Sonoton

Sonoton claims to be the world's largest independently owned Production Music Library. Formed 1965 by Rotheide and Gerhard Narholz in Munich (Germany), the company ownes the copyrights of over 130.000 compositions and musical recordings of all genres. With subsidiaries in more than 30 countries, Sonoton licences the use of its music for TV, motion picture, advertising and internet productions.

History

1965 Rotheide and Gerhard Narholz establish Sonoton as a company in Munich, Germany. Gerhard Narholz, songwriter for artists such as Petula Clark, Bill Ramsey and Heidi Brühl, and composer for German feature films and television series, provides specific film and television music as background music, thus introducing library music in Germany.

1965 - 1970 Sonoton continues to develop the library business in Germany. The initial TV-specific music catalogue is expanded into a variety of genres through works of other composers. 1969 Sonoton enters the international market through the British BERRY MUSIC company, who sub-publishes Sonoton productions worldwide on the library music labels CONROY, STUDIO ONE and PROGRAMME PRODUCTIONS. Sonoton enters the commercial record market, producing Easy Listening Music for Japan, which is released on POLYDOR and KING RECORDS, Tokyo.

1970 - 1980 Using the a.k.a. Norman Candler, Gerhard Narholz composes, arranges and conducts over 20 LPs with his large string orchestra, the MAGIC STRINGS, internationally released on the labels DECCA/TELEFUNKEN and KING RECORDS. In 1971, Norman Candler receives the “3 Star Award” from BBC London for “Best Album of the Year”. Sonoton expands its Easy Listening catalogue with recording artists Nelson Riddle, Billy May, Ted Heath, Acker Bilk, Xavier Cugat, Horst Jankowski and Franck Pourcel.

1973 EMI buys BERRY MUSIC, the former Sonoton agent in the UK. This marks the birth of Sonoton's own record label. The unicolored album covers for library music LPs are replaced with individually designed, full color sleeves. 1975 Sonoton introduces the British KPM label to the German market. More international labels follow. 1981 Sonoton establishes its world music label SAS (Sonoton AUTHENTIC SERIES). 1984 Sonoton is the first library to release its music on CD. 1987 Sonoton establishes the CNS label (COMMERCIALS NON STOP), featuring specific commercial and promo tracks. 1991 Sonoton represents SONIA Classics, a collection of classical works on CD, for synchronization. 1992 Sonoton is the first music library to present its own music search programme, SONOfind, on floppy disk. 1993 Sonoton is represented by ASSOCIATED PRODUCTION MUSIC (APM) in USA. 1995 Sonoton begins operating its own music recording studio in Munich, Germany. 1997 Sonoton creates its own sound effects series, SONOspheres, which focuses on atmospheric sounds and effects. 1998 Sonoton introduces an online music search programme and makes its entire repertoire accessible via the Internet. 2001 Sonoton opens a new digital 5.1 music recording studio in Munich and presents library DVDs with 5.1 mixes of large orchestral recordings. 2006 Sonoton offers its entire repertoire on hard drive.

Business model

Based on cortracts with composers and recording artists, Sonoton owns the Synchronization and Performing Rights of its compositions and recordings, and licenses these rights to the audio-visual industry on a track-by-track or project-by-project basis. In countries where a Mechanical Copyright Society is in function (such as MCPS in UK or GEMA in Germany), Synchronization Rights (the right to combine music with audio-visuals or/and advertising) are licenced through these societies. In all other countries (such as US) synchronization licenses have to be obtained from the local Sonoton representative.

Performing Rights (the right to perform music publicly, live or in any media, such as TV, film, etc.) are granted through local performing right societies, which usually have blanket agreements with broadcasters. Composers get their shares of licenses either through membership of a Mechanical and/or Performing Rights Societies, and/or through Sonoton, depending on the local legal conditions.

International partners

Representing Sonoton based on sub-publishing contracts :

Argentina (LIBENSOUND DESIGN), Australia (BEATBOX Music Pty Ltd), Austria (MUSIKVERLAG G. NARHOLZ), Belgium (STOCK MUSIC INT.), Brazil (Sonoton DO BRASIL), Bulgaria (NITRAX Productions), Canada (APM), China (UJOYSOUND Inc.), Croatia (XMusicMedia), Cyprus (MS VIEWPOINT Ltd.), Czech Republic (STUDIO FONTANA), Denmark (APOLLO MUSIKFORLAGET ApS), Finland (Universal Publ. Prod. Music), France (PARIGO MUSIC), Greece (MEDIA MUSIC PUBLISHING), Hong Kong (Universal Publ. Prod. Music), Hungary (CONCERT & MEDIA kft.), India (LEKHA PRODUCTIONS (P) Ltd.), Ireland (BOOSEY & HAWKES), Israel (ZINKO TIV STUDIOS Ltd.), Italy (MUSICMEDIA SRL), Japan (JAPAN ILLUST MUSIC Ltd.), Korea (MODOOCOM Co., Ltd.), Luxembourg (PARIGO MUSIC), Netherlands (DENNIS MUSIC PUBLISHERS), New Zealand (BEATBOX Music Pty Ltd), Poland (Sony MUSIC Publ.), Portugal (ALABAMA MUSIC BUSINESS), Romania (EURO MUSIC SRL), Singapore (BEATBOX Music (S) Pte Ltd.), Slovakia (STUDIO FONTANA Slovakia), Slovenia (XMusicMedia), South Africa (SYNCHRO MUSIC), Spain (ALABAMA MUSIC BUSINESS), Sweden (Universal Publ. Prod. Music), Switzerland (TURICAPHON AG Music World), Taiwan (UJOYSOUND Inc.), Turkey (PELIKAN MUZIK Publ.), U.K. (BOOSEY & HAWKES), Uruguay (LIBENSOUND DESIGN), USA (APM)