Madden publisher teams with Cherry Lane, well-known music industry publisher; forms Next Level Music to seek out new bands and administer existing music catalog.
Electronic Arts today confirmed a deal that is unique among the game industry. The deal will see Electronic Arts and Cherry Lane Music Publishing forming a new joint venture, to be called Next Level Music. Next Level will, according to a statement to be released tomorrow, "sign established as well as emerging new artists, acquire publishing catalogs, produce original music and further develop EA's rich catalogue of music." According to an EA spokesperson, EA will promote the music through its games while Cherry Lane Music Publishing will administer the compositions and master recordings worldwide.
Cherry Lane owns approximately 100,000 copyrights to a wide variety of songs and is considered one of the largest independent music publishers in North America. Electronic Arts is, of course, the world's biggest game publisher, and has increasingly used music to add polish, buzz, and, in general, greater appeal to the games it sells to a predominately male, music-savvy audience. Under the exclusive co-publishing partnership, Next Level will also license EA's existing music assets to commercials, films, film trailers, ring tones, and other commercial media.
News source: GameSpot
