Diane Warren, who for years has been the purest examplar of the working songwriter in the modern age, has inked a global publishing deal with BMG, which will administer her Realsongs catalog outside of the U.S. and Canada.
A recording contract has been built into the deal, too, with plans later in 2020 for BMG’s label division to release an album of recent Warren songs recorded by various artists.
“I love the BMG team,” Warren said in a statement announcing the pact. “They have hit the ground running. There is so much already happening that I know this year is going to be amazing. To say I’ve never felt so much enthusiasm and excitement is an understatement. It’s great to have a team behind me like this. This is just the beginning of a fantastic journey filled with hits.”
A member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and also a member of the exclusive subset of contemporary songwriters to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Warren has been on a particular roll with her film work in recent years. She was nominated for the best song Oscar five out of the last six years, and 11 times total, for movie songs ranging from “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” and “How Do I Live” in the ’90s to “Til It Happens to You” and “Stand Up for Something” more recently.
“Diane is one in a million,” said Thomas Scherer, BMG’s EVP of repertoire & marketing in Los Angeles. “She is exactly what a global publisher like BMG wants and needs. Her catalog is full of evergreen titles written 100% by herself, a catalog of beautiful and unreleased treasures, to pitch to artists around the world for synch at film, TV, and commercials. Every day she is writing new smash hit songs.”
Of Warren’s forthcoming album, John Loeffler, Scherer’s New York counterpart, said, “A world-renowned songwriter, with honors in every imaginable category, Diane has never actually placed her own name on the cover of an album before. Featuring a who’s who of A-list artists collaborating and performing her new songs, this album is the breakthrough record she so richly deserves. Fans will remember these songs forever and we are thrilled to be part of this historic release.”
(Warren did have her name on a previous album — “Diane Warren Presents Love Songs” — but unlike the new album, it was a compilation of previously released hits by superstars and wasn’t widely distributed in America.)
Aside from her film contributions, which have been recorded by Aerosmith, Lady Gaga, LeAnn Rimes, Celine Dion, Common and others, Warren is known for pop smashes like Toni Braxton’s “Un-Break My Heart,” Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time” and Christina Aguilera’s “I Turn to You.” Nine of her songs went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, and she’s won an Emmy, a Grammy and a Golden Globe to go along with being named ASCAP’s pop songwriter of the year five times. This year, she was named as the recipient of Sweden’s prestigious Polar Music Prize, to be officially presented in 2021.
The new contract puts the 12-year old BMG, the fourth biggest music publisher globally, in business with the biggest female-owned music publishing company in the world, as Realsongs describes itself.