Round Hill Music Acquires Jellybean Benitez Publishing Catalog As Part of Broader ‘Joint Venture Agreement’
Jellybean Benitez (left) and Robin Godfrey-Cass, managing director of Round Hill’s London office. Photo Credit: Round Hill MusicRound Hill Music (LON: RHM) has officially acquired the publishing catalog of Jellybean Benitez and finalized a broader “joint venture agreement.”
New York City-headquartered Round Hill Music just recently unveiled this latest intellectual-property play, which it completed specifically through its second royalty fund. 64-year-old Jellybean Benitez – full name John Benitez – started working with Round Hill last year and appears to have cashed in on his entire publishing catalog.
10-year-old Round Hill is also set to “assume full responsibility for global administration of the copyrights acquired,” the involved parties relayed. And the aforementioned joint venture, for its part, will see the New York City native Benitez “sign new talent and acquire further rights with a particular focus on the fast-expanding Latin market.”
Benitez has remixed tracks from well-known acts including Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Whitney Houston, Shakira, and Sting, to name some. Plus, the one-time Grammy winner (and three-time nominee) has contributed to the soundtracks for films including Back to the Future, Dirty Dancing, Top Gun, Spaceballs, and The Hangover.
Lastly, regarding the credits associated with Jellybean Benitez’s decades-long career, the Wotupski!?! creator has produced tracks from Whitney Houston (including 1987’s “Love Will Save the Day”), Jocelyn Brown (an extended dance remix of 1987’s “Caught in the Act”), and Madonna, among several others.
Addressing the deal in a statement, Round Hill founder and CEO Josh Gruss characterized Jellybean Benitez as “a music industry legend,” while Robin Godfrey-Cass, managing director of Round Hill’s London office, described the opportunity to work with Benitez as “an absolute no-brainer.” And in a statement of his own, Jellybean Benitez emphasized the “common ground” that he and Round Hill share.
“I like the way Round Hill do business. They are a smart commercial operation but they also understand and appreciate music and have a natural empathy with creators,” said the over 40-year Jellybean Music Group president.
“It’s always more rewarding if you can work with people with whom you have some common ground and that’s certainly the case in this situation. I would also like to thank my Lawyer Paul Schindler [a Greenberg Traurig attorney] for representing me with Round Hill Music,” he finished.
Round Hill Music shares (RHM on the London Stock Exchange, as noted) finished today at $1.07 apiece, compared to about $1.69 per share for Hipgnosis stock (LON: SONG). In October, Blackstone (NYSE: BX) purchased an “ownership stake” in Hipgnosis Song Management, which serves as the “investment advisor to Hipgnosis Songs Fund,” or the publicly traded entity that’s spent billions on music IP in recent years.
