Concord, a leading independent music company, has announced the acquisition of Broadway Licensing Global (BLG). BLG’s family of imprints — Broadway Licensing, Dramatists Play Service, Playscripts and Stage Rights — will now become part of Concord Theatricals. The acquisition does not include Stageworks or the Broadway on Demand streaming service.
Formed in 2018, Concord Theatricals is a company that comprises the catalogs of Rodgers & Hammerstein Theatricals, Tams-Witmark, Samuel French and the Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection, plus dozens of new signings each year. Concord Theatricals is the only firm that provides truly comprehensive services to creators and producers of plays and musicals, including theatrical licensing, music publishing, script publishing, cast recording and first-class producing. As a Broadway producer and record label, the company has won three Tony Awards and two Grammy Awards in the past six years.
Broadway Licensing Global and its family of imprints represents one of the greatest collections of authors and rights holders around the globe, including David Auburn, Jocelyn Bioh, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Richard Greenberg, Lauren Gunderson, Katori Hall, David Henry Hwang, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Michael Korie, John Leguizamo, Matthew López, Martyna Majok, Martin McDonagh, Conor McPherson, Alan Menken, Arthur Miller, Lynn Nottage, John Patrick Shanley, Sam Shepard, Tom Stoppard, Paula Vogel, Tennessee Williams, Doug Wright, Harry Potter Theatrical Productions, Hasbro and Mischief Worldwide.
“Concord’s mission is to champion authors by promoting and protecting their work and empowering theatermakers to help their shows reach audiences worldwide,” said Sean Patrick Flahaven, chief theatricals executive of Concord, in a statement. “Bringing together these catalogs combines 150 titles and 400 authors that are already shared between the companies, as well as creating new relationships. I’m thrilled to put our people and resources at their service. As with our team of 90+ theatrical experts at Concord, my career has been spent in support of authors and producers. We’re grateful to the BLG team for all the work they’ve done building their catalog and for trusting us with it.”
“We have built Concord Theatricals into one of the world’s most significant theater licensors, producers and record labels in an effort to further our mission of elevating voices and impacting culture,” added Bob Valentine, CEO of Concord. “We look forward to dedicating our best-in-class infrastructure and knowledgeable staff to championing the prestigious works in BLG’s catalog.”
“We are theater professionals who love what we do,” said Dan Markley, chief operating officer of Broadway Licensing Global. “BLG was founded in 2017 before the COVID pandemic and expanded over the next few years, acquiring Dramatists Play Service along with other licensing companies while funding and stabilizing the company during the most challenging time in the history of the American theatre. Now, Ted Chapin and I are very pleased to have found the right partner to continue to protect our primary stakeholders, the authors and playwrights who create the wonderful works we help make available to performers and producers. By combining forces with Concord, we can now assure best-in-class practices for decades to come for all our stakeholders regardless of market conditions our industry may have to confront.”
Lisbeth R. Barron of Barron International Group was the exclusive financial advisor to Concord.
Concord supports more than 125,000 artists and songwriters whose works are licensed, marketed and performed globally. Concord’s growing catalog of 1.3 million songs, compositions, sound recordings, films, plays and musicals is one of the most impactful and culturally relevant collections of creative rights in history. Concord is headquartered in Nashville with offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, Berlin, Melbourne and Miami.
