ATLANTA – One of the world’s leading music publishers struck a deal Tuesday with the estate of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and will work to bring the civil rights icon’s words to a wider audience by encouraging their use in songs.
ATLANTA – One of the world’s leading music publishers struck a deal Tuesday with the estate of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and will work to bring the civil rights icon’s words to a wider audience by encouraging their use in songs.
EMI Music Publishing will also use its copyright expertise to police the use of King’s name, image, likeness, recorded voice, both in recordings and music and in online and digital media.
The publisher will work with Intellectual Properties Management, the Atlanta-based company that administers The King Estate and manages the licensing.
EMI represents songwriters and licensing for everything from CDs to commercials, but this is the first time that EMI has taken on the licensing of a non-music based intellectual property catalog. EMI declined to say how much the deal is worth.
“Assuring that Dr. King’s words are accorded the same protection and same right for compensation as other copyright works is a profound responsibility, and we are proud of the confidence that the Estate has placed in us to fulfill that responsibility,” EMI Chairman and Chief Executive Roger Faxon said in a statement.
Dexter King, chairman, president and chief executive of The King Estate, said EMI was best positioned to, “increase The King Estate’s ability to preserve, perpetuate and protect the great legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.”
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