SING A SONG OF SONY/ATV

While the Canada-based Song will retain ownership of actual catalogs and copyrights, Sony/ATV will collect royalties and register copyrights throughout North America, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The deal gives Sony/ATV administration rights for five years, after which time the rights will revert back to Song.

"This is a very important agreement for Song," said Song Corporation CEO Allan R. Gregg. "At one and the same time, this will provide a significant infusion of cash into the business without impairing our copyright assets in any way; improve the representation of our artists and writers and the collection of our royalties throughout the world; and enable us to eliminate a non-strategic part of our overhead."

Song recently underwent a major restructuring of its operations, cutting its fixed overhead by $2.4 million and reducing staffing in its publishing division.

"The restructuring was the first step in right sizing our business to meet forecasted revenues," added Gregg. "The Sony/ATV Agreement provides us with the cash necessary to fund our projected short-term losses and to aggressively enter into new license arrangements in our distribution business. These are two important steps in revitalizing Song and we anticipate that additional measures to strengthen our business will be announced before the end of the first quarter."