One Media buys licensor's royalty share to Orbital Digital catalogue

Digital music rights investor One Media iP Group has acquired the licensor's share of the royalties to the Orbital Digital catalogue of rights, it announced on Friday, which contains “several thousand” recordings.

The AIM-traded firm said under the deal, it acquired the licensor's income share of the catalogue on an in-perpetuity basis, opening a “new route of income and profit” for the group.

It said the catalogue is distributed by FUGA, the Dutch content distributor, which would become a new distributor to the group.

One Media said Orbital/Rapier Music consists of more than 40 branded labels across all known digital platforms - including African Lives, All About Blues, Travelscape Records, The Music Shed, Rapier Music, and Sunflash.

The catalogue ranged from classical to dance/hip hop, and featured a range of artists including Jose Carreras, Jo Jo Adams, Kool & the Gang, Irish Tenor Trio, Alexandra O'Neal, Joe Strummer, Sid Vicious, Chic, Lee Perry, The Lambrettas, Dread Filmstone, Sex Pistols, Suketu, Col Abram, Psy-Co-Billy, Rachel Porter's all female Orchestra, and Ebn ozn.

One Media said the acquisition, which was made in its “normal course of business” and was in line with its expectations and business plan, was completed through its ‘Harmony IP’ asset release programme.

“We have been a licensee of Orbital's sister company for over 15 years and have had a successful trading relationship,” said chief executive officer Michael Infante.

“We have distributed under licence their copyrights, and this move of buying out their own routes to the consumer market begins to consolidate labels competing with the group.

“The Harmony IP initiative is open to all of our existing licensors and allows One Media to increase its profitability using its cash resource to acquire our partners' royalty streams.”

At 0915 GMT, shares in One Media iP Group were down 3.45% at 6.3p.