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Business News Deals Labels & Publishers
George Harrison’s Dark Horse partners with BMG
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 23 January 2020
BMG has announced a new partnership with Dark Horse Records, the label founded by The Beatles’ George Harrison and now run by his son Dhani and artist manager David Zonshine.
The deal will see BMG distribute various existing Dark Horse releases, with the first batch arriving on digital services this week, including albums by Ravi Shankar and The Clash’s Joe Strummer. The label will also begin releasing new recordings again, starting with Tom Petty tribute single ‘For Real – For Tom’, featuring Jakob Dylan, Amos Lee, Lukas Nelson, Micah Nelson and Willie Nelson, as well as Dhani Harrison himself.
“It is with great pleasure and excitement that I can finally announce a new chapter for Dark Horse Records in the music industry alongside our friends at BMG”, says Harrison. “The label started by my father in 1974 has been a family business my whole life – and is indeed even the reason that my parents met. From the Indian classical ragas of Ravi Shankar to the rock and roll of Attitudes, I look forward to reintroducing, to a new audience, all of those artists that my father loved so much. We will also be expanding the Dark Horse family with new artists and classic catalogues in the coming years to include a rich and varied roster of incredible musicians whom we love”.
Confirming that the new partnership with BMG goes beyond just distributing records, Zonshine adds: “BMG is the perfect home for us to expand, explore and create new opportunities for iconic artists across all platforms. I’m excited about this multi-faceted strategic partnership and taking a fresh approach to catalogues and publishing as well as looking to develop films and book projects around the world with BMG’s global team”.
BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch concludes: “Dhani and David have long been close with BMG. We are delighted to formalise our partnership with the two and begin our new venture as their trusted label home. We look forward to working closer together as we develop new catalogue and publishing initiatives”.
Dark Horse has had various distribution partners over the years, most recently Universal.
