That’s how Sir Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group, defined his firm’s criteria for acquiring music catalogs this month.
Speaking at an NMPA event in New York, Grainge added that UMG is only interested in acquiring underlying rights with such buyouts. He plainly stated: “We don’t buy income streams.”
Those words all ring true today, as Universal Music Group announces a multi-rights and career spanning acquisition deal for the life work of music icon Frank Zappa.
The acquisition also includes Frank Zappa’s name and likeness. UMG hasn’t disclosed the price of the deal.
According to Universal, Zappa, who died of prostate cancer when he was 52, “was a composer, virtuoso guitarist, songwriter, artist’s rights champion, provocateur, anti-censorship advocate, a musical pioneer, and one-time cultural ambassador to Czechoslovakia”.
He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and awarded the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1997.
