Photo Credit: Geoffrey Moffett
Last month, Cutting Edge Media Music (CEMM) announced that it had obtained $100 million in new financing and disclosed plans “to help give the next wave of film and TV composers the opportunity to monetize their catalogues.” Now, the company has acquired the catalog of First Score Music.
Cutting Edge Media Music unveiled the “multi-million dollar deal” with the UK’s First Score Music today, and the transaction is said to encompass both the master and publishing rights behind north of 75 film scores. Featured within the latter is the original music from several movies by Andy Serkis and Jonathan Cavendish’s Imaginarium Productions, the forthcoming animated adaptation of Animal Farm among them, according to CEMM.
The Cutting Edge Group subsidiary – which operates a soundtrack arm called Lakeshore Records as well as a namesake publishing unit – likewise relayed that the buyout includes the scores of Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), Midway (2019), and STX-distributed Greenland (2020).
Additionally, Cutting Edge specified that the play extends to the score of Next Goal Wins. Directed by Taika Waititi (who also directed Thor: Love and Thunder and is married to singer-songwriter Rita Ora), Next Goal Wins is slated to debut this September.
In a statement, Cutting Edge Group founder and CEO Philip Moross acknowledged his ambitious vision for CEMM and the associated significance of today’s deal, indicating: “This purchase brings Cutting Edge Media Music closer to its long-term goal in becoming the pre-eminent media music publisher and services provider in the world.”
And in remarks of her own, longtime Cutting Edge Group COO Tara Finegan, who doubles as CEO of music-tech company CAAST, communicated: “Through CEMM and its divisions such as Lakeshore Records, CEMM can continue to invest in productions and provide a range of music services, including publishing the best original scores and releasing the best soundtracks.”
CEMM’s latest music-IP acquisition arrives as more than a few other companies, evidently unperturbed by rising rates and turbulence throughout the broader economy, are also continuing to inject capital into song rights.
Earlier today, AMR Songs bought the catalog of The Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian, while Mojo Music & Media three weeks back touted its purchase of a “trove of classic catalogs,” including the music IP of Duran Duran’s Warren Cuccurullo. Lastly, Reservoir one month ago scored a catalog agreement with Sonny Rollins, and Spirit Music Group owner Lyric Capital concluded February by detailing the close of its second, $800 million music royalty fund.