan. BMG’s recorded catalog divisions will now report locally to their country of origin and then globally through EVP of global repertoire Fred Casimir for all sales outside the owning territory, which is the same structure the company uses for what the announcement haughtily characterizes as “new so-called ‘frontline’ recordings.”
In a note to BMG staff, Masuch wrote, “BMG was the first music company to recognize that in a streaming environment, older music would be relatively more important than it had ever been in the past. This is borne out by market statistics which show that the new release frontline business is down to 30% or less of streaming consumption.
“It is why we have invested heavily in classic repertoire and why the majority of our frontline new releases are by proven and established artists. But until now we have always followed industry practice in having a separate global reporting line for catalog recordings as opposed to frontline.
“This now changes.With immediate effect recorded catalog now reports locally as per its country of origin and then globally through EVP Global Repertoire Fred Casimir for all sales outside the owning territory.”
Casimir said, “There’s no great secret to BMG’s success. It’s about wrapping ourselves around artists’ needs and adjusting to the realities of the streaming world. Successful music catalogues deserve the same effort, commitment and passion as newer recordings.”
BMG’s recorded catalog also includes recordings from Black Sabbath, the Kinks, Motörhead, Rick Astley, Mötley Crüe, Nick Cave among many others.
