LEIBER & STOLLER’S
TRIO/QUARTET MUSIC ACQUIRED
BY WINDSWEPT/ITOCHU
The mid-eight figure deal includes copyrights to “The Twist,” “Under The Boardwalk,” “Be My Baby,” “River Deep, Mountain High,” “Fever,” “What A Wonderful World,” “It’s In His Kiss,” “Happy Together,” “Do Wah Diddy Diddy,” “Cool Jerk,” “Do You Believe In Magic,” and some 20,000 additional titles, including publishing rights to Broadway shows including “Godspell.”
The holdings were long said to be on the block, with serious bidders making a short list late last year.
Leiber and Stoller, one of the most successful songwriting duos ever, will continue to control Leiber & Stoller Music Publishing, which houses L&S-penned hits including “Jailhouse Rock,” “Stand By Me,” “Kansas City,” “Love Potion #9” and most of the songs from the Broadway review “Smokey Joe’s Caf.”
Windswept Classics, Inc. and Windswept Holdings LLC are subsidiaries of Fuji Television Network, Inc. and Fujipacific Music, Inc., Japan’s largest media conglomerate. Itochu Corporation is among Japan’s largest trading companies.
Said Windswept Holdings CEO Evan Medow, “The Trio/Quartet catalogs hold some of the great songs of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, and we are incredibly excited to be involved with these great songs. If you use songs, you can expect to hear from us.”
Added Fujipacific Music President Ichiro Asatsuma, “With the proliferation of new media, the opportunities for music licensing seem almost limitless. As a music publisher, the timeless hits of the Trio/Quartet catalogs offer a great opportunity.”
Trio/Quartet will be managed worldwide by Windswept Holdings.
