SRH on song with deal for archives

BY JIM STANTON DEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR

MEDIA group Scottish Radio Holdings today announced that it had struck a "ground-breaking" deal with one of the world’s biggest music companies.

SRH gave no indication what the deal was worth to it, but analysts believe it is a multi-million pound contract as it is understood to be one of the largest collection of recordings outside those owned by the BBC.

The deal with Universal Music Group (UMG) will see the group, one of the world’s top five recording companies, gain access under licence to a massive back catalogue of live concert and studio recordings owned by SRH, stretching back over 25 years.

SRH will get royalties on CD released by UMG, providing the firm with a lucrative source of extra income.

The musical archive has been built up over the years by SRH’s local radio stations, which include Forth One and Forth 2. However, most of the recordings set for release were originally broadcast on Radio Clyde.

According to SRH, the sessions were only played a limited number of times to a radio audience then "left to gather dust". Among the recordings licensed to UMG are tracks by more than 600 groups and artists, including Rod Stewart, U2, Simple Minds, Madness and Thin Lizzy.

SRH chief executive Richard Findlay said SRH had set up River Records to platform the archive. It will be headed by Jimmy Devlin, the former managing director of Polygram Records.

Mr Findlay, who will act as chairman of River Records, said: "This is an amazing archive of very high quality which we are enhancing by conversion into digital format.

"The artists we have been in touch with so far share our enthusiasm and with the support of Universal, whose labels represent a large part of the archive, we believe something of considerable importance can be created."

Mr Findlay said SRH was also in talks with other record companies whose artists performed on SRH sessions and that further recordings may be released in future.

It is understood that about ten per cent of the archive could not be transferred to digital format as they were too damaged. But there are about 200 more recordings still to be identified.

Mr Devlin said the archive deal presented an "incredible opportunity" to bring historical recordings to a much wider public audience.

He said the chance now available to bring "historically important performances" from some of the world’s top musicians at the peak of their careers "will be a truly unique moment in time".

Nigel Haywood, the UK commercial director of UMG, said: "Having the opportunity to release so many classic recordings from so many talented artists is a genuine privilege.

"In many cases these recordings have been unknown to fans, music retailers and music lovers. Consequently, their ‘resurrection from the vaults of time’ will be eagerly anticipated by all."

UK radio stations were once obliged to spend a proportion of their budget transmitting live music, but many taped over their recordings.

Mr Findlay said: "It’s luck, but it’s also good husbandry."

Source: http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/business.cfm?id=552862003

Page Last Updated: 4 March, 2010

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