Musical mogul Andrew Lloyd Webber's newest venture, called The Musical Company, has been launched as a global licensing and rights management company. It will see Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group join forces with US company Concord Bicycle Music, with The Musical Company acting as the agent responsible for managing and licensing all Lloyd Webber’s shows, such as The Phantom of the Opera and Cats. Concord Bicycle Music currently manages the songs of artists including Paul McCartney, Miles Davis and Tony Bennett.
A fly in the ointment is the fact The Musical Company will compete with Cameron Mackintosh’s own Music Theatre International. The Musical Company aims to be selective about the works it takes on, therefore causing competition between the two companies. The pair partner on many projects and support one another, yet the businesses are similar, seeking to represent the same catalogue of musical work.
Lloyd Webber's new company presents an opportunity to build up a business that represents his own catalogue of work - and also that of other artists - both new and previously established. Concord Bicycle Music will deal with the future representation of his work as with Rodgers and Hammerstein previously, as a licensing company that managed Lloyd Webber’s rights in North America. Licensing in the UK is carried out by Really Useful Group.
As part of the venture, Concord will manage all of Lloyd Webber’s original songs worldwide, including Memory and All I Ask of You, and the work will also include identifying catalogues of work and acquiring secondary rights for new musicals as they come to Broadway or the West End. It will mean Really Useful Group and Concord can take back control of the valuable music rights and use them as a foundation to build up the new business.
