Blackbird Presents, Keith Wortman and the Raine Group today announced the appointment of legendary music publishing executive Lance Freed as President of the newly formed Blackbird Music Publishing Group. The company will have offices in New York, Los Angeles and Nashville.
The company also announced that it has acquired the administration rights to the music catalog of Burt Bacharach. With over 400 songs, including hits such as “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” “I Say A Little Prayer,” “What’s New Pussycat,” “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do),” “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” and “That’s What Friends Are For,” Bacharach’s songs, many of which were written with lyricist Hal David, have been recorded by the likes of The Beatles, Barbra Streisand, Elvis Costello and Aretha Franklin, to name just a few.
Freed previously was president of Rondor Music International, which was the world’s the largest independent music publisher until it was sold to Universal Music Publishing Group.
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“Music publishing is a natural next step for us given that our work across film, television, concerts and festivals enables us to offer incredible opportunities to songwriters,” says Keith Wortman, CEO of Blackbird Presents. “There was only one name on the list for us to lead this effort and it was Lance Freed. Lance is the most thoughtful and creative music publishing executive in our industry, and I am thrilled that he has joined the Blackbird Presents family.”
Freed said, “I am thrilled to join Keith, Blackbird Presents and The Raine Group as President of Blackbird Music Publishing Group. My entire career has been predicated on providing total, complete, personal focus on songwriters and their songs. Now I get to continue that journey and also provide a range of remarkable strategic and financial opportunities to songwriters given the similar philosophy and assets of my new partners.”
Blackbird Presents is best known as the producer of large-scale concert events, broadcast specials, TV series, music festivals and tours, including “Willie [Nelson]: Life & Songs Of An American Outlaw,” “All In For The Gambler: Kenny Rogers’ Farewell Concert Celebration,” “Sing Me Back Home: The Music of Merle Haggard,” “Imagine: John Lennon 75th Birthday Concert,” “Outlaw: Celebrating The Music of Waylon Jennings” and others. The Raine Group is a global merchant bank focused exclusively on technology, media and telecommunications.